2008: Muslims
Need Not Apply!
By Hazem I. Kira
CA
In a 1937
Gallup poll, 47 percent of Americans said they
would not support a Jewish candidate for President,
regardless of candidate’s qualifications.
During the past 70 years that number has dropped
to a low of 15 percent, even prompting a Vice-Presidential
hopeful in 2000 (Joe Lieberman).
The zenith of that anti-Semitic era was the “Red
Scare” of 1919-1920. Mitchell Palmer, the
US Attorney General of the time, accused Jewish
Americans of being “foreign-born”
subversives, claiming that in their midst they
had 60,000 organized agitators of the Trotsky
doctrine (much like today’s “Green
Scare”, which claims that Muslim sleeper
cells hide in every mosque).
Leon Trotsky was a Ukrainian-born revolutionary
who lived in New York before leaving to lead the
Red Army against communist opponents, including
American troops.
Two decades later, half of all Americans said
that they would never vote for a Jewish president;
and in a subsequent poll (1944), one-quarter accused
them of being “less patriotic”.
So, why rehash this dark chapter in our history?
Because, in truth, bigotry never dies, it merely
blends in to its chronometric background; like
a chameleon stepping from yesterday’s narrative
into today’s, seeking a modern antagonist.
Recent commentaries have lauded the 2008 Presidential
Elections as representing great social and political
progress, with the first possible female President,
African-American, Italian-American, and of course
the first possible Mormon (Massachusetts Governor
Mitt Romney). But while the consensus seems to
be that sexism and racism can be overcome, it
is considered more or less axiomatic that particular
religions and religious ancestry will not so easily
prevail.
Already proving a liability for Romney, is his
Mormon faith, as indicated by a Feb. 9-11, 2007,
Gallup poll, in which twenty-four percent of Americans
said they would not vote for a qualified Mormon
presidential candidate.
While, the country has no official religious litmus
test -- Article VI of the Constitution states
that "no religious test shall ever be required
as a qualification to any office”—
at the end of the day, voters can, and do, reject
candidates based on preconceived notions and prejudice;
a classic example of our Democratic system tainted
by our habitually illiberal tendencies.
The response to a theoretical Muslim candidate,
however, is far more negative. Though it was scarcely
covered by the media, a November 2006 Rasmussen
poll found that 61% of Likely Voters said they
would never vote for a Muslim Presidential candidate.
While no Muslim candidate has yet to announce
candidacy, it’s hardly encouraging news
for Barak Hussein Obama with a Muslim ancestry
hanging over his head— both his father and
step-father come from a Muslim background.
With popular misconceptions of Islam and Muslims,
Barak’s political opponents hope this will
become a major issue in the campaign. Begging
the question, what will Obama do?
Although, Obama in his 1994 memoir, Dreams From
My Father, paints a profound picture of his trials
and appreciation for his Caucasian American mother
and Kenyan father, his recent bid for President
seems to reflect an increasing fear of scaring
off that 61 percent likely bloc of voters, and
leading him to increasingly marginalize and qualify
his Muslim ancestry.
While Barak acknowledges, for example, that his
Kenyan father was a Muslim, he qualifies it with,
“but by the time he met my mother he was
a confirmed atheist...."; he further acknowledges
that his stepfather was raised a Muslim in Indonesia,
but yet again qualifies it with, but he was "skeptical"
about religion and "saw religion as not particularly
useful in the practical business of making one's
way in the world; and only recently did people
learn of his little known middle name, Hussein.
Many worry that Barak’s apprehensions may
give way to appeasing a cabal of polemicists who
seek to ensnare our country in wars that are not
in our best interest, such as those who seek a
war with Iran. Recently, for example, Obama suggested
that the United States might one day have to launch
surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan.
So, while a Muslim candidate dare not consider
a run for President in 2008, can one with an admitted
Muslim ancestry — and hopefully before election
day, a proud and unapologetic ancestry —
get elected to the highest office in the land?
Or will they go the way of Jewish Americans, and
have to wait 70 years before contemplating the
possibility?
