Obama, being called a Muslim is not a smear, by Naomi Klein

[Joanne98]

Hillary Clinton denied leaking the photo of Barack Obama wearing a turban, but her campaign manager says that even if she had, it would be no big deal. "Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."

Sure, she did. And George W. Bush put on a fetching Chamato poncho in Santiago, while Paul Wolfowitz burned up YouTube with his antimalarial African dance routines when he was World Bank prez. The obvious difference is this: when white politicians go ethnic, they just look funny. When a black presidential contender does it, he looks foreign. And when the ethnic apparel in question is vaguely reminiscent of the clothing worn by Iraqi and Afghan fighters (at least to many Fox viewers, who think any headdress other than a baseball cap is a declaration of war on America), the image is downright frightening.

The turban "scandal" is all part of what is being referred to as "the Muslim smear." It includes everything from exaggerated enunciations of Obama's middle name to the online whisper campaign that Obama attended a fundamentalist madrassa in Indonesia (a lie), was sworn in on a Koran (another lie) and if elected would attach RadioShack speakers to the White House to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer (I made that one up).

So far, Obama's campaign has responded with aggressive corrections that tout his Christian faith, attack the attackers and channel a cooperative witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. "Barack has never been a Muslim or practiced any other faith besides Christianity," states one fact sheet. "I'm not and never have been of the Muslim faith," Obama told a Christian News reporter.

Of course Obama must correct the record, but he doesn't have to stop there. What is disturbing about the campaign's response is that it leaves unchallenged the disgraceful and racist premise behind the entire "Muslim smear": that being Muslim is de facto a source of shame. Obama's supporters often say they are being "Swiftboated," casually accepting the idea that being accused of Muslimhood is tantamount to being accused of treason.

Substitute another faith or ethnicity, and you'd expect a very different response. Consider a report from the archives of The Nation. Thirteen years ago, Daniel Singer, the magazine's late, much-missed Europe correspondent, went to Poland to cover a hotly contested presidential election. He reported that the race had descended into an ugly debate over whether one of the candidates, Aleksander Kwasniewski, was a closet Jew. The press claimed his mother had been buried in a Jewish cemetery (she was still alive), and a popular TV show aired a skit featuring the Christian candidate dressed as a Hasidic Jew. "What perturbed me," Singer wryly observed, "was that Kwasniewski's lawyers threatened to sue for slander rather than press for an indictment under the law condemning racist propaganda."

We should expect no less of the Obama campaign. When asked during the Ohio debate about Louis Farrakhan's support for his candidacy, Obama did not hesitate to call Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments "unacceptable and reprehensible." When the turban photo flap came up in the same debate, he used the occasion to say nothing at all.

Farrakhan's infamous comments about Jews took place 24 years ago. The orgy of hate that is "the Muslim smear" is unfolding in real time, and it promises to greatly intensify in a general election. These attacks do not simply "smear Barack's Christian faith," as John Kerry claimed in a campaign mailing. They are an attack on all Muslims, some of whom actually do exercise their rights to cover their heads and send their kids to religious school. Thousands even have the very common name Hussein. All are watching their culture used as a crude bludgeon against Obama, while the candidate who is the symbol of racial harmony fails to defend them. This at a time when US Muslims are bearing the brunt of the Bush administration's assaults on civil liberties, including dragnet wiretapping, and are facing a documented spike in hate crimes.

Occasionally, though not nearly enough, Obama says that Muslims are "deserving of respect and dignity." What he has never done is what Singer called for in Poland: denounce the attacks themselves as racist propaganda, in this case against Muslims.

The core of Obama's candidacy is that he alone -- who lived in Indonesia as a boy and has an African grandmother -- can "repair the world" after the Bush wrecking ball. That repair job begins with the 1.4 billion Muslims around the world, many of whom are convinced that the United States has been waging a war against their faith. This perception is based on facts, among them the fact that Muslim civilians are not counted among the dead in Iraq ...Continued>>>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/obama-being-called-a-mus_b_89228.html

[Hugabear]

1. Unfortunately, in many parts of this country, it IS a smear

Bush & the rethugs have done such a good job of vilifying Muslims over the past eight years, they've successfully managed to equate Islam with terrorism in many people's eyes. They've taken Goebbel's lessons to heart - that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will accept it as the truth.

[againes654]

3. But the point is

that Obama should make it clear that being a Muslim does not make you a terrorist, and to think that is a bigoted point of view.

[Hugabear]

4. But he's NOT a Muslim

If rethugs started going around saying that Hillary was a Wiccan - which she isn't - should she have to spend a lot of her time defending herself, while trying to point out that being a Wiccan isn't a bad thing either?

[againes654]

5. Did you read the whole thing?

From the OP---

Of course Obama must correct the record, but he doesn't have to stop there. What is disturbing about the campaign's response is that it leaves unchallenged the disgraceful and racist premise behind the entire "Muslim smear": that being Muslim is de facto a source of shame. Obama's supporters often say they are being "Swiftboated," casually accepting the idea that being accused of Muslimhood is tantamount to being accused of treason.

Of course he has to clear the record, as you so clearly stated, he isn't Muslim, but he didn't have to stop there.

[againes654]

9. I guess not LOL n/t

[Baby Snooks]

8. And it was meant to be a smear

And Hillary Clinton and her handlers have yet to deny absolutely that "one of them" put it out there, preferring instead to fall back on the vague "we have soooooooo many people involved in our campaign we couldn't possibly determine who was behind it "IF" someone with our campaign was behind it." Sounds like something Karl Rove would respond with.

This is another attempt by Hillary Clinton to try to divert attention by casting dispersion on Barack Obama in a situation where he was the victim, not the victimizer. He is being accused of being a Muslim in a country where people hate Muslims. It is not his fault that people hate Muslims. It is someone else's fault that people have made the false statement that he is a Muslim. If he were attacking Muslims, I could see the point. But he's not.

So what is the point? Shame on Naomi Klein.

[bhikkhu]

10. I would not buy into the "hate" bandwagon so quickly.

Do the individuals in this country really hate Muslims? Do they hate Jews and Blacks and Hispanics as well? Buddhists, Hindus, Chinese?

I could go on and on...I have heard so often about how we hate but I have not seen it.

I would not say of anyone I know that they really hate or fear any group. As individuals they have connections (the seven-degrees-of-separation rule applies, at least) to all these supposed hated and feared groups, but largely the people I know are concerned with day to day things - finances, kids, enjoying life or trying to get to a position of enjoying life, work and so forth.

[againes654]

2. Hummmm

I had not thought of it that way.

[libbygurl]

6. Agree completely with Naomi Klein here.

Obama's campaign's response was to distance the candidate from the 'Muslim' label, implying it was a bad thing.

Reminded me of John Kerry's shameful disowning of the L-word, 'Liberal', from which he painstakingly tried to run away from. I resented that - liberals have done so much good for society! Why did Kerry play within the framework set up by the rightwingers in that issue?

Kudos for this to Naomi Klein (whose book, 'Shock Doctrine', should be required reading for all).


Note to poster: the mods may ask you to cut down the quoted paragraphs to no more than four for reposting here on DU - their rules. Just FYI. Thank you for letting us know about this, though!

[dbmk]

11. And he does..

Every time I have seen him reply to it, he also voices a regret that the idea of being a muslim is being used as a tool of fear. Which _is_ the intent behind the rumours. And thats the smear he is talking about.

[libbygurl]

7. Kicked and recommended. (Before I forget to do that, and becomes too late for it.)

Thanks for this. I still have a great deal of respect for Ms Klein, a Canadian activist-writer with American roots, who continues to have a more objective viewpoint and good sense.