The Blog Formerly Known As Vote '08

We thought we’d share a provocative comment from a poster who commented on this post.

The commenter didn’t leave his (her?) name, but had an address to this website, “Muslims Against Sharia:”

Here’s the comment:

Senator Obama is NOT a Dirty Muslim!

“What you won’t hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge,” says Mr. Obama, while denouncing statements of him being a Muslim as a smear. Why is the presidential candidate who claims to be religiously inclusive is treating the word “Muslim” as an insult? Apparently, it is OK for Mr. Obama to be associated with terrorists like William Ayers or racists like Jeremiah Wright, but God forbid somebody would call him a Muslim! No, he won’t stand for that kind of smear! We admit that most terrorists are Muslims, but most Muslims are not terrorists and the statement on Mr. Obama’s website is insulting to hundreds of millions of people.

How could a man who discards his family heritage in favor of political expediency be even considered for presidency of the United States? Where are all the so-called “Islamic civil rights groups” like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, etc. who are quick to defend every Islamic terrorist, but are silent when Muslims in general are being denigrated? Would Mr. Obama have the same reaction if someone claimed that he was raised as a Jew? We sincerely doubt that.

Muslims Against Sharia demand immediate removal of “SMEAR: Barack Obama is a Muslim” statement from the official Barack Obama’s website as well as an apology for giving the word “Muslim” a negative connotation.

Here’s a link to the specific issues the commenter raised on the “Fight the Smears” website.

OUR TAKE:

*Is it true that Islam has gotten a bad rap since 9/11? Absolutely. The majority followers of one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religion are by far lovers of peace & intend no harm against non-believers. & if you read the Koran (& yes, I have), you will see far more wisdom, peace, love & advice on how to treat humanity than you will calls to violence. Put another way, there are just as many calls to violence in the Bible as there are in the Koran, & anyone who professes belief that either book is the word of God does not come into conflict by eschewing those tenets.

The fact is that the majority of peace-loving, moderate Muslims who don’t believe Sharia law is the answer (like the site linked above) are exactly the kind of people we need on our side if America is to prevail against terrorism. A big obstacle in achieving this is the tendency among many ignorant Americans to lump all Muslims into the same category. This group includes President Bush, who failed to discern the nuanced differences between Shia & Sunni before the Iraqi invasion. So it is unAmerican to categorically denounce Islam as a false religion, just as it is unAmerican to categorically denounce all Christians for their faith. The world is far more complicated.

*Now, as to the issue of whether or not Obama insults Islam by his clarification: I don’t at all see any perceived insult to Islam on this page. What is there is an attempt to get the truth out about Obama’s background. His (largely absent) father comes from a long line of faithful Muslims. & Obama was exposed to Muslims as a boy for a few years in Indonesia. But there is nothing about his background that suggests he is some sort of “secret Muslim,” as many inaccurate e-mails say.

*That said, it’s hard for me to fathom how calling someone a Muslim can be an insult. It’s my view that there is nothing wrong with a person of the Muslim faith running for President of the United States, provided that they (like any good American) recognize that it’s the myriad of faiths & the freedom to practice them that makes our country one of the strongest in the world.

*Islam & Christianity are a lot more closely linked than you may realize; in the Koran, Jesus, while not considered the son of God, is considered a prophet, born of a virgin, who performed miracles in the name of God. Islam treats Jews & Christians as fellow “people of the book,” the book being the Old & New Testaments that (to Muslims) led to the penultimate revelations of Mohammed as spelled out in the Koran.

*Our view of Islam & Sharia law generally falls into line with the views expressed on the commenters website: the American experiment has proven that if the state gets out of the way of religion (& vice versa), the causes of democracy & human rights advance. Both religion & government prosper when they aren’t linked together. But Obama does not deserve criticism for trying to tell the truth about himself. We share in the frustration of the commenter that a lot of Americans have an unfair & ignorant view of Islam, but don’t see that Obama is implicity denigrating the religion on his site.

UPDATE: The conversation continues:

“if you read the Koran (& yes, I have), you will see far more wisdom, peace, love & advice on how to treat humanity than you will calls to violence.” is a stretch. See http://www.reformislam.org/verses.php

” there are just as many calls to violence in the Bible as there are in the Koran”

That maybe true, but when crazy Christians were running around killing everyone Crusades/Inquisition, there were no WMDs around. Unfortunately Islam is in the same stage as Christianity was 700 years ago and there is no option to wait out the violent period. Besides, the Bible is considered as more of a guide, while the Koran is an instruction manual.

“majority of peace-loving, moderate Muslims who don’t believe Sharia law is the answer”

Again, that would be nice if that were true, but according to our polls (http://www.reformislam.org/polls/), it is not. Moderate Muslims are in the minority.

“tendency among many ignorant Americans to lump all Muslims into the same category”

You are exactly right!

“I don’t at all see any perceived insult to Islam on this page”

That’s because you’re looking at the wrong page.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/christian is not offensive; http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/ is.

My response:

I admit that my line about the majority of Muslims being moderate was a pure guess; I’m assuming you have a lot more research & numbers to back your claim up.

I still disagree with you that Obama is attacking Islam on his site. I assume when you refer to the link to his “main site” you are referring to this line: “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.”

Is it that you feel this line is factually inaccurate? Do you feel his father’s faith makes him a muslim by birth? And/or, that he is a Muslim because he went to a public school (majority Muslim) while he was in Indonesia?

Or is it that you feel that in his categorical denial he seems to give off the impression that being Muslim is somehow a bad thing? If that is the case, I don’t believe that was the intent or the impression.

UPDATE: Far more discussion on this issue here. 

What do you think?

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