October 20, 2010
Fear of Muggleborns has ripple effect
Upon his election victory and subsequent inauguration, people of all political stripes celebrated Obama as the first African American president. I look forward to the day when we celebrate the first Muslim president. But despite the fear monger quest by the Daily Profit Fox News Right Wing machine that prods non-Muslim people to hate and fear Muslims and to believe that Obama is Muslim, he is not (see John Green’s video). But that does not mean they haven’t had an effect.
On Obama’s upcoming trip to India, he won’t be visiting one of the country’s most sacred shrines because all attendees must wear headgear. Obama’s team is fearful that if people saw him at this (Sikh!) Temple wearing this headgear, that people will fear he is Muslim. We live in a globalized society and what many refer to as the leader of the free world is afraid to freely act as a global citizen and leader.
So let’s review: white nonMuslim Americans have contempt for nonwhite Muslims the way football players in Glee have contempt for Glee kids. In this way, Muslims are looked at as dorky nerdy outcasts who must sit at the loser lunch table of the world. The president wants to look like one of the cool kids and so he isn’t willing to wear headgear for fear of being called a “loser” in the global world. Can we get passed seventh grade please?
UPDATE: The thing that makes this worse is that Osama bin Laden and other Islamic fundamentalist have only one version of Islam: their own hateful extremism. We could combat that, however, the culture is in an awful and unconscious alignment with bin Laden, attempting to define Islam in the same narrow and terrible way that he does. For any of the faults that folks have with him, George W Bush’s rhetoric time and again was that Islam itself was not to blame for Islamic extremism and Barack Obama has made that clear as well. But in recent years, an emerging culture of fear has stepped up their game with hateful and inaccurate attitudes toward all of Islam.
Nicci Weasley
Permalink
Now, I haven’t watched Glee so I don’t really get that reference, but other than that I totally agree.
I live in a country (Denmark) where the fear of Islam and Muslims is extreme. I’m surprised all the time by how narrow-minded people can be in a society of supposedly educated individuals. But I guess fear can spread like a nasty disease in larger groups of people – and that, I think, can be very dangerous!
Bethany Mikulis
Permalink
I am very sad that we have come to a point in our country that our President is scared to honor anothers religion due to the hate mongers at home. We cannot, as Americans, hold an entire religion responsible for the actions of a few. It feels as if we are entering an isolationist period in our country which encourages fear of other cukltures within our own country and other nations.