Still Not Going To Do This Every Day

generationo:

Volunteers and staffers for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign were often asked by voters if he was a Muslim.  As an Obama field organizer, I calmly reassured nervous Democrats that he was indeed a Christian.  Volunteers who stopped by the office to make a few phone calls between jobs got the similar questions.  They would similarly (sometimes less calmly) inform folks that Obama did not attend a radical madrasah and he took the oath of office on the Bible.  As the questions of his faith became more and more frequent, our patience waned.  Eventually our answers were monosyllabic.  Then, the YouTube clips of Rev. Wright surfaced and the same people who didn’t believe he was a Christian were now saying Obama attended an anti-American church.  We then used other monosyllabic words to express our dismay.

Hours ago, President Obama gave a much-anticipated speech in Egypt on Muslim-US relations.  Give the prez props for quoting the Holy Koran and saying “peace be upon them” after mentioning Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them).  Obama recognizes that when you give respect, you get respect. The speech was an honest take on the current state of world affairs.  The president did a tit-for-tat routine throughout the speech.

• I’m a Christian but I have appreciation and respect for the Islamic faith.
• Muslim women should have the freedom to wear the hijab in the US and in the Muslim world they should have the ability to get an education.
• Bo is a cute dog but he still needs to be trained.
• Islam is not a monolithic religion and America is not imperialistic.
• The Jewish people have experienced hardships but their security shouldn’t come at the price of occupying the Palestinians.
• Joe Biden is a great vice-president but he still needs to be trained.

Obama also said he considers “it part of [his] responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”  Was it not also his responsibility as a candidate for president?  On the campaign trail, whenever his purported Muslimness came up, Obama would say that he was a Christian and leave it at that. His campaign website seemed especially harsh to Muslims.

I wished Obama had been as articulate as former Secretary of State Colin Powell. When  Powell appeared on Meet the Press a few weeks before the election he officially endorsed Obama.  As a bonus, he also addressed the questions surrounding Obama’s religious beliefs.  Powell commented, “Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian…But the really right answer is, what if he is?  Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.”

Obama never gave a More Perfect Union-like speech on the questions surrounding his faith.  He could have injected a bit of humor into the conversation with an homage to Seinfeld.  “I’m not a Muslim…not that there’s anything wrong with that…My father’s a Muslim…Do you want to get saved right now! Let’s go! C’mon!”

On second thought, that might have cost him the election.

-Michael Pipe