Category Archives: Obama Administration

Colin Powell defends Obama

Election 2008, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

On Meet the Press Sunday, retired General Colin Powell endorsed Senator Obama for President. In so doing he made an eloquent plea defending Senator Obama from the Islamophobia. It was not just that Obama has been falsely called a Muslim, but the injustice done to American Muslims who have proudly served their country. Here is what Powell said:

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been 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. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America. Continue reading Colin Powell defends Obama →

In Jesus’ Name?

Apocalypse Watch, Election 2008, Luke R. E. Publican

As I write this, being Sunday, I have no doubt that we could wipe out the National Debt and bail out every Wall Street firm if we only had a dollar for each time someone recited “in Jesus’ name” today alone. Since Jesus has not yet returned (or surely Pat Robertson would have told us), there is no end of WWJD speculation over this election. In some parts of this country there is an idea that being Christian is the same as being Republican. Blessed are those who smear the character of their opponents: that’s what the Bible ought to say, according to Karl Rove. In the nation’s tightening Bible Belt there are those who think a Christian should never vote for a democrat, as though politics can be read the same way as apocalypse. So it should not be a surprise that the vitriolic rhetoric of Sarah Palin results in the kind of hate speech that makes Obama the same as Osama and rekindles the kind of KKK racism that used to lynch “uppity” black folk. Not long ago a black man could be beaten to death simply for daring to vote, so imagine how grating it must be to the kind of racists who are scared a black man might actually president. Didn’t God curse Ham?

There is no question that prayer is a much better option for this campaign than the hate speech heard at Palin and McCain rallies during the past week. But then, as the country song reminds us, be careful what you pray for. On Sunday at a McCain event in Davenport, Iowa, the crowd was warmed up by a local pastor of the Evangelical Free Church. Here was his prayer, as reported by a blogger at the event:

“There are plenty of people around the world who are praying to their god, be they Hindu, Buddah, or Allah, that (McCain’s) opponent wins. I pray that you step forward and honor your own name.” Ends with “in Jesus’ name.”

Continue reading In Jesus’ Name? →

McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire

Afghanistan, Election 2008, Islamophobia, Literature

McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire

By Khaled Hosseini, The Washington Post, Sunday, October 12, 2008; B05

I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama.

Never mind that this evokes — and brazenly tries to resurrect — the unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind. Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful, law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama’s middle name makes him someone to distrust — and, judging by some of the crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama’s middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there’s something wrong with my name? Continue reading McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire →

The Great Chain of Being Racist

Election 2008, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Luke R. E. Publican, Terrorism Issue

Let’s start with the Bible. “Whatsoever a man soweth,” says the King James Version, “that shall he shall reap.” I doubt the Apostle Paul would mind if this verse was clarified for 2008 as “Whatsoever a politician sayeth, that shall he also reap bigtime.” For the past week, as Wall Street was dodging fire and brimstone economic news, the McCain/Palin campaign let loose the doggone attack dog one-liners, claiming that Obama was “pallin’ with terrorists,” mocking the idea of an American with a middle name of Hussein, and asking rhetorically “Who is Barack Obama?” For the vast undercurrent of racist attitudes in America this was red heifer meat, fear mongering in raw form. So who do at least a few (and it seems more than a few) of those listening to McCain and Palin think Senator Obama is? Why, he’s an Arab, of course.

To his credit, John McCain stepped back from the flames of the fire he himself set and set the record straight that his opponent is a “decent man” and a family man and not a scary man. To his discredit, this racist comment is the logical conclusion of many who have listened to his “I am John McCain and I approve this ad” campaign spin. While the government was scrambling to bail out the major financial institutions, in some of the redder side roads off Main Street the Straight Talk Express was spewing out Rove-driven poisonous carbon-copy monoxide. Continue reading The Great Chain of Being Racist →

New Website on Islamophobia in the 2008 Election

Election 2008, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islam: Introduction, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Teaching Resources


[The following statement has been issued by a number of scholars of Islam and Muslim societies to set the record straight on the unfortunate Islamophobia in the current U.S. election. For the statement webpage and a list of the scholar supporting the statement, as well as further resources on the false claim that Senator Obama is a stealth Muslim and distribution of the Islamophobic film “Obsession”, click here.]

Statement of Concerned Scholars about Islamophobia in the 2008 U. S. Election Campaign

Not since the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 has the religious faith of a U.S. presidential candidate generated so much distortion as the false claims generated by extremist critics that Senator Barack Obama, the candidate of the Democratic Party, is a stealth Muslim. This is part of an Islamophobic hate campaign that fuels prejudice against Americans who practice their Islamic faith and Muslims worldwide. As scholars of Islam and Muslim societies and concerned citizens for a fair and honest electoral process, we wish to set the record straight.

1. Senator Obama has spoken eloquently and widely of his Christian faith and shared his personal beliefs in public forums during the campaign on religious values in American life, including a Compassion Forum on April 13 and a Saddleback Forum on August 16.

2. Senator Obama carries the same exact name as his father, Barack Hussein Obama, who was considered to be an agnostic and not a practicing Muslim by the time he met Senator Obama’s mother. Senator Obama’s mother did not convert to Islam, nor was he raised as a practicing Muslim while growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii.

3. The claim that Obama would be considered an “apostate” by Muslims is false. The vast majority of Muslims accept the Qur’anic message there there is no compulsion in Islam (Qur’an, 2:256). Since Senator Obama was not raised as a Muslim, he cannot be held accountable for the religious status of his father.

4. The politically motivated attack on Senator Obama as a radical Muslim is part of an Islamophobic prejudice in this campaign against American Muslims as anti-American and unfit to hold public office. During the primary season several candidates fueled resentment of all Muslims in politicizing the terrorist attack of 9/11. Recently the anti-Muslim propaganda film Obsession has been sent as an unsolicited DVD to voters in several states. It does not matter if a political candidate is Muslim or Jewish or Catholic or Mormon or Baptist. The President of the United States serves all its citizens, regardless of their religious beliefs. As a state senator and United States senator, as well as in his two books, Senator Obama expresses his belief in the separation of church and state, while accepting the need for greater dialogue between members of all faiths.

5. Regardless of your final choice for the voting booth on November 4, the decision should be based on the crucial issues facing the nation and the individual character of each candidate rather than spurious hate speech that demonizes the faith of some eight million citizens of the United States and more than a billion adherents worldwide.

Surge vs. Splurge

Election 2008, Iraq, Iraq War, Journalism and Media

McCain is deluding himself over the ‘surge’
Johann Hari, The Independent, October 6, 2008

There’s a hole in the US argument, and blood is rushing through

John McCain is desperate to talk about the surge rather than the splurge. His Iraq war is set to cost one trillion dollars, and his deregulation-mania has cost hundreds of billions. So in order to maintain his façade of being “tough on spending”, he needs to shift the subject. That’s why he has tried to shrink the debate about the Iraq War to one small question. Not: did Saddam have Weapons of Mass Destruction? Not: did Saddam have links to 9/11? Not: why do 70 per cent of Iraqis think the presence of US troops make them less safe and they should go home now?

McCain knows he will lose those arguments, so he wants us to talk solely about whether the surge of US troops last year has been successful. But a hole was just blown in that argument – and blood is rushing through.

Those of us who got Iraq wrong have a particular duty to honestly describe what is happening now. Continue reading Surge vs. Splurge →

Obsession isn’t a perfume

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Film and Video, Islamophobia, Terrorism Issue

by Adam Shatz, London Review of Books, 9 October, 2008

If you live in an American swing state you may have received a copy of ‘Obsession’ in your Sunday paper. ‘Obsession’ isn’t a perfume: it’s a documentary about ‘radical Islam’s war against the West’. In the last two weeks of September, 28 million copies of the film were enclosed as an advertising supplement in 74 newspapers, including the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. ‘The threat of Radical Islam is the most important issue facing us today,’ the sleeve announces. ‘It’s our responsibility to ensure we can make an informed vote in November.’ The Clarion Fund, the supplement’s sponsor, doesn’t explicitly endorse McCain, so as not to jeopardise its tax-exempt status, but the message is clear enough, and its circulation just happened to coincide with Obama’s leap in the polls.

The Clarion Fund is a front for neoconservative and Israeli pressure groups. Continue reading Obsession isn’t a perfume →

Holy Moses, Palin’s in the Torah

Apocalypse Watch, Election 2008, Luke R. E. Publican

The choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be the one-heartbeat-away running mate for Republican John McCain was not just throwing another hat into the political ring. No, this was a hunk of red meat, Red Heifer over moose flesh, for the hungry religious right to savor. Here was a born-again Pentecostal who overnight transformed the gambling non-Christian (just ask James Dobson before the epiphany) Navy war hero into a respectable church elder. The apocalyptic baggage of Palin’s Assemby of God church raised more than a few eyebrows outside the red-faced Bible Belt. If she became Vice-President (or President) would God finally let Satan unleash the Tribulation, killing off hundreds of thousands of Jews and millions of unborn-again Americans? What better place to hold out in caves and read those KJV blood-soaked Bibles than in Alaska, where the remaining believers could actually see Gog across the Being Strait? If Sarah Palin’s oil pipeline, like the Iraq War, was something the Redneck State God wanted, then surely Senator Obama is a perfect fit for the Antichrist.

But wait, it gets better than what the Prophet Daniel had to say about the Day of Jacob’s Trouble and the Apostle Paul predicted so rapturously about the Second Coming of Jesus. Now we know that Sarah Palin got onto the GOP ticket because it was predicted in the Torah. Move over De Vinci and make room for Josephus. Here is what the Ark of the Covenant Code says abut Election o8: Continue reading Holy Moses, Palin’s in the Torah →