ProudProgressive

I was shocked to learn that an acquaintance of mine recently overheard someone in her church insisting that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The rumor has been debunked repeatedly, yet somehow this canard lives on.

This unfounded rumor irritates me for two reasons. First, and most straightforwardly, it’s simply untrue. Barack Obama is not a Muslim; A quick glance at his website shows that he’s a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Are Obama’s ideological opponents so starved for substantive arguments against him that they need to resort to untruths?

The most annoying part, though, is that the rumor is effective. People seem to be quite willing to believe that Obama is Muslim, and to be significantly bothered by it. In my opinion, both the spread of this rumor and its apparent acceptance are not-so-subtle manifestations of racism. One of the fundamental aspects of racism is a fear of “the other” – those who are different from us in appearance, customs, etc. It’s no longer acceptable to use Obama’s race directly as an Afrian-American to inspire fear of “the other” in people. But his name, Barack Hussein Obama, and the fact that he spent part of his childhood in a predominantly Muslim country, seem to be fair game. In fact, insinuating that he’s a Muslim serves the dual purpose of emphasizing his differences from many Americans and playing on people’s fears of terrorism and unfounded beliefs that many or most Muslims are terrorists. The implication is not just that he’s different – he might even be a terrorist! At least, that’s how people seem to see it.

Sadly, this whole episode seems to show that not only are we not ready for religious diversity in our presidential candidates, we haven’t even advanced past basic forms of racism.

Tags: Barack Obama, Muslim, Presidential Election 2008, Presidential Primaries 2008, Racism