I need to go Zell Miller on my Muslim family for a second. Has to be done after reading this article.
My dear Sisters and Brothers,
Are you stupid? There are almost 1.3 billion Muslims in the world, but seems like every Muslim who comes to the US has a pedigree that includes generations of inbreeding. The US offers us unprecedented ability to worship, but we let a group of dubious credentials violate our souls be letting them tell us what Islam is. The group that literally defecates on the house of the Prophet (PBUH), we allow them to tell us what Islam is. We can express ourselves freely, but condemn neither attacks carried out in the name of Islam, nor Muslim on Muslim violence. We have a huge economy in the US, but we allow Muslims in the US and throughout the world to live in abject poverty. Now, we are faced with one of the most important presidential elections in the post-WWII period, and we don’t know where we stand. Let’s make this a single issue question, because I think multiple issues or abstract concepts confuse our inbred minds. The question is: Do you want to get your sorry selves thrown in Gitmo? If yes, vote Bush and attempt and independent thought. If no, vote Kerry. Why is this an issue. If it makes it easier for you, rent the movie The Seige. I am proud to be a Muslim and an American. To be either, means I have to be ashamed of you my Brothers and Sisters.
Yours in the search for islam,
Islam O. Yankee
Welcome to my world. Here’s a scenario for you: What if 20% of the worlds population has no clue? Watched Barak Obama on CNN tonight. Obabma vs. Schwartzenegger in 2008. Wake me up in 4 years.
Islamicate’s plea
Islamicate writes angrily about how Wahhabism has become identified publicly as the voice of Islam, and says that American Muslims should have no question how to vote in ’04: ” Do you want to get your sorry selves thrown in…
Yes, The Siege was an eerily prescient film that cuts to the heart of the tragically ambiguous relationship between the US government and the Islamic world. Plus it was filmed in my old neighborhood! It’s a predominantly Polish neighborhood, and the sight of armored vehicles on the streets for the shoot genuinely frightened people who, after all, arrived here originally to get away from what was essentially a Soviet military dictatorship. Reality imitates art. The real failure of our political system is that we can’t produce a better party for Muslims and the many other constituencies who share their general stance on social values: conservative in some senses, but also progressive in the area of society’s duty to promote social and economic justice. Some people talk about the need for a “progressive conservatism.” That sounds about right. We should work together to make a party that actually reflects the shared sense of decency that holds communities like Brooklyn together. IMHO.
I think that you’re being way too hard on American Muslim groups here. The reason most major Muslim groups have not come out in support of Kerry formally is because there is really no advantage in doing so this soon. It’s pretty clear that they will eventually, but why let Kerry take the Muslim vote for granted? He should have to work for it, at least a little bit.
On foreign policy/civil liberties issues Nader’s views are 10 times better than Kerry’s. Making Kerry sweat a little in the months leading up to the election may make him a slightly better candidate and encourage him to tone down the foreign policy pandering to the pro-Israel vote. Probably not, but I fail to see how the effort can hurt. The fraction of Muslims voting for Bush in this election will likely at any rate be miniscule.