Islamophobic Rallying Cries Ring Hollow on the Right

Whether you think it’s pandering to xenophobes or a rallying cry for Christian patriots, a series of attacks against Muslims and Islam in the U.S. have been rebuffed by the attackers’ compatriots on the right. Many of these attacks have centered on Minnesota’s Representative-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to U.S. Congress, and on Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., a rising star in the Democratic caucus whose middle name is the only manifestation of his father’s Muslim background (Obama has steadfastly identified himself as a Christian).

The current trend started last month, when right-wing talk show host Dennis Prager raised a fuss about Ellison’s announcement that he would take the oath of office on the Qu’ran. Prager was taken to task not only by liberals, but by libertarian conservatives who decried his bigoted attitude.

Then came Debbie Schlussel’s attack on Obama:

So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father’s heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?

Schlussel’s fear-mongering smear of Obama was countered by many right-wing blogs who sensed the piece was an insubstantial and harmful critique. From Captain’s Quarters:

I like Debbie and think she contributes an important voice to the blogosphere, but this is not serious thinking. First, it makes little difference to me who the “Arab and Muslim streets” considers Muslim. The Arab street also thinks that the Holocaust never occurred but that it sounds like a nifty idea. In reading the Qur’an, we get the opinion that Jesus was Muslim, and certainly Muslims today will argue that point; does that make it so? People decide their own religion and are responsible to God for that personal choice. “Muslim streets” do not get to determine the faith of free men. The very statement that Obama “may think he’s a Christian” in a sense that minimizes his own choice of faith is, well, unhinged.

To Rick Moran atRight-Wing Nuthouse, who helpfully links to other condemnations:

Enough, Debbie. Crawl back under your rock and commune with the other slugs and slimy things who would defile the body politic with unreasoning ignorance and hate. You have proven once again that appealing to the lowest common denominator among conservatives may be a path to readership and links but is a poor substitute for the light of reason and tolerance that should be the hallmark of real conservatives.

…
With a predictability that would put a laxative to shame, the left holds up Schlussel’s severed head and proclaims her “Queen of the Conservative Blogosphere.”

I hate to bust up this self-congratulatory party fellas but if you bother to read any of the conservative blogs linking to Schussel’s piece, you would notice one curious thread that connects all of them:

Every single conservative or right of center blog that links to the piece strongly criticizes Schlussel for her bigotry and stupidity.

Duh.

Although Moran isn’t entirely correct, the majority of links do seem to be critical of Schlussel.

Obama and Ellison’s connections to Islam will probably be the target of plenty of aspersion throughout their tenure in Congress. Case in point–Ellison is being used again, this time by his soon-to-be colleague, Virginia Representative Virgil Goode. Goode sent out a letter to his constituents (excerpted below):

When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

MSNBC quotes a Goode spokesman as saying there was no apology forthcoming; it remains to be seen how Republicans will react to the letter.

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