OBAMARAMA

In response to a recent post here, commenter Estevan Carlos Benson raised an important point:

We need to come up with a way [of] responding to people’s fears about Barack’s muslim background. Their fears are clearly unwarranted and unfair. Any ideas?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot this weekend. It is increasingly clear that the dominant line of attack against Sen. Obama from the right (as much as they may try to attribute it to the left) will be a shameful whispering campaign based on the Muslim heritage of his father and step-father. Its implied nature makes it difficult to address — but to undermine it before it becomes an underlying theme of the campaign against him, it must be answered early and effectively.

The Attack

Numerous rightwing media outlets, from tiny web “news” outlets to FOX News itself, have asserted that Sen. Obama attended a “madrassa” in Indonesia for four years — a fact they insist he did not disclose in either of his books.

The discussion in these quarters has invariably turned to speculation about the curriculum of the Muslim school, and whether or not Sen. Obama was taught Wahhabism during his time there. In the course of this lopsided conversation, conservatives have begun referring to Sen. Obama himself as a Muslim, hoping to etch this false impression in the public consciousness while ostensibly debating the political fallout.

A quote from a purported “political strategist” in a fringe web article demonstrates this insidious tactic perfectly:

“It’s not about Obama being Muslim that concerns me. It’s the fact that he’s been deceptive about his religious and educational background,” says political strategist Mike Baker.

Typical of these specious arguments, the article then does its best to link Sen. Obama to radical Islam, noting that “Most madrassas are funded by Saudi Arabia and are known to teach a radical form of Islam known as Wahhabism” and, in the next sentence, that “Obama spent at least four years studying at the Indonesian madrassa in Jakarta.”

The Facts

• Sen. Obama’s educational history is detailed in both of his books. “In Indonesia,” he wrote in his autobiography, “I’d spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a
  Catholic school.”
• Sen. Obama’s father was from a small Kenyan village, the son of “a medicine man with healing powers.” He attended a British school and was an atheist when he met Sen. Obama’s mother. He returned to Kenya when Sen. Obama was two years old.
• At age six, Sen. Obama moved to Indonesia with his mother and stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, a non-practicing Muslim. There is no evidence whatsoever that Wahhabism was taught at the school he attended.
• Sen. Obama is a baptised, practicing Christian and has been actively involved in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago since the mid-1980s.

The Response

The people making this assault on Sen. Obama depend on the negative connotations the word “Muslim” holds for voters whose primary understanding of Islam is that it is the religion of the terrorists. The trick in responding is not to be defensive about the claim — being called a Muslim is not a smear in and of itself, after all, even if that is how it is intended — but simply to correct it.

After that, the overarching point to make is that as president, Sen. Obama will benefit from his diverse and worldly heritage. He is an American with an understanding of other cultures and beliefs, at a time when such knowledge has never been more valuable. He has seen first-hand the struggles of hunger and poverty that developing nations face, and knows the role we can play in improving the lives of people both here and around the world. He is an American with a global perspective.

Sen. Obama learned about Islam in his youth, as well as Buddhism from his mother and Christianity from his grandparents. After becoming familar with each, Christianity is the path he chose for himself. It is also the religion in which he has chosen to raise his children. In addition to his faith, this decision demonstrates his decision making process, his emphasis on reason and judgment, his well-known practice of weighing the options available in every circumstance and then choosing the one he deems right.

I expect the Obama campaign will be addressing these misrepresentations in the weeks ahead. But in the meantime, we don’t need to let them go unanswered.

Bigotry and fear are familiar weapons for these folks. Whether or not they work this time around is up to us.