What About the Muslims?

Fear is a powerful emotion. An innate fear of death is a large part of what drives humans to constantly invent behaviors and tools to prolong survival. The intensity an emotion such as fear can provide and the response it is able to evoke are nearly impossible to procure in any other way, especially when fear is fueled by ignorance. This is why it is often used in propaganda, and elections are no exception.

On Feb. 25, 2008, the infamous Drudge Report obtained a photo of Barack Obama dressed in the traditional clothing of a Somali elder. The catch? The garb includes what appears to be a turban, an article many Americans identify with Muslims, and the report claimed that Clinton staff members circulated the photo.

Whether or not top officials in the Clinton campaign intentionally released the photo to conjure acrimony does not matter. Stories such as this, and the December 2007 e-mail that alleged that Obama is a Muslim, have attempted to prod our lack of knowledge of Middle Eastern culture and expose our xenophobia.

In addition, Obama's middle name, Hussein, has caught the attention of critics such as Ann Coulter, ("…B. Hussein Obama…"), and his last name is only one letter away from Osama bin Laden's first name, something Rush Limbaugh points out often. (CNN has even screwed it up).

These irrelevant anti-Obama plots have been so ridiculous, Jon Stewart even made fun of the Obama/Osama comparison at the Oscars, implying the same fiasco resulted in the "ill-fated 1944 Presidential campaign of Gaydolf Titler."

However odd, allegations of a top candidate possibly being Muslim are used as scare tactics, a move like this is not surprising, considering 45 percent of Americans say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate because he or she is Muslim. About 60 percent of people, American, Muslim or otherwise, perceive Muslim-Western relations to be bad, but using the aforementioned picture of Obama as a divisive device is an example of how horribly the greatest country in the world is managing this conflict. After all, this is America, where theoretically anyone can grow up to become president.

As involved as our government is in the lives of Muslims around the world, we as a country know very little about their faith and culture, other than the fact that they live on top of our oil. This folly is inexcusable, seeing that we have spent the past five years in Iraq and seven in Afghanistan.

A doctrine of purity, honor and submission, Islam has been misrepresented in our media as a suicide-happy religion whose goals are to oppress women and kill every American and their ideals. Photos or videos of Islamic adherents are often in mug-shot form or feature blindfolded hostages, and machetes or AK-47s.

Considering all this, there is very little chance the 29 percent of Americans who find Muslim Americans unfavorable and 35 percent of Muslims unfavorable, have heard of the Five Pillars of Islam. As much as we'd like to deny it, we are just as clueless when it comes to what the other culture truly values, and it shows: both Americans and Muslims view each other as excessively violent and arrogant people.

Muslims have become a forgotten American ethnic group, one still viewed primarily as foreigners. Given that 65 percent of adult Muslims in America are immigrants and the majority of media coverage pertaining to the religion takes place overseas, this attitude is somewhat explicable. But ignoring the fact that the Muslim population has quintupled in the past 20 years would be to downplay their role as American citizens.

Of course, it's foolish to expect everyone to look past the mainstream media and stereotypes we throw around aimlessly. We as Americans immediately get offended when stereotyped as materialistic and overindulgent, yet we tag broad statements to Muslims, like fanatical and violent, expecting no reaction from them.

In the end, we need to remember that an attempt by Barack Obama's opponents to manipulate the emotions we felt following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon per vitriol not only misrepresents a presidential hopeful, but offends members of a entire religion.

Somehow, in this whole debacle, the word diplomacy has been forgotten.