We’re not expecting dude to be pure or perfect around here, but his defense of the FISA “compromise” was eyebrow-raising and legitimately worrisome. We didn’t even get to catch our breath before we learned that he was screwing over all the Muslim Americans who were clamoring to support him.
As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.
Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.
“I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said, ‘We have a very tightly wrapped message.’ ”
When Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign, Muslim Americans from California to Virginia responded with enthusiasm, seeing him as a long-awaited champion of civil liberties, religious tolerance and diplomacy in foreign affairs. But more than a year later, many say, he has not returned their embrace.
While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those groups say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.
In interviews, Muslim political and civic leaders said they understood that their support for Mr. Obama could be a problem for him at a time when some Americans are deeply suspicious of Muslims. Yet those leaders nonetheless expressed disappointment and even anger at the distance that Mr. Obama has kept from them.
“This is the ‘hope campaign,’ this is the ‘change campaign,’ ” said Mr. Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota. Muslims are frustrated, he added, that “they have not been fully engaged in it.” [NYT]
What’s the upshot for Obama here? He doesn’t want to fan the Obama-is-a-Muslim rumors, but the problem with this tack is that it reinforces the idea that there is something wrong with being a Muslim. The people who think he’s a Muslim (despite the many, many refutations of that idea) are people who are almost certainly not going to vote for him anyway. He didn’t even change course until Ellison called him out in a closed-door meeting with Congressional Black Caucus.
When Hillary Clinton was not-so-subtly courting the racist in the final primaries, she was rightly pilloried for it. So it should be here.
[photo from edgeofthewest]