Obama’s Campaign Apparently Dissing Hijabis…

Assalamu alaikum, I wanted to elaborate more on this piece that Aaminah also linked to as well.

Because the more I think about it the more it bothers me. It’s like “yeah we want your vote, but we don’t want to associate with you, and God forbid that an identifiably Muslim person actually appears in a photograph”… Because ya know, “it’s just not politically expedient for us to associate with you Mozzies anyway”.

And I can say yeah, perhaps Obama doesn’t “agree” with this action or “condone” this sort of thing, but then again, how did these campaign staffers get the idea that Muslim women wearing head scarves should be excluded from sitting behind the stage or appearing in photographs because it would not be “politically expedient”. I’m not sure I buy the “we don’t condone this and it didn’t come from the top” statements and the “we deplore the actions of these people who don’t reflect what we stand for”, etc., etc., especially when I get the feeling that Obama is all but running from anything resembling Islam and Muslims.

And as an “Obama supporter with reservations”, well, this just gives me one more reason to pause and ask myself, “what kind of change will there be, as a Muslim woman, if I help elect this guy in November”?

I am almost sure that emailing the Obama campaign about my concerns will get me nowhere (as it did last time I tried this), perhaps I should post something on my blog over at http://my.barackobama.com.

IMHO, the women offended in this story should be first on the list to be allowed to sit behind the stage, be offered a private audience with, or whatever it will take for them to air their concerns. And as the original piece linked to suggested, why would you do this in an area predominated by Arabs and Muslims, people who could conceivably be one of your core constituencies? Does getting the so-called “white, working-class” read “I won’t vote for a black guy anyway so what’s the use in trying” vote mean that much that in so doing, you could alienate another constituency?

The problem is, being “Muslim” is a “bad thing”. Muslims are terrorists, Muslims want to impose their values on the “rest of us”. Muslims are violent people, and in the mainstream media, and in mainstream political circles, this is how Muslims are viewed. It’s sad but true and Obama knows this. If he can disassociate himself from his church (rightly or wrongly), a church he was a member of for 20 years, whose head pastor married him and his wife and who baptized his children, all for political expediency, then why should Muslims think that he would give our issues the time of day?

And I’m saying this with a profound sense of sadness and disappointment. These thoughts are coming from someone who is inspired by Obama’s speeches, who is hoping against hope that Obama can bring some kinda “change” for the better to this country. Who has signed up and is schedule to attend the Polk for Obama Organizing Meeting scheduled for June 28. I can truly say that I’ve never been as interested in the political process, or as excited about a candidate, as I have been, but events like this, along with a seeming lack of concern about the plight of the Palestinian people, which I’ve talked about before, do much to dampen the excitement that I feel.

Reading the article about the treatment of the Muslim women made me wonder how I, as a hijab-wearing Muslim, would be treated? Would I, too, also be discriminated against, would I, too, be pushed to the back, pushed out of sight, because the way I looked wasn’t “politically expedient” for the Obama campaign?

Which then brings me to think that would my support, my excitement, my volunteering, my donations, or my vote be “less exceptable” to the Obama campaign because I’m a Muslim woman? And I can’t help but think that, given the way these Muslim women were treated, that the answer would be “yes”, my support, as a Muslimah, is less acceptable, dare I even say, not wanted, because the support of Muslims, in general, isn’t wanted, because “there’s just too many people who think that Obama is a Muslim anyway, so vocal, visible support of Muslims just isn’t wanted right now”. And that was what that article said to me, deep down.

That Muslims just aren’t good enough to be seen with Obama, that Muslims aren’t good enough for our issues to be discussed, etc., etc., why? Well, let’s face it, because “other constituencies are more important than you”. Or, maybe “not good enough” isn’t the right phrase, more like “you’re just too radioactive right now, being associated with you will damage us right now”.

And that, in a nutshell, was what these two Muslim women were told at the campaign rally in Detroit. Yeah, they could come to the rally, they just couldn’t be seen, in a way that could be dredged up later, as visibly supporting him, headscarf and all. I guess I’ll keep that in mind the next time a rally is nearby, or the next time they have the “dinner with Barack” promotion (which I’d probably not ever be a part of as one look at my picture, that of a blind Muslim woman with a Leader Dog, would probably throw me out of contention right then and there).

So I’d say that my support of Obama at this point is a bit, well, cautious. And I’m still glad that it’s him that won the nomination and not Hillary, and I just wish that his campaign would have been a bit more sympathetic to the women, and more outspoken about how this sort of treatment toward their supporters shouldn’t be tolerated, etc., etc.