Obama’s crisis of faith
Barack Obama’s recently unveiled plan for providing federal funds to social services run by religious organizations is an eager nod to evangelical churches–a faithful anchor of the GOP’s support base.
But Obama’s recent Christian courtships smack to some as shrewd political posturing as he distances himself from other communities that are less friendly with the political establishment. Obama has struggled to cut off connections to his controversial former Pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. His campaign is waging a PR war to counter false rumors that he is a Muslim. He ran into some political fallout when two Muslim women wearing headscarves were not allowed to sit near him at an event in Detroit, presumably so they wouldn’t be photographed in the same frame.
Maybe Obama needs a different kind of photo op?
New York Times columnist Roger Cohen has suggested that a campaign stop at a mosque would demonstrate his worldliness and his ability “to break the monolithic, alienating view of a great world religion that is as multifaceted as Judaism or Christianity.”
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts also suggested a mosque visit would lend Obama some political credibility. While the candidate has apologized for the Detroit snubbing, Pitts said,
“It would be easier to take the apology seriously, though, if: a) somewhere in the last year of manifold denials that he is a Muslim, Obama had found the time, space or guts to point out that there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim, particularly in a nation that enshrined religious freedom in its founding documents; b) he hadn’t spent so much time treating the American Muslim community as one does the carrier of a contagious disease.”
In an op-ed in today’s Detroit Free Press, Emily Hauser warned that Obama’s damage control over the headscarves and other political contraband might be feeding into bigotry:
“there’s something noxious in all this — as if Obama isn’t proudly declaring his own faith, but running as fast as he can from the other.”
Yet even the most expert public imaging might not translate into a sustained policy approach, especially for international observers of the presidential race.
If the Senator from Illinois is something of an enigma to American voters, he holds a similar enchantment for many Muslims and Arabs abroad, embodying ambiguous hope–not so much for lower gas prices, but rather, a less combative US foreign policy on issues tied to Islam and the Middle East.
In the Daily News Egypt, an English-language outlet, Mohamed Elmenshawy of the World Security Institute in Washington, D.C noted:
“Millions of Muslims who might otherwise have taken an indifferent view toward US politics are enthusiastically tuning into the elections to watch a black man with Muslim heritage compete to become president of the United States.”
But, echoing homegrown criticism of the candidate, Elmenshawy said the Arab world might see Obama’s sheen quickly fade after the campaign honeymoon.
“Wishful Arabs should modify their expectations. Aside from his early rejection of the Iraq War, his actions have never indicated a dramatic departure from American political norms. Obama’s candidacy carries heavy symbolic value, but little hope for real change in American foreign policy in the Middle East.”
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
July 6th, 2008 | Category: Election 2008
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