Fear Of Islam
Some people may not know it, but there is an underlying fear of Islam and Muslim people in America, that is to be expected to a certain extent given the events of 9/11 and 7/7 in England. The Media are also to be blamed as they have sensationalized the “War on Terror” always making sure that some people never step down from that hyper-awareness of Muslim = Violence=Terror=War. Is this true though? I don’t think so and I believe the majority of Americans do not thinks so however it has become a major issue in this campaign with many in the Obama and McCain camps afraid to sit down with the various Muslim organizations in America.
Why is that? The simple answer, that no one wants to talk about is that it is not politically correct in America to be associating with people of the Islamic faith. This is because at this very moment in time, the religious right in America have been increasing their control of various media outlets (Yes Fox News!) since the inception of the Bush presidency.
So far this year, ratings leader Fox News is up 22% in total viewers in primetime compared to a similar period in 2006 and 2% from 2004, according to Nielsen rating data provided by MSNBC. - 2 June 2008
This control has allowed them to paint America as a mono-theological nation when it is actually a multi-theological nation. One of the things I miss about Worcester, MA is that within that small city there was one Greek Church, two Buddhist Temples, one Episcopalian Church, one Islamic Center, one Methodist Church and probably many other religious places that leave my memory at the moment. The point is that being multi-religious is something that Americans should celebrate as opposed to denigrate because I certainly brag about this to my European friends here in Ireland. Ireland is predominantly a Christian nation and that is to be expected given the giant Cross in Phoenix Park (Yes it really is that big…) therefore I encourage my friends to at least explore other faiths through literature since they cannot experience them at the relevant institutions.
Theophobia is defined as the fear of gods or religion; this is a word that I believe will become synonymous with American if Senator McCain is elected . If you were not aware already, Senator Obama’s camp told two woman that they could not sit behind him wearing a hijab on Monday (the reason for this post). What the volunteer’s on Senator Obama’s camp did was inexcusable and I hope the Senator will make a concerted effort to sit down with Arab-Muslim leaders in America as well as leaders of other religious faiths to demonstrate how different he is from Senator McCain.
That being said, 23% of Democrats who view Senator Obama negatively believe he is Muslim according to a March 27 poll by the PEW Research Center. This data might provide people and insight into the actions of Senator Obama’s volunteers but are still not an excuse given the principles of the campaign . I imagine these numbers have decreased but there is still a significant portion of Americans who believe he is Muslim and might not vote for him because of that deception. I blame Fox News and other right-wing media sources for this but I believe this incident as played to the benefit of Senator Obama who is a stand-up guy and personally called the women in question to apologize.
In a previous post, over two months ago I wrote about Queen Rania of Jordan who has made a concerted effort on the behalf of Muslim’s everywhere to dispel some of the myths about Islam:
June 20 2008 07:12 pm | American Politics
June 21st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Fox News ratings up? Apologies,
I have been turning it on for a
good laugh….unfortunately, some actually believe the “Fair & balanced” screed and opinion that passes for legitimate news.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am
LOL, well sinced I switched from Sattelite, I don’t get to contribute to their ratings anymore, can’t say I miss Fox News, wish I could get MSNBC though…
June 25th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Funny thing is, nearly all Americans can distinguish between a Muslim who is trying to force the world to convert, and a Muslim who isn’t. Americans aren’t worried about Muslims; we’re worried about Islamists.
I happen to live in the district of the only Muslim member of Congress. He jumped on board Obama’s train early, and offered to guide Obama in connecting with Muslim groups and mosques. But the Obama campaign has yet to visit a mosque; they are being very careful to do nothing that might make people think he has any ties to Islam. It has quite a few Muslims who would otherwise support Obama upset.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/20729974.html
McCain, on the other hand, has visited mosques and has met with several Muslim organizations.
Oh, and I hate to tell you this, but the right doesn’t have much control of media outlets. There’s Fox, and a few talk radio stations. That’s about it. The rest are either owned by or run by folks on the left.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Hey Gordon, I was not aware that Senator McCain has visited so many Mosques but you can hardly blame the Obama campaign for its reaction to the Muslim community. Just imagine if we saw Senator Obama spending a significant amount of time with Muslim people, it would be all over Fox News and every republican newspaper in the country.
On the other hand, no one will say anything about Senator McCain because he has never been associated with Islam.
I give most Americans the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Islam, that is in the New England area anyway. Not sure about the rest of the country since I never did stray far from Mass.
Fox News is fairly popular but my problem with a lot of the media (CNN) on the left is that they truly try to present both sides to a story which sometimes confuses people as to what the truth is however Fox News makes no such attempt. CNN has hired noted conservatives like Glenn Beck, Dobbs however Fox only has Colmes I believe…