I am an independent voter who leans conservative. This year, I was sickened by a lot of the manipulative rhetoric being used during the election, from the campaign for President-elect Barack Obama, to the “No on Proposition 8” campaign. But more importantly, as an American, I was saddened to see the Republican Party vilify Muslims, portraying Obama as the enemy because he had Muslim associations. The Republican Party should never have alluded to Obama as a Muslim, because instead of revealing a flaw in his leadership, they revealed the flaw they considered most important — his faith.
After Sept. 11, the Islamic nations stood apart from America, but what the campaign for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin created was an even deeper divide, one that pitted Americans who were not Muslim against Americans who were. Somewhere, lost in the prejudiced pontificating, the idea arose that Muslims were enemies, dangerous and destructive to the American way of life.
Yet, most people have never walked in the shoes of a Muslim American. Most people do not consider the internal conflict that rages inside of Muslim Americans as this war continues. I realized I was one of these people when former Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded his endorsement of Obama on “Meet the Press” by honoring the death of a Muslim American soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, who was killed in Iraq on Aug. 6, 2007. Until that moment, it never occurred to me that many of the soldiers who went to fight against the Muslim terrorists were Muslim themselves. That was the first time I realized there is a significant number of Muslim-American soldiers that serve America every day.
This blatant ignorance is not entirely my fault. On that horrific September day in New York City, Americans witnessed an unprecedented act of terrorism. When they turned to their leader, wondering why, President George W. Bush justified the ensuing war by declaring who was responsible for the nearly 3,000 deaths. Although the “why” was answered later, the impact of Bush’s post-9/11 speech remains — Americans hold tight to the imagery of “Arab Muslims” Bush shaped as the “enemies” of the free world.
The strategies of dehumanizing, stereotyping and generalizing the opposition has been applied in every war in the history of the United States. This time, instead of demonizing those the U.S. has in the past — the Brits, Yankees, Japanese and Vietnamese — Americans now correlate terms such as Arabs, Muslims, Islam and the Middle East with terrorism.
Citizens of the Western Hemisphere are intellectually lazy, and refuse to educate themselves on the reality of the situation. Not only are they failing to differentiate between the Sunnis and the Shiites, but many are failing to understand there are terrorists who happen to be Arab, and Arabs who happen to be Muslim. Yet when the term “Muslim” is heard, it conjures up a picture of an Arab terrorist.
American citizens who are not Muslim must take it upon themselves to get rid of the subconscious prejudice that has sprouted since 2001. One way we can eradicate this bigotry is to give more attention to the 3,700 Muslim soldiers that serve in the U.S. military. These soldiers should be honored and commended for fighting in what amounts to a civil war in the Muslim faith, especially because of the internal strife it likely causes them. On “Meet the Press,” Powell defended Obama’s Christian faith, but when asked if Obama may be Muslim, Powell said, “The really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? The answer is no, that’s not America.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Powell, it is America — or it’s what we have become. It was the conservative portion of America that existed for a short time before the elections. More specifically, it has been a popular opinion in this country since the terrorist attacks. Instead of reminding ourselves who the enemy is, we should be more determined to understand who the enemy is not. And while there may be dangerous terrorists who use the guise of the Muslim faith to spread their evil, there are also 2.8 million Muslim-Americans who value peace and prosperity in America.
When discussing the death of Muslim American soldier Kareem Khan, Powell said, “He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could go serve his country, and he gave his life.” Khan was a true American, fighting to protect his country with more commitment than any non-military Christian college student. Because he was a Muslim, but did not use his faith as a barrier to fight for his country, people can better understand how this war is not against the Muslim faith. It is against those who hate America and want to see it destroyed, and for many people out there, including Muslims, it’s a battle worth fighting.
—Ashlie Rodriguez is a political science and journalism senior.
—This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed — include your full name, major and year in school.
The Daily Aztec > State of Mind
A GUEST'S PERSPECTIVE: GOP spreads prejudice
Published: Thursday, December 4, 2008
Updated: Thursday, December 4, 2008
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