{"id":749,"date":"2015-09-18T11:23:24","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T16:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=749"},"modified":"2015-09-18T18:07:16","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T23:07:16","slug":"being-called-a-muslim-should-never-be-a-slur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/being-called-a-muslim-should-never-be-a-slur\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Called A ‘Muslim’ Should Never Be A Slur"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring<\/em><\/p>\n

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is in hot water today for failing to correct a questione<\/a>r about Muslims and President Obama’s faith:<\/p>\n

During a question and answer session in Rochester, New Hampshire, a gentleman stood and said, “We have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one, you know he’s not even an American.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The man asked when we are going to “get rid of it,” and Trump didn’t correct the sentiment.<\/a> He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are saying that. And a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking into that and plenty of other things,\u201d he continued.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Really? Does he agree with the question? Why didn’t he correct him immediately? The question is quite relevant, especially if he wants to be Leader of the Free World. After all, he will deal with Muslim countries with a lot of Muslims in them. Does he really want to “get rid” of his fellow Americans who are Muslims?<\/p>\n

Beyond the endless analysis of why a still substantial proportion of the Republican base – 43% according to a recent CNN\/ORC poll<\/a> – believes President Obama is a Muslim, the more important issue is the fact that there are a good number of people who equate “being Muslim” with a slur. This is the main problem.<\/p>\n

Being Muslim is not a slur, and it is offensive to consider it so. The same is true with any religious faith – or no religious faith. The beauty of our country is that people of all creeds, colors, races, and backgrounds can live together in peace as Americans. And if anyone uses a religious belief as a slur, than this is wrong and must be called out as so.<\/p>\n

And it’s heartening to see many politicians, including Hillary Clinton, condemning this kind of hate<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I was appalled,” Clinton said bluntly to a question from CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux. “Not only was it out of bounds, it was untrue. He should have from the beginning corrected that kind of rhetoric, that level of hatefulness.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We need more condemnation like this from our political leaders, pundits, thought leaders, and ordinary Americans. There are many – too many – politicians who say things about Islam and Muslims that they would never dare say about any other religious group. This is wrong, and the double standard has to be called out each and every time. “Being Muslim (or Christian, or Jewish, or Hindu, or Buddhist, or Athesist)” is not a slur; it never has been, and it never should be. Ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is in hot water today for failing to correct a questioner about Muslims and President Obama’s faith: During a question and answer session in Rochester, New Hampshire, a gentleman stood and said, “We have a problem in this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[651,11,142,654,655,653,652],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-common-word","tag-donald-trump","tag-islam","tag-muslim","tag-obama","tag-poll","tag-president","tag-slur"],"yoast_head":"\nBeing Called A 'Muslim' Should Never Be A Slur<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are some in our country who consider "being Muslim" a slur. 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Hassaballa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GodFaithPen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Being Called A 'Muslim' Should Never Be A Slur","description":"There are some in our country who consider \"being Muslim\" a slur. This is wrong, and it has to be called out each and every time.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Being Called A 'Muslim' Should Never Be A Slur","og_description":"There are some in our country who consider \"being Muslim\" a slur. This is wrong, and it has to be called out each and every time.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/being-called-a-muslim-should-never-be-a-slur\/","og_site_name":"Common Word, Common Lord","article_published_time":"2015-09-18T16:23:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-09-18T23:07:16+00:00","author":"Hesham A. 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Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. Hassaballa Charitable Foundation and now serves as its Treasurer.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/GodFaithPen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/author\/hhassaballa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions\/754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}