{"id":215,"date":"2008-10-20T13:40:42","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/colin-powell-a-sane-respectful.html"},"modified":"2008-10-20T13:40:42","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T13:40:42","slug":"colin-powell-a-sane-respectful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/colin-powell-a-sane-respectful.html","title":{"rendered":"Colin Powell: A Sane Respectful Voice For American Muslims"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/object>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is about time.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On Sunday Gen. Colin Powell spoke eloquently about his choice to endorse Barack Obama and, most strikingly, condemned the implicit and explicit disrespect to American Muslims that has been a part of the electoral campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As Muslim Beliefnet blogger Aziz Poonawalla wrote:<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I have been saying this as far back as February during the primaries – the correct response to the “Obama muslim” smear was not just to deny it, but also to ask, “so what?” Colin Powell rises to the occasion by saying what Obama still has not said:\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is?\u00c2\u00a0Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.<\/b>\u00c2\u00a0Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

<\/p>\n

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards-Purple Heart, Bronze Star-showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9\/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Read all of Aziz Poonawalla’s article here<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is the photo that General Powell references in his speech:\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\"080929_slideshowplaton16_p465.jpg\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0 It is about time.\u00c2\u00a0 On Sunday Gen. 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}