<\/p>\n
If there was any doubt as to the depth and extent of Voters – many of whom I would guess couldn’t tell the difference between It didn’t stop there. \u00a0One of the more ambitious attempts to stoke anti-Muslim feelings in But despite the extent and volume of anti-Muslim rhetoric, candidates who embraced these methods this year universally failed to get elected.<\/p>\n From the earliest days of the primary, campaigns seemed to There’s another beneficial side effect that this rhetoric While Muslim-American organizations took a low profile for Will the next crop of presidential candidates learn from the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If there was any doubt as to the depth and extent of anti-Muslim feelings among portions of the US electorate, this year’s presidential elections have most certainly put it to rest.\u00a0 The extent to which candidates and voters alike propagated anti-Muslim themes in order to support a political agenda has been unprecedented.\u00a0 Nearly every major…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nanti-Muslim feelings among portions of the US electorate, this year’s
\npresidential elections have most certainly put it to rest.\u00a0 <\/span>The extent to which candidates and
\nvoters alike propagated anti-Muslim themes in order to support a political
\nagenda has been unprecedented.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Nearly every major candidate relied on fear of Muslims at some point to
\nstir voter sentiment through fear:\u00a0
\n<\/span>Mitt Romney often
\nrailed<\/a> against “radical Islam”, Rudy Giuliani routinely
\ninvoked<\/a> the spectre of “Islamic terror”, Fred Thompson warned<\/a> that the US is in a “global war with \u00a0<\/span>radical Islam”, and\u00a0John McCain called the fight against “radical Islamic extremists” the “transcendent challenge of the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century”.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Even Barack Obama, who was
\nhimself the target of anti-Muslim sentiments – tapped into this theme when he
\ncalled upon Americans to wean themselves off of Middle Eastern (i.e. Muslim) oil.<\/p>\n
\nan Islamist and the Muslim next door – responded to these overtures with one of the most
\nsustained and organic email campaigns in recent memory.\u00a0 <\/span>Repeated tales of Barack Obama’s
\nalleged Islamic past and\/or present were so effective that in one
\nTexas survey<\/a> taken only a week before the election, 23% of all voters
\nstill believed<\/span> that Obama was a Muslim.\u00a0
\n<\/span>The level to which people clung to this meme despite two years of
\nrepeated statements in the media to the contrary is a startling reminder of how
\ndeep-seated the fear of Muslims remains.<\/p>\n
\norder to sway the election was the mailing<\/a> of 28 million copies of a DVD entitled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against
\nthe West” to households in swing states.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Like the emails and statements above, the “Obsession” film blurs the lines
\nbetween violent radicalism and ordinary Muslims, playing into legitimate fears that
\nmany Americans still have in the wake of 9\/11. <\/p>\n
\nfalter in direct proportion to the extend politicians tried to make anti-Muslim
\nfeelings the foundation of their campaigns.\u00a0 <\/span>Giuliani and Romney, by far the more strident of the
\nRepublican candidates, found no traction with the anti-Muslim arguments and
\ndropped out early.\u00a0 <\/span>In contrast,
\nJohn McCain – who rejected Pastor Rod Parsley’s endorsement solely due to his
\nanti-Muslim comments and publicly stated that Muslim-Americans were qualified
\nto hold any office in the land – rose to the top of his party.<\/p>\n
\nhad: it galvanized Muslim-Americans to take control of their own political
\ndestiny.\u00a0 <\/span>After all, if you’re
\nalready a part of the elections (in an imaginary sense), why not dive in
\nyourself and provide some Muslim reality?\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\nfear of unwittingly contributing to the stigma, everyday Muslims took it upon
\nthemselves to get involved<\/a> at a grassroots level, where they could stay under
\nthe radar and confront anti-Muslim feelings at a personal level.\u00a0 <\/span>Buoyed<\/a> by an affinity for Barack Obama,
\nin part due to the slings and arrows that he took on their behalf, thousands of
\nMuslim-Americans gravitated to his campaign<\/a> and fought back through the
\npolitical process.\u00a0 <\/span>And Muslim
\nRepublicans, though smaller in number, worked from within the party to excise
\nanti-Muslim sentiment, with some degree<\/a> of success.<\/p>\n
\nlessons of 2008 and stick to more meaningful issues than who can be harder on
\nMuslims?\u00a0 <\/span>Only time will tell, but even
\nif they don’t, there will be a new generation of Muslim grassroots political
\nactivists in both parties waiting to confront them.<\/p>\n