Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Could I Borrow Your Hijab?: Islam and the 2008 Elections



I don’t trust people who don’t like dogs. I suppose that may put me at odds with the nice Muslim lady working at a local Walmart. We exchange pleasantries very often and I truly like her. The same goes for the young Muslim girl who works at a local Border’s Books. We smile and say hello. We will all get along famously so long as I don’t have to live under the Sharia or make our wives and daughters wear chadors or hajibs. Or be cruel to dogs. Or be cruel to blind people needing seeing eye dogs who are kicked out of taxis driven by Islamic taxi drivers.

I hope the “Blessed” One has rejected the imperatives of Sharia Law. The word for “blessed” in Arabic is “barack.” Obama’ Muslim father gave him that name, with the concurrence, no doubt, of his mother. During Obama’s speech at the John Kerry nomination in 2004, Obama expressed concern for Arab-American civil rights. I have the same concern, excluding terrorists. I hope the Blessed One is equally concerned for my right to love dogs and other animals and the right of my country to act positively to defend its citizens.

“If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties," said Barack.
Expect Barack Obama to lean over backward to placate supporters like Reverend Wright, who took a trip with Louis Farrakhan to Libya. Farrakhan has often engaged in anti-Jewish diatribes and has no doubt influenced his Christian friend, Jeremiah Wright. It is Jeremiah Wright who shouted his unhappiness with U.S. support of the Israeli state. Wright deplored what he called “state supported terror”—meaning Israel must welcome airborne missiles and homicide bombers from Gaza and the West Bank.

I hope that Muslim Law will soon restore equality to all whom are called “infidel”, including women. Recent progress was made by the acquiescence of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) to the use of guide dogs for the blind. Muslim store owners and taxi drivers should not deny service to “infidels” who are blind and need guide dogs, said CAIR.

This is an improvement on the positions of some Islamist organization who supported anti-dog cab drivers. The Muslim Association of Canada pointed out that Muslims regard dog saliva as “unclean.” The “saliva of dogs invalidates the ritual purity needed for prayer,” said CAIR at one point. I wonder what CAIR thinks of the saliva of homicide bombers. I expect that is “holy spit.”

Now we can hope that people will speak out to extend the same courtesies to the women of the Islamic world that CAIR extends to seeing eye dogs.
Islam must not sanction the “right” of husbands to beat and kill their wives for any reason.

Islam must make the wearing of the burqa a personal religious choice, not a legal obligation. There should be no pressure on women young or old to “cover.”
Female genital mutilation and “honor killings” must be forbidden.

I wonder if our presidential candidates and congress members feel the same way I do. How far will they go to appease? To what degree will they compromise American freedoms? Do they recognize that respect and tolerance is a two way street and that there is a difference between respecting and submitting.

Well, at least we don’t have to worry about President John McCain wearing a burqa or being infatuated by the exotic customs or notions of "quaint" nations.

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