Gone for Goode?

Nafees A. Syed

At a recent National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama mentioned that we should not use faith as “an excuse for prejudice and intolerance.” This is a statement that should have been heeded at many points in history, but it is particularly significant now after an election year that was marked by the rise, and the failure, of religious bigotry.

Although Obama is not Muslim, Islamophobia heavily tainted the campaign against his election. According to recent PEW polls studies, Obama was the center of over half of religion-focused campaign storylines, compared to McCain, who was the subject of only 9%. Almost one-third of the religion-campaign stories were about the rumors that Obama was Muslim.[1]

His opponents capitalized on these rumors, and during the campaign we witnessed tactics to negatively associate Obama with Muslims, such as emphasis on his middle name “Hussein.” Election pundits increasingly discussed the religion effect in addition to the “Bradley Effect.”

This year’s presidential campaign also saw the introduction of new, wide-scale tactics to affect the election using fear of Islam. The most notable examples is the free distribution of approximately 28 million DVDs of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West,” a film by the Israeli producer Raphael Shore, across America by Republican groups.[2] The DVDs were distributed especially to key battleground states prior to the presidential election. The expensive project was calculated to sway the election in favor of the Republican candidate by arousing fear of Muslims at a time when some people were connecting Senator Obama with Islam.

Despite the negative, Islamophobic campaigns against Obama, he won the election with 52.9% of votes from a diverse group of Americans. Judging by the outcome of the election, it seems as if the DVDs and other Islamophobic campaigns failed.

Even if we look outside of this presidential election, this past year has seen the failure of individuals and groups to bring out the worst in us.

Republican Congressman Bill Sali was the first Idaho congressman to fail to win a second term in 56 years. Earlier in his campaign for the 2008 Congressional election, Sali complained, “we have a Muslim member of the House of Representatives now, Keith Ellison from Minnesota… not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers.” His opponent, Democratic Larry Grant, apologized to Ellison on behalf of Idaho writing, “It’s my hope that Sali will someday realize how destructive and divisive his remarks were.” His hope may have been realized; Sali lost his Republican district to a Democratic challenger.

In 2008, we also saw the loss of Rep. Virgil Goode Jr, which Politico called one of the Top 10 Political Upsets of 2008.[3] In a letter to his constituents, Goode deplored the election of the first Muslim Congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison: “I fear that in the next century we will have…more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”[4] Not only was his rhetoric factually inaccurate—Rep. Ellison is an African-American, not an immigrant—it also represented an intolerant mindset that was denounced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other concerned Americans. His highly controversial anti-Muslim statements are believed to have been a major factor in his defeat.[5]

Goode and Sali’s loss represents a dying breed of ignorant political views.

Their losses, as well as the failure of anti-Muslim campaigns against Obama, indicate that Republican voters as well as Democrats and Independents have voted for candidates who have promoted unity over those who have sought to scare people into voting for them.

Perhaps this is America’s way of saying “we have had enough.” Too often since September 11th have politicians tried to exploit our insecurity for their own political ends, whether it is for a smaller agenda, such as retaining a House seat, or a larger agenda, such as directing a country into a war. The failure of many anti-Muslim campaigns may signal a new American sentiment that bids goodbye to the fear-mongering politics that have unfortunately characterized almost a decade of American politics. Hopefully, this year will host a more tolerant political atmosphere and a more United States of America.

Nafees A. Syed, a junior at Harvard University majoring in government, is an editorial editor at The Harvard Crimson as well as a senior editor and columnist for the Harvard-MIT journal on Islam and society, Ascent. She is chairwoman of the Harvard Institute of Politics Policy Group on Racial Profiling.

[1] http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=372

[2] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/873843.html

[3] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16879.html

[4] http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoints … n_virg.php

[5] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16879.html