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Cipher Obama encourages confusion on religion
The Post-Gazette seems perturbed in its Aug. 22 editorial ("Holy Politics") that a sizable portion of Americans think President Barack Obama is a Muslim. Tellingly, the PG impugns the character of Americans rather than considers an alternative explanation: Americans really don't know who this guy is.
Famous for serially voting "present" as a legislator, Mr. Obama has presented himself as post-racial, then stumbled into racial controversies by denigrating white Cambridge police officers over an incident about which he knew little, and casting the Arizona immigration law as a vehicle for racial profiling. The post-partisan pragmatist he ran as has morphed into president "I won," yielding policies that are radical, polarizing and unpopular.
So, when this presidential "cipher," the son of a Muslim father, who had a Muslim step-father, spends his first year traveling to predominantly Muslim nations apologizing for America, then all but endorses the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in front of a predominantly Muslim audience celebrating a Muslim religious holiday, is it any wonder that 18 percent think Mr. Obama is a Muslim?
The PG dismisses these folks as "religionists." Perhaps they should be called "observant," a term with which the PG editorial page is sadly not familiar.
DOUGLAS POWELL
Coraopolis
Who we are
In a recent letter, Susanne Kline of Mt. Lebanon states that a less emotionally sensitive location should be found for the proposed Cordoba House project in New York City, and that the issue is not Islamaphobia, but "common sense and decorum." She asks "when do those different from us need to be tolerant and accepting of us, our values, our traditions" and she states that a proposed Roman Catholic church in Mecca would encounter greater vitriol.
Ms. Kline must have a very narrow definition of "us." My understanding of America includes the belief that Muslims, in fact, are us, just as non-believers, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Jehovah's Witnesses and a long list of others are "us."
And, yes, a Roman Catholic church in Mecca would encounter greater vitriol, but this only makes America shine by example. Saudi Arabia is no democracy and does not even pretend to be, so the comparison is totally invalid.
First Published August 29, 2010 12:00 am
