Yikes Of Yankees: Obama Presented Once
Again With Chance To Embrace His
Muslim Heritage
July 15, 2008
To many people including the Muslims, New Yorker magazine
coverage of Barack Obama well-dressed in Islamic attires with a
turban has been offensive and controversial.
In contrary, the
New Yorker cartoon depicting the Democratic presidential
candidate as a Muslim and his wife Michelle in camouflage
fatigues with a gun strapped to her shoulder, with a portrait of
Sheikh Osama bin Laden hanging over the mantel has helped
exposing Islamophobia in the Black Senator and depth of
ignorance in the country he has committed so much blasphemy and
apostasy to rule.
The New Yorker magazine has rather once again provided the
desperate African American politician with the help he so mush
needs to realize his constantly perceiving being a Muslim as a
crime in an Islamphobic America is a corner stone to his
downfall.
This week's New Yorker cover features an image of Michelle and
Barack Obama that combines every smeary right-wing stereotype
imaginable: An image of Obama in a turban and robes fist-bumping
his be-afro'd wife, dressed in the military fatigues of a
revolutionary and packing a machine gun and some serious ammo.
Oh yes, this quaint little scene takes place in the Oval Office,
under a picture of Osama bin Laden above a roaring fireplace, in
which burns an American flag. All that's missing is a token
sprig of arugula.
The magazine said the cartoon on its cover was satirical and
designed to mock the misconceptions US voters have about Obama.
But, as a matter of fact, the African-American presidential
candidate himself should correct misconceptions he has about his
own heritage of Islamic home.
Before any voter understands Obama, he needs to understand
himself and stop vociferously denying being a Muslim as if it
were a slur. The Senator needs to learn - and learn quickly that
he does not need to take approach of distancing hismelf from his
own heritage. This is a fundamental step for him if he was to
smash through barriers.
As observed in the best advice for Barack Obama to “fight the
smears” published in the July 3, 2008, issue of the Wall Street
Journal by Junaid M. Afeef under the title, “Obama Should
Embrace His Muslim Heritage,” Obama brought whites and blacks
together in the primary, no small feat in a nation that still
struggles with race issues.”
Noticing how “many American Muslims see a reflection of
themselves in Mr. Obama as a person who looks different, has a
funny name, a sense of the world beyond our borders, the
Preseidential hopeful, should respect the Muslims and their
emotions.
Perhps Afef was right when he pointed that “many Muslim voters
love Barack Obama; they love him even if he doesn’t love them
back.” Afeef credits “Muslims’ enthusiasm for Senator Obama to a
perceived promise of a ‘brand new, informed international
perspective’ ... [and to] a broad and empowering message of hope
and change in a tumultuous time of trouble and strife.”
As usual the Americans Muslims and non-Muslims, black and whites
have all given their own misconceptions to the need of Obama in
their condemnation of the New Yorker Satirization. Presumably
the New Yorker readership is sophisticated enough to get the
joke, but still: this is going to upset a lot of people,
probably for the same reason it's going to delight a lot of
other people, namely those on the right: Because it's got all
the scare tactics and misinformation that has so far been used
to derail Barack Obama's campaign — all in one handy
illustration. Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim,
anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret
revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their
patriotism— well, here's your image.
The illustration by Barry Blitt called "The Politics of Fear"
which according to the New Yorker press release, "satirizes the
use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential
election to derail Barack Obama's campaign." Uh-huh. What's that
they say about repeating a rumor?
"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits,
the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one
attack or another," it said on Monday.
"Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things
out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the
hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover."
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton called it "tasteless and
offensive" and, according to Jake Tapper at ABC, another
high-profile Obama supporter called it "as offensive a
caricature as any magazine could publish."
The companion article by Ryan Lizza, who has written extensively
about the campaign, traces Obama's early career and rise through
Chicago politics. It's very long (18 pages!) and probably won't
thrill a lot of Democratic party faithful, either, since it
advances the image of Obama as a skilled and calculating
politician who rose by becoming a master of the game:
"[P]erhaps the greatest misconception about Barack Obama is that
he is some sort of anti-establishment revolutionary. Rather,
every stage of his political career has been marked by an
eagerness to accommodate himself to existing institutions rather
than tear them down or replace them....he has always played
politics by the rules as they exist, not as he would like them
to exist. He runs as an outsider, but he has succeeded by
mastering the inside game."
It is as if the New Yorker's job to write uniformly flattering
profiles of Obama has not serve its pupose to address misplaced
controversial imagery that plays off the most dogged and
Islamophoci campaign smears. The New Yorker - like majority of
the Americans - is an ignorant in tis own doing and nature, of
course.
Yet, the way the presidential candidate have remained silent
over snd given no response when asked about the cartoon cannot
solve the problems of ignorance, racism and fearmongering in
America.
Instead of embracing the reality, Bill Burton, a campaign
spokesman, came out in hurry to condemn the cover, saying the
magazine might think of it as "a satirical lampoon of the
caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to
create, but most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive,
and we agree".
Even ostensibly, John McCain, the Republican presidential
candidate rival of Obama, said the cover was "totally
inappropriate".
No wonder Artist Barry Blitt himself did not waste much any time
to defend the cover, saying that "It seemed to me that depicting
the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness
that it is." See his full statement (and previous covers) here.
New Yorker editor David Remnick responds in our exclusive
interview, calling the cover "satire" targeting not Obama, but
the "absurdity" of the rumors flying about him.
The fact is that Barack Hussein Obama is a fake. It’s time Obama
stopped being a fake and embrace his Muslim heritage. Above all,
the Senator is as ignorant of the reality as much as he is of
Islam.
It seems, according to Afeef, every time Mr. Obama is
incorrectly labeled a Muslim, he is also handed a golden
opportunity to burnish his egalitarianism by challenging
Islamophobes and debunking their bigotry.
This would serve the purpose of correcting the record. It would
also serve to elevate Mr. Obama to a higher moral ground. This
is the same moral high ground from which he eloquently spoke out
against racism in a speech in Philadelphia last March.”
Muslims perhaps naturally are sensitive about attacks on
Muslims, but they would admire anyone who would urge them to do
precisely this because he understands that only Muslims can win
this war against the terrorists in their midst.
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