Colin Powell did a lot more than simply and intelligently explain why he was endorsing Barack Obama on Sunday morning. In his remarks he also exposed just how profoundly un-American the right-wing obsession with the "Obama is a Muslim" smear really is, by invoking the memory of Cpl. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry, United States Army."And it is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?
I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life."
And the picture General Powell described? It's from The New Yorker Magazine's pictorial "Service" by Platon:
I don't know about you, but I look at this picture and think... fuck you, you wingnut assholes. Just... fuck you right in the ear.
UPDATE: More on Cpl. Khan. He was an all-American kid who loved video games, Disney World and the Dallas Cowboys. It's a story to break your heart.
1 comments:
This is one of the things I hate the most about Republican rhetoric these days. Racism, pure and simple. The idea that a Muslim can't be a "real" American, the idea that brown people are scary, the idea that only fanatic fundamentalist Christians should have actual rights and that their religion should rule the rest of us with a literal reading of the parts of the Bible they like best enacted into law.
I guess they forgot that God hates shrimp and that nice cotton-poly blend, eh?
Post a Comment