I, like many across the country, was deeply moved by Sen. Barack Obama's speech yesterday. However, despite all of the media hoopla, I am distressed that there has not been any public debate about problems with the speech.
While seeking to "unite" Americans, Obama went out of his way to exclude Muslims from the "American dream" he so eloquently painted for us.
When referencing the Middle East, he took the Zionist position of attacking "radical Islam" as the "perverse" cause of conflict while defending Israel.
And when discussing Americans' relationships with their religious advisers, he mentioned pastors, priests and rabbis while leaving out reference to imams/sheikhs.
In this manner, Obama paints the picture of an America who is exclusively Protestant, Roman Catholic or Jewish.
Unfortunately, such disregard is not surprising since Obama has tried to distance himself from being identified as Muslim (or even sympathetic to Islam) throughout his campaign, behaving like a celebrity who tries to act more feminine or masculine once they have been accused of being homosexual.
Not once have I heard anyone from the Obama camp say, "Barack is Christian, but if he were Muslim, what would be wrong with that?"
We may be ready to deal with the issue of racism in America, but it seems that the problem of Islamophobia is far from being resolved.
