What’s Wrong With Being A Muslim?

Frankly, I don’t care what anybody’s religious affiliation is.  Ultimately, in my opinion, every relationship with God is personal, unique and sacred, whether one subscribes to any organized religion or not.  However, I do care about a person’s convictions.  What are their values?  What do they care enough about to fight for?  What principles do they believe in?

In the case of Barack Obama, it’s hard to know.  His tendency to flip-flop on issues aside, he has shown a disturbing penchant for abandoning people and things one would believe should be dear.  When it became politically expedient to denounce his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, the man he proclaims brought him to his faith, he did so.  Not only did he renounce his pastor, but, one month later, his church.  The timing of his resignation from Trinity United Church of Christ is forever suspect, coming as it did on the day of the DNC’s Rules and By-laws Committee meeting where he was awarded votes not directly cast for him.  Was that his reward?  If so, what does that say about the man’s character?  The strength of his commitment?

Then, there are the persistent Muslim rumors.  Though Obama has repeatedly denied any allegiance to the Muslim faith, the rumors refuse to die.  On his website there are numeous denials, none of them in his own words, at least as far as I could see in the limited time I allowed myself to peruse it.

“Obama’s campaign aides have emphasized his strong Christian beliefs and downplayed any Islamic connection. The Illinois senator was raised ‘in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother,’ his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement in January after false reports began circulating that Obama had attended a radical madrasa, or Koranic school, as a child. ‘To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago,’ Gibbs’ Jan. 24 statement said.” [Los Angeles Times, 3/16/07]

Considering how long his relationship with Trinity lasted after that denial, along with the behavior of his surrogates regarding the seating of two Muslim women at one of his rallies, it’s no wonder that people remain skeptical.  To be fair, he apologized directly to the women, but the question remains, what was his staff so afraid of?  Why the seeming paranoia?  Either he’s a Muslim or he’s not, no big deal.  Or is it?

Many people seem to have taken it upon themselves to prove beyond a doubt that he is a Muslim.  A blogger by the name of Texas Darlin, claims to have confirmation that on Obama’s registration to an Indonesian school, under the name Barry Sotero, his religion was listed as Muslim.    A number of recent books make the same or similar allegations, but again, who cares?

Obama’s refusal to take a definitive stand on core character issues, like his own religion, is troubling.  This is 2008, if Obama cannot stand up for who he is, whoever he is, that says more about him as a man than it does about America as a nation.  Because more than forty years ago, another black man took on the world, and won.

In 1964, a 22 year old Olypmic gold medal winning boxer-turned-pro named Cassius Clay announced that he had adopted the Muslim faith.  Taking the name Muhammad Ali, he faced the wrath of white America, the media, and more than a few black Christians, who felt that the Black Muslims, as they were known at that time, was a radical group of dangerous heretics hellbent on destroying America.  In the face of tremendous pressure, young Ali refused to renounce his faith and even stood on it’s principles when he declined to be inducted into the Army 3 years later.  Though stripped of his title, deprived of his livelyhood, convicted of a felony and sentenced to five years, he would not give up or give in, and after appealing his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, ultimately prevailed.

Whether one agrees with Ali’s choices in his life, one cannot help but admire the strength of his convictions.  That inner strength undoubtedly helped him achieve success in his boxing career, but it was his steel core that endeared him to people who didn’t care about boxing at all, and earned him begrudging respect from even some of the most hard-core racists of his time.  He stood up, proud and alone, willing to take on all challengers, both in his life and in the ring.

“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

The world not only got used to him, they grew to love him.  He was the “Peoples’ Champ” when he wasn’t allowed to be a champion in the ring.  When he proclaimed himself to be “the Greatest,” the world agreed.  Not because he was a great boxer,  there have been other great boxers.  Not because, or in spite of, his religion.  Because he was Muhammad Ali.  And he wasn’t afraid to be.

Can the same be said of Barack Obama?

The Greatest Love of All, written for the biographical film of Muhammad Ali’s life, The Greatest, by Michael Masser and Linda Creed, and performed live by George Benson.

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