No Questions About God
Monday, June 4, 2007

0 for 5 in the Democratic Debate tonight. But hope! CNN plugged an hour about Faith and Politics on Monday night at 7 pm based on Jim Wallis' big event coming up in WDC this week.

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Posted by B Feiler at 7:18 AM 0 comments

Five Questions About Religion for Every Presidential Candidate
Thursday, May 24, 2007

God is in the air these days, and He's threatening to take over the presidential campaign. Mitt Romney was asked on "60 Minutes" whether he obeyed Mormon dictates against premarital sex. Rudy Giuliani was asked whether his stance on abortion makes him a bad Catholic. The entire Republican field was asked whether they were against evolution. Expect the death of Jerry Falwell to provoke more questions about the role of the Religious Right in the GOP.

While Republicans notably are on the defensive about religion, Democrats are on the offensive: Barack Obama is claiming to be part of the "Joshua Generation" leading blacks into the Promised Land. Hillary Clinton is singing spirituals. John Edwards boasts how often he prays.

But while this God primary may be a welcome break for a media bored by benchmarks and 10-point plans, candidates' personal theologies are not the point ("Madame Candidate, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"). The real issue is how would-be Presidents understand the religious challenges facing the world today and how those beliefs might influence their decisions in office.

With that standard in mind, here are five questions about religion that all candidates should be asked.

1. Do you believe Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same God? George W. Bush answered this question affirmatively in 2004 and was heaped with brimstone by the Religious Right. Today, given events in Iraq and Iran, and fears of terrorism, anti-Muslim sentiment in America seems even higher - yet any attempt to address these issues depends on our ability to work cooperatively with the Muslim world.

2. With religious issues dominant in the world today, wouldn't our children be more prepared for the 21st century if our schools taught them about religion? The 1963 Supreme Court decision that outlawed using the Bible for religious purposes in schools explicitly stated that teaching religion in a nondenominational way was allowed. Teaching children to live and work with those who disagree is a defining challenge of the new century.

3. Do you believe that Israeli settlers have a God-given right to the West Bank? American politics has seen a curious alliance between Israel-loving Jews and evangelical Christians - like Falwell - who believe Jewish residence in Israel is a precondition for the return of Jesus. Yet peace in the region depends on dismantling some settlements. Which voters are more important: Those who believe God should help determine the fate of Israel, or those who fault Washington's reluctance to push for a two-state solution?

4. Given the Bible's role over the years in defending slavery, repressing women and justifying violence, can you pledge that you will keep it out of policy decisions? American history shows that advocates on all sides of major debates cite the Bible to support their position, rendering it almost meaningless. Maybe the time has come to purge the Bible from policy debates entirely.

5. Do you believe liberty is God's gift to mankind, and that it's America's obligation to spread this blessing to the rest of the world? President Bush evoked the spread of God's freedom when going into Iraq but balked at doing the same in Darfur. President Bill Clinton intervened in Kosovo but failed to see a greater plight in Rwanda. Perhaps the most important question about God in politics today is whether Americans wish to see our struggles with religion played out on an international stage.

The Constitution says that "no religious test" shall be required as a qualification for office. But given the platitudes served up by politicians, perhaps it's time for a real exam.


This article originally appeared in the New York Daily News.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:30 AM 0 comments

No Question About Faith in Republican Debate
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Wonder why. Is it presumed they all agree? Did moderators think the topic overexposed? Could they think of no questions that would elicit unexpected answers? Hmmmm. A missed opportunity. For more on this topic, I'll link soon to an Oped I've written that appears in Wednesday's New York Daily News.

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Posted by B Feiler at 10:29 PM 0 comments

"You Can't Just Be President of the Christians"

Rereading American history for the last year for my new book, I've been struck how central religion has been to American life and how important preachers have been to momentous occasions in American history. The upshot: I'm much more comfortable standing up to the liberal orthodoxy these days that preachers stay out of politics. Of course this is a reaction to the outsized influence of the Religious Right, but I don't think it's the proper one.

Thus, how surprising to read that T.D. Jakes is saying that preachers should stay out of politics:

"I think really religion in general is struggling with politics, not just African Americans. Many, many times we've allowed ourselves to be taken up under the control of this party or that party, and I think that's dangerous when you do that," he tells Michele Norris.

"I don't think that God should be assigned to a party. When the party goes bad, then the clergy are embarrassed, and I think that faith should transcend politics," he says.

Jakes says he encourages his parishioners to vote and to be aware of the issues. But to assume that African Americans are "ignorant and need the pastor to tell them how to vote is an insult to our intelligence," Jakes says. "That day is gone."

Although it is important to Jakes that a presidential candidate has some consciousness of faith, spirituality and morality, he says he is not "myopic."

"I know many people who really love the Lord, but they might not be a good president," Jakes says.

He says that to be an effective leader, "you can't just be the president of the Christians."

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The New New South
Friday, May 4, 2007

Patty Cohen hit two stories out of the park this week in the NYT. First, her profile of Michael Chabon in the Sunday paper.

Then this wonderful piece about a new wave of Southern historians showing that the South is not what you think. If you read one article on this blog today, read this one.

A new generation of historians is exploring some of the untold stories of the civil rights movement and its legacies: the experiences not of heroes or murderous villains, but of ordinary Southern whites. And their research is challenging some long-held beliefs about the nation’s political realignment and the origins of modern conservatism.

“You want to pry below these great narratives of good and evil and black and white,” said Jason Sokol, 29, who wrote “There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975” (Alfred A. Knopf). “For those of us who didn’t live through it, there’s more of an effort to not simply celebrate the civil rights movement and how extraordinary it was, but to place it within the broader arc of the 20th century.”

This new wave of historians, many of them young, believe that one cannot understand today’s housing, schooling, economic development or political patterns without understanding the mostly apolitical white Southerners of that era. None of these scholars play down the inbred racism of the region, but they argue that the focus on race can obscure broader economic and demographic changes, like the dizzying corporate growth, the migration of white Northerners to the South and the shifting emphasis on class interests after legal segregation ended.

The conventional wisdom, said Jacquelyn Hall, director of the Southern Oral History Project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is that the general backlash to the civil rights movement “was exported out of the South to the rest of the country,” and that the Republican Party benefited from the shift. But she said a raft of new scholarship is showing “the strength of the Republican Party in the South is linked to the economic boom in the South.” Corporations moved down to the once-solidly Democratic South and brought with them traditional suburban Republican voters. Their interests matched up with a growing neo-conservatism in the North. “What’s going on is much more a regional convergence story as opposed to the South influencing the rest of the country,” she said.

Conservative appeals to limit the government’s reach and emphasize individual freedoms resonated not only in the South, but in the North as well, said Joseph Crespino, 35, whose book, “In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution” (Princeton University Press), was just published.

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Samantha Power and Barack Obama
Monday, April 30, 2007

A commenter linked me to this Michael Hirsch piece about one of Obama's chief foreign policy advisers, Samantha Powers, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her 600-page book on genocide. Here's how Hirsch leads his piece: "Samantha Power is a tall, rangy redhead with the purposeful gait of the athlete she once wanted to be. She has a husky voice and often speaks in excited rushes of ideas, the words tumbling over each other. What animates Power more than anything else is her Cause, her “dream of American power being harnessed for good.”

And here's the key anecdote:

Their first meeting, several months later at a D.C. steakhouse, did not begin auspiciously. “His body language was not good,” says Power. “He had no desire to be there at all. It was, ‘Who the fuck is this person, this lily-livered Harvard softy, and tell me why I am meeting with her again?’” Still, Obama warmed up—it was supposed to be a forty-five-minute chat, but they ended up talking for three hours. “We sat down, and we started dinner. I was on my best behavior: I didn’t, like, order my trademark Jack Daniels. And then we just started talking. It was vintage Obama: question after question after question, starting with, ‘Who are you? I don’t get it. Bosnia? Whaaa? That’s weird.’ It ended up being a very personal discussion, oddly enough, but everything led to policy. That’s the way he comes to policy: What’s your story, and why do you tick the way you do? ... He’s what everybody says he is.” Before long, Power says, she had “drunk the Kool-Aid” on Obama. “At the end of the dinner, we’re walking out, and I said, ‘I’d love to help you in any way I can.’ He said, ‘That’d be great, maybe we could do some big think on a smart, tough, and humane foreign policy.’ I heard myself saying, ‘Why don’t I take a year off?’”

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Obama Avoids Hot Falafels
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

If a heated conversation I had over the weekend in Central Park is any indication, Barack Obama's chief problem is still his lack of experience, and his lack of specific ideas beyond his message of hope. Well, message to certain friends: He's beginning a set of three policy speeches to begin filling in the details. First up, foreign policy. How'd he do? Safe, I'd say, but at least no whoppers. I think he did a good job of weaving a few details into his larger theme of taking back leadership in the world with a message of hope to overlooked corners. But hard to see how he can bring that much hope. Are Americans in that generous a mood after Iraq. I doubt it.

For what it's worth, he didn't follow Bob Wright's advice and say that living in Indonesia, a Muslim country, makes him better prepared. As I predicted, he's staying away from that hot falafel. Here's what he said about the Middle East beyond Iraq:

Moreover, until we change our approach in Iraq, it will be increasingly difficult to refocus our efforts on the challenges in the wider region – on the conflict in the Middle East, where Hamas and Hezbollah feel emboldened and Israel’s prospects for a secure peace seem uncertain; on Iran, which has been strengthened by the war in Iraq; and on Afghanistan, where more American forces are needed to battle al Qaeda, track down Osama bin Laden, and stop that country from backsliding toward instability.

Burdened by Iraq, our lackluster diplomatic efforts leave a huge void. Our interests are best served when people and governments from Jerusalem and Amman to Damascus and Tehran understand that America will stand with our friends, work hard to build a peaceful Middle East, and refuse to cede the future of the region to those who seek perpetual conflict and instability. Such effective diplomacy cannot be done on the cheap, nor can it be warped by an ongoing occupation of Iraq. Instead, it will require patient, sustained effort, and the personal commitment of the President of the United States. That is a commitment I intend to make.
Read the full speech here.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:05 AM 1 comments

Thompson's Hometown Newspaper Asks Him to Resign
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial: "If Tommy Thompson's presidential run isn't over, it should be. And this has nothing to do with his relatively light campaign chest. His remarks about Jewish people and tradition Monday revealed him simply to be ill-suited to the presidency."

Meanwhile, Thompson told The Politico "that fatigue and a persistent cold were to blame" for his comments.

Via Politicalwire.

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Posted by B Feiler at 1:28 PM 0 comments

Tommy Thompson: Jew By Choice
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The fascinating trainwreck of God and the '08 Presidential Election added another car today when Tommy Thompson, who is Catholic, announced that he was enjoying being in the private sector and making money because it's "part of the Jewish tradition."

Tommy Thompson (R) told a group of Jewish activists that making money is "part of the Jewish tradition," and something that he applauded, Haaretz reports.

Said Thompson: "I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."

After causing "a stir in the audience," Thompson only made matters worse by trying to apologize.

"I just want to clarify something because I didn't [by] any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things. What I was referring to, ladies and gentlemen, is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You've been outstanding business people and I compliment you for that."
Via PoliticalWire.

Update: Commenters over at TPM Cafe wondered who he would nominate as VP: Don Imus or Mel Gibson?

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:01 AM 0 comments

The Presidential Reading List
Monday, April 2, 2007

My old friend and onetime neighbor Jacob Weisberg write a powerful and persuasive takedown of the latest book on Bush's bedside table, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 by conservative British writer Andrew Roberts. Here's Jacob's summary before he really drops the hatchet:

At the core of the book is Roberts' notion of what might be called the Super-Special Relationship. When Britain could no longer rule its empire in 1946, he argues, it handed responsibility for the rest of the world over to its successor, the United States. "Just as in science-fiction people are able to live on through cryogenic freezing after their bodies die, so British post-imperial greatness has been preserved and fostered through its incorporation into the American world-historical project," Roberts writes. He views British colonialism and American hegemony as alike in their selfless benevolence and effectiveness. Like Bush, he is peeved that the recipients of our generosity are not more grateful. The answer, Roberts says, "is the first law of modern imperialism: that no good deed goes unpunished."

As a historian, Roberts is present-minded in the extreme, returning at every stage of his narrative to justifications for Bush's actions in Iraq. The neoconservatives who want to spread democracy in the Middle East are the heirs to compassionate Victorians who sought to civilize India, China, and Africa. While the reader is still choking on the casting of Richard Perle as Lord Macaulay, Roberts is hard at work grafting Bush's head onto Winston Churchill's body. The president's prosecution of the war on terror is "vigorous" and "absolutely unwavering." His and Tony Blair's Iraq war has provided "excellent value for money" to the taxpayer. That Bush has brought "full democracy" to Iraq is stated as unequivocal fact.

The this:
Roberts is as sloppy as he is snobbish. I am seldom bothered by minor errors from a good writer, but Roberts' mistakes are so extensive, foolish, and revealing of his basic ignorance about the United States in particular, that it may be worth noting a few of those I caught in a fast read. The San Francisco earthquake did considerably more than $400,000 in damage. Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in 1941, did not write for Encounter, which began publication in 1953. The Proposition 13 Tax Revolt took place in the 1970s, not the 1980s—an important distinction because it presaged Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. Michael Milken was not a "takeover arbitrageur," whatever that is. Roberts cannot know that there were 500 registered lobbyists in Washington during World War II because lobbyists weren't forced to register until 1946. Gregg Easterbrook is not the editor of the New Republic. "No man gets left behind" is a line from the film Black Hawk Down, not the motto of the U.S. Army Rangers; their actual motto is "Rangers Lead the Way." In a breathtaking peroration, Roberts point out that "as a proportion of the total number of Americans, only 0.008 percent died bringing democracy to important parts of the Middle East in 2003-5." Leaving aside the question of whether those deaths have brought anything like democracy to Iraq, 0.008 percent of 300 million people is 24,000—off by a factor of 10, which is typical of his arithmetic. If you looked closely enough, I expect you could find an error of one kind or another on every page of the book.
So he has me up to there, but Jacob then ends with this:

With this book, Andrew Roberts takes his place as the fawning court historian of the Bush administration. He claims this role not just by singing the Bush administration's achievements but by producing a version of the past that conforms to and confirms its prefabricated view of the world. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples feeds Bush's growing preference for the unknowable future to a problematic present, by assuring him that history will vindicate him, as it did Churchill and Truman, if only he continues to hold firm.

Other recent favorites Bush has cited fall into this same, self-justifying category, including Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy and Mark Steyn's America Alone. Are we sure we want a president who spends so much time reading? The leader who loves books that tell him he is great and right may be worse than the leader who does not love books at all.

Here, I'm afraid to say, my direct experience punctures this theory fairly soundly. As readers of Feiler Faster know, President Bush last month announced on C-SPAN that he had just finished ABRAHAM, my book about the shared ancestor of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. That book expressly contradicts much that is contained in the neo-Conservative worldview by positing a foundation of inter-religious dialogue as an antidote to war and is hardly fits into the "self-justifying category" of Sharansky and Steyn. Roberts' book may be biased, but it's not the only thing Bush is reading.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:00 AM 0 comments

"Some People"
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Perhaps the most notable part of Katie Couric's now oft-denounced grilling of John and Elizabeth Edwards the other night on 60 Minutes was her repeated use of "some people," as in "Some people are saying you are in denial." I was complaining about this to a friend when, a few minutes later, I discovered that Nora Ephron, naturally, had said it much better than I could:

"Some people" are saying that Katie Couric went too far on 60 Minutes. I don't actually know who those people are, because I haven't done any reporting on it. Why bother? "Some people" must be saying it. "Some people" will say anything. And there's no real need to mention their names, because I can just say that "some people" are saying it and get away with it.

Last night on 60 Minutes, Katie Couric kept referring to "Some people." She said that "some" were saying the Edwardses were courageous, and "others" were saying they were callous and ambitious. She said that some people were wondering how someone could be president if he was "distracted" by his wife's health. (This question, in a year when there are two presidential candidates who are themselves cancer survivors, seemed particularly disingenuous.) (And never mind that it was being asked by someone who managed to keep working while dealing with her own husband's terminal illness.)

I kept waiting for John or Elizabeth Edwards to ask her who "some people" were exactly, but they didn't. They cheerfully answered her questions. Elizabeth Edwards said, "We're all going to die."

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:00 AM 0 comments

Obama: God for the Jews?
Friday, March 23, 2007

As I have written here (and here) in the last few weeks, I think the blogosphere can be great for a number of things, as we just saw when the Net quickly cobbled together all the critiques of the new Jesus documentary into a unified whole. But the blogosphere can also create faux controversies where there is no underlying reason. That's the case, I believe, with the mini-hullabaloo over Obama and the Jews. As best I can tell (and please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong), the flap started when Ben Smith of Politico (who recently apologized for getting the Edwards story completely wrong) published a piece suggesting that Jews at the recent AIPAC meeting, meaning highly politicized, Israel-right-or-wrongers, feel a "real, if kind of inchoate, skepticism" about the Illinois senator.

From that, bloggers across the spectrum sprung into action to explain this purported problem, offering everything from his perceived Islamic sensitivity, his appeasement of the Palestinians, to the fact that he's black. Here's how Andrew Sullivan summarized the situation.

I don't get the hostility from some American Jews (although the "cynicism" line in his AIPAC speech was lame). Neither does Matt Yglesias. MetaDC has an explanation (hint: JesseJackson). Beth Gottfried thinks the criticism reflects Obama's increasing appeal to Jewish Americans.
The reason Andrew does not get the hostility is it may not be there. The only sources Smith uses to build his case are E.J. Kessler, a NY Post editor, and Morton Klein, the president of the hyper pro-Israel Zionist Organization of America. Memo to Mr. Smith: The New York Post and ZOA hardly speak for the majority of Jews in America, most of whom are Reform, liberal, pro-Israel, for sure, but also queasy about the failure of Israel to tackle the settlement issue in a substantive way, and frustrated the Olmert launched a hasty war in Lebanon last summer that he could not finish successfully.

As for Obama, he comes out of a church and a political culture in Chicago that have been supportive to Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. He has spoken favorably about Palestinian rights in the past and had his picture taken with Edward Said. But on his policy statements in recent years, he has shown a willingness to criticize the Palestinians and Israelis (as well as speak to the Iranians), a position that may not please the Israel right-or-wrong crowd but that is objectively smart about the region. Based on my contacts and conversations in the Jewish community in recent months, I would not say any hesitation about Obama stems from his positions on the Middle East, but on the larger issue of his lack of experience. In this regard, Obama's problem is not with the Jews; it's with the country.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:15 AM 0 comments

Obama: The Joshua of His Generation?
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Joshua is one of the great under-heralded leaders of the Bible, squeezed between Moses and David, the two monoliths. Maybe my favorite story from his life comes before he inherits the leadership mantle from Moses when he's one of the spies sent to check out the Promised Land and, along with Caleb, reports back that it can be taken. The others, of course, say the place is filled with giants who are too powerful. For that Joshua finds himself winning the Hebrew Idol competition. The prize: Leadership of the troops and his profile on the logo of the Israel Tourism Authority.

I grew to love Joshua even more when I was in a helicopter over Jerusalem at the start of WHERE GOD WAS BORN. [To read an exclusive excerpt of this chapter of my book, click here.) My favorite moment in the story of the Conquest occurs at the end, when Joshua gathers the Israelites together to read them the Law of Moses -- men, women, and children. As Yaya, the general I recruited to help me analyze Joshua's military tactics, explained, "Women only got the right to vote 100 years ago, and then only in certain places. This was 3,000 years ago. That's why the Bible survives. Its values are universal."

How interesting, in this context, to see Barack Obama compare himself not to Moses, but to Joshua this week in Selma:

You know, several weeks ago, after I had announced that I was running for the Presidency of the United States, I stood in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois; where Abraham Lincoln delivered his speech declaring, drawing in scripture, that a house divided against itself could not stand.

And I stood and I announced that I was running for the presidency. And there were a lot of commentators, as they are prone to do, who questioned the audacity of a young man like myself, haven't been in Washington too long.

And I acknowledge that there is a certain presumptuousness about this.

But I got a letter from a friend of some of yours named Reverend Otis Moss Jr. in Cleveland, and his son, Otis Moss III is the Pastor at my church and I must send greetings from Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. but I got a letter giving me encouragement and saying how proud he was that I had announced and encouraging me to stay true to my ideals and my values and not to be fearful.

And he said, if there's some folks out there who are questioning whether or not you should run, just tell them to look at the story of Joshua because you're part of the Joshua generation.

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Posted by B Feiler at 7:05 AM 0 comments

The New Zapruder
Monday, February 19, 2007

My father has been friends for many years with the son of Abraham Zapruder, who shot the famous film of the Kennedy assassination. (Wikipedia's entry includes a special note that some believe it's a fake!) I had lunch with the son some years ago in Washington and the family has no connection to the film anymore, but I've always felt a personal connection to the story.

Today comes word that a new film has emerged, one that shows the motorcade 90 seconds before the killing.

The silent, 8 mm color film is ''the clearest, best film of Jackie in the motorcade,'' said Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum, which focuses on Kennedy's life and assassination.

The film shows a brief but clear glimpse of President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, a few blocks from Dealey Plaza and roughly 90 seconds before the killing. Also visible is Secret Service agent Clint Hill riding on the back of the car. After the shots were fired, Hill jumped onto the car as it drove to the hospital.

The film ends with some footage the next day outside the Texas School Book Depository, the building from which assassin Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots.

''Because the speed of the motorcade was known to be between 12 and 15 miles per hour, I was able to figure out how far back in time it was from the assassination,'' Mack said.

To see the image of Jackie O, and watch the film, click here.

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Posted by B Feiler at 1:14 PM 0 comments

Mohammad (Hating) Ali
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I was surprised the other day to see a book about Islam that I'd never heard of pop up in the Amazon Top 100. The book, Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is "the autobiography of the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with Theo van Gogh, who was later assassinated." Then I stumbled into this AP article that reports that the Religious Right in this country has embraced her because she fans the flames of their anti-Muslim bias.

As a child, Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled violence in Somalia with her family. As an adult she fled Kenya to escape an arranged marriage. She left her adopted Holland after she was caught up in political turmoil and had her life threatened.

Now Hirsi Ali - a brave critic of Islam to her supporters, a bigot to her critics - has found refuge in the intellectual bastion of leading U.S. conservatives.

Hirsi Ali joined the American Enterprise Institute last September, after a sometimes stormy 14 years in the Netherlands, where she was a member of parliament and became a central figure in two events that jolted the nation.

First, after she wrote a script for a film that depicted naked women with Quranic verses scrawled on their bodies, a Dutch-born Muslim gunned down the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. A letter threatening Hirsi Ali was left on a knife plunged into van Gogh's chest.

Next, a fight within Hirsi Ali's political party over her Dutch citizenship brought down the government.
Do early to tell, but is she being used to again?

Update: The book is reviewed in Wednesday's NYT.

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Posted by B Feiler at 7:05 AM 0 comments

Obama Mentions His Middle Name
Monday, February 12, 2007

Breaking News: Obama knows his middle name may freak out many Americans. The AP:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday he does not think voters have a litmus test on religion, whether evangelical Christianity or his childhood years in a largely Muslim country.

"If your name is Barack Hussein Obama, you can expect it, some of that. I think the majority of voters know that I'm a member of the United Church of Christ, and that I take my faith seriously," Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Ultimately what I think voters will be looking for is not so much a litmus test on faith as an assurance that a candidate has a value system and that is appreciative of the role that religious faith can play in helping shape people's lives," he said.

For more the background of Obama's name at Feiler Faster, click any of the links below:

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA:
Bibles of Blogging -- Fox v CNN v Chicago Tribune
Madrassah-gate -- Was Obama schooled as a terrorist?
Muslim Blood in the White House? -- Was Obama's father a terrorist?
Can a Muslim-Atheist-Christian Be Elected President? -- Bloggers react to Feiler Faster.
It Worked So Well For Mike Tyson -- Now Michael Jackson wants to be Muslim

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A Moderate Muslim Mayor in Macon
Monday, February 5, 2007

Alliteration comes to Georgia! The White House may not be ready for a Muslim mayor, but Macon, GA, better be. Here's the unlikeliest story of the week, from my old backyard:

Mayor Jack Ellis has converted to Islam and is working to change his legal name to Hakim Mansour Ellis.

Ellis, 61, a Macon native who was raised Christian, said he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal.

Ellis said he has studied the Quran for years and that his new religion was practiced by his ancestors before they were brought to North America as slaves.

``Why does one become a Christian?'' Ellis said Thursday. ``You do it because it feels right. ... To me it's no big deal. But people like to know what you believe in.''

Wonder if he'll be sworn in on the Koran!

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Posted by B Feiler at 11:45 AM 0 comments

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country
Sunday, February 4, 2007

The viral phenomenon comes to Feiler Faster. First, its lyrics were printed in the NYT (minus the screed about the Supreme Court), this week Randy Newman is profiled in Newsweek (headline: the writer of "Short People" is 6 foot 3). Now see for yourself, and try to imagine when the last time we heard a hit song that referenced King Leopold?!

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Posted by B Feiler at 12:42 PM 0 comments

Can a Muslim-Atheist-Christian Be Elected President?
Friday, February 2, 2007

My friend Martin Varsavsky, a brilliant entrepreneur, world traveler, new father, and blogger (in English and Spanish), responds to my post about Obama's religious background.

Being an agnostic Jew myself (would not call myself an atheist Jew cause atheist has that militant anti god component that I don´t endorse) and knowing how strongly most Americans feel about religion I cannot think of a least popular combination for a Presidential candidate than having a Muslim/Atheist background. I think this issue is likely to be raised again and again in the election, especially by whoever his Republican opponent is should Obama make it to the Presidential race. Unfortunately most American´s are quite xenophobic, if Kerry got hit for liking the French, what will happen to Obama Hussein Barack? Frankly I think this is sad because I think that Obama´s unique cultural heritage will make him more sensitive to racial and human relations.
The possibilities are endless now. Which is worse for most voters: a black, a woman, a Muslim-Atheist-Christian, a Mormon, a multiple divorcee, a nanogenarian?

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Posted by B Feiler at 1:26 PM 0 comments

Muslim Blood in the White House?
Monday, January 29, 2007

Some more facts and innuendo in the case of Obama's family background. Bill Sammon, who wrote an attack book on Al Gore after the 2000 election, suggests that merely the fact that Obama's father was once a Muslim and his grandfather and uncle were Muslims is a problem for Obama. Aren't commentators saying all the time, "Where are the moderate Muslims?" Makes one wonder if they really want to find one, or is it easier to assume that none exist.

“The Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa,” said a statement put out by the senator’s staff. But the school did teach the Quran, Islam’s holy book, along with subjects such as math and science, according to Obama, who attended when he was 9 and 10.

“In Indonesia, I had spent two years at a Muslim school,” he wrote in his first memoir, “Dreams from my Father.” “The teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies.”

Obama — whose father, stepfather, brother and grandfather were Muslims — explained his own first name, Barack, in “Dreams”: “It means ‘Blessed.’ In Arabic. My grandfather was a Muslim.”
In his second memoir, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama added: “Although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist.”

Still, when his father, a black Kenyan named Barack Obama Sr., died in 1982, “the family wanted a Muslim burial,” Obama quoted his brother, Roy, as saying in “Dreams.”

The statement put out by Obama’s office last week referred to his father simply as “an atheist,” without mentioning his Muslim upbringing.

But with pundits already making faith a major issue in this presidential campaign — as evidenced by questions about Republican Mitt Romney’s Mormonism — Obama’s religious background is likely to come under further scrutiny.

“He comes from a father who was a Muslim,” said civil rights author Juan Williams of National Public Radio. “I mean, I think that given we’re at war with Muslim extremists, that presents a problem.”

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Posted by B Feiler at 12:24 PM 0 comments

Supreme Court Suck-Up Watch
Sunday, January 28, 2007

"I can't pretend that I had any idea then that he would be a serious presidential candidate -- that would have been a crazy thing for anyone to project at that stage of a career -- but he was certainly the most all-around impressive student I had seen in decades."-- Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, quoted by the AP, about his former research assistant, Barack Obama.

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Posted by B Feiler at 2:03 PM 0 comments

Barack Hussein Obama: Bibles of Blogging

Lots of comment this weekend on the "Obama went to a radical Islamic madrassah" story. The Chicago Tribunes offers a recap:

The Washington Times Insight Magazine online edition reports the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate attended a madrassa, a conservative Islamic school, when he was a kid and his family lived in Jakarta for a time.The source of this revelation, the Web site said, was "researchers connected to" the Clinton camp. Fox News discussed the Insight article on two of its programs. The story spread far and wide through Web sites and e-mail chains.

The juicy tidbit at the heart of the story, the hint that Obama's primary-school education set him up to embrace radical Islam should he become president, was wrong. He's a Christian. He didn't attend a madrassa in Jakarta.The Clinton folks say the story is "scurrilous" and the product of a "right-wing rag" and that they had nothing to do with it.

Then closes:

It took a few hundred years for journalism to reach the stage at which the best truth one could find was the force behind what was published, broadcast, put before the public. Critics find it hard to believe, but much of what is called "mainstream media" agonizes every day over what is true and what is not, because it is wrong to print what is not provably true.

In that context, what Insight did on its Web site, and what Fox News did in repeating the report, was not ideological at all. It was unethical, unprofessional and shabby, a trifecta, if you will, in the world of journalism.

It also is a sign of the growing indifference Internet "journalism" presents on the question of truth. Rumor is good enough. Bibles of blogging are created based on nothing more than rumor.

I agree with their point of view, though it's hard to see why they would criticize bloggers for pointing out on Tuesday (oops, Monday) what they get around to pointing out on Sunday.

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Posted by B Feiler at 11:23 AM 0 comments

Are 1,000 Rabbis Economic Terrorism?
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

A reader writes in response to my post, Does 1,000 Rabbis Equal a Wal-Mart?

I live in Pomona, our town has 1,900 registered voters. In my opinion, the development is questionable as to its religious basis, if you look at the site plan it has one small "school" and housing for as many as 1,000 "students" and their families (estimated population of 4,500). Residence will be for 15 years while they "study". Our infrastructure can't support this, nor should our tax dollars go to support a development of this size. If it passes, our village board will be ousted, zoning will go away, and more properties will fall prey to this developer. This is economic terrorism as a way to conduct a hostile takeover of a beautiful rural village. RLUIPA is misguided and stupid legislation.

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Posted by B Feiler at 1:24 PM 0 comments

Madrassah-gate
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Lots of fallout today from the untrue report that Barack Hussein Obama went to a madrassah in Indonesia. Fox News and Glen Beck on CNN Headline News apparently yakked up the story quite a lot. Says TVNewser:

Yesterday, Barack Obama's spokesman called Fox News "appallingly irresponsible" for repeatedly broadcasting allegations that the senator attended a madrassa as a child." CNN did what any serious news organization is supposed to do in this kind of a situation. We actually conducted an exclusive firsthand investigation inside Indonesia to check out the school that Barack Obama attended as a little 6-year-old boy," Wolf Blitzer said on yesterday's Situation Room. Senior international correspondent John Vause, reporting from Jakarta, showed that the school is not a madrassah.
CNN checked it out and is gloating:
CNN's Anderson Cooper rubbed it in Fox's face on Monday night."Barack Obama's Muslim education in Indonesia -- others are reporting the heat. We are sticking to the facts," he teased on 360 last night.Then, introing John Vause's segment, he said: "Other news organizations ran with Insight's story. They didn't check the facts. We did."And after the package, Cooper concluded: "Well, that's the difference between talking about news and reporting it. You send a reporter, check the facts and you decide at home."
Fox's John Gibson shot back:
"Howard Kurtz is ignoring the obvious," John Gibson responded on his radio show Monday night. "The story is not about whether Barack Obama went to a madrassah terrorist training camp when he was five years old. The story is that people who oppose, who have interest in opposition to Barack Obama, are attaching his name to the word madrassah."
In other words, Hillary. Why does this matter? Beyond the obviously political issue: Opponents are trying to turn Obama into a Muslim radical in the same way opponents tried to turn John Kerry into a French elitist. The larger issue is the role of religion in America. Maybe instead of announcing in Abraham Lincoln's hometown next month, thereby trying to play up his race and play down his inexperience, Obama should announce in Kennedy's hometown, trying to play up his youth and down his religious background.

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Posted by B Feiler at 10:35 AM 0 comments

Barack Hussein Obama, Part the Latest
Monday, January 22, 2007

Following up on my report about Barack Hussein Obama, I see now that CNN is reporting that recent news accounts that Obama was educated in a radical madrassa in Indonesia are false. Can tales of terrorist training camps be far behind?

Insight Magazine, which is owned by the same company as The Washington Times, reported on its Web site last week that associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., had unearthed information the Illinois Democrat and likely presidential candidate attended a Muslim religious school known for teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam.

Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and step-father and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa.

Insight attributed the information in its article to an unnamed source, who said it was discovered by "researchers connected to Senator Clinton." A spokesman for Clinton, who is also weighing a White House bid, denied that the campaign was the source of the Obama claim.

He called the story "an obvious right-wing hit job."

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Posted by B Feiler at 7:21 PM 0 comments

Color Blind
Sunday, January 21, 2007

Feiler Faster gives you tomorrow's commentary today. The last week was a remarkable week in American history/pop culture/politics/sports: In a first, three of the top four acting awards at the Golden Globes went to African-Americans: Forrest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson. Barack Obama instantly became (with all due respect to Shirley Chisolm, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton) one of the leading contenders to win his party's nomination for president. And Sunday, Lovie Smith became the first African-American coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl, followed three hours later by Tony Dungy, another African-American (there are five in the league). All this in a week when Tiger Woods chose to sit out the PGA tour and forego the chance to become the first player to win seven tour events in a row. That happens this coming weekend.

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Posted by B Feiler at 11:57 PM 0 comments

Does 1,000 Rabbis Equal a Wal-Mart?

My friend Peter Applebome has a fascinating piece in the NYT (hidden behind the firewall) about a showdown outside New York City between a rabbinical college that wants to open a facility to train 1,000 rabbis to adjudicate religious disputes and the local town that would be overrun, instantly tripling in size and losing its local character.

Ground zero at the moment is a wooded corner at Route 202 and Route 306. One side of Route 202 in the unincorporated town of Ramapo is the site of a zoning battle over 200 acres likely to house multifamily homes and religious schools built by a Brooklyn developer. But the main issue for now is the other side, in the village of Pomona.

THERE, on a 100-acre tract purchased for $13 million, a Brooklyn-based group called the Congregational Rabbinical College of Tartikov plans a college where, organizers say, 1,000 rabbis, living with their families, would study for 15 years to become religious judges presiding over civil disputes among Orthodox Jews.

A formal proposal is not likely before late February, but on a property zoned for single-family homes on one acre, drawings and plans developed by the group show as many as 10 buildings with space for at least 4,500 residents, parking for 1,000 cars and buildings as high as six stories.

Given the size of the families in nearby Hasidic communities, the population estimate is probably low. All this in a village with a population of around 3,200.Residents are stunned.


The town is using the argument towns often make against Wal-Mart, the community would kill the town. The college, meanwhile, is citing a federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (known by its acronym, Rluipa, and pronounced ar-LOO-pah). Enacted by Congress to “protect religious liberty and for other purposes,” it says municipalities must be able to show a “compelling” public interest in rejecting land-use proposals by religious groups.

The article is probably inaccessible to many, but here's a summary in the local paper.

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Posted by B Feiler at 6:13 PM 1 comments

What Jefferson Thought of Islam
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Christopher Hitchens has posted an acerbic attack on Rep. Ellison on Slate. While acknowledging that the act of being sworn in on the Koran was a masterstroke against the Religious Right, he challenges the new congressman to denounce his onetime affiliation with Louis Farrakhan: "If Ellison now wants to use his faith to justify an appeal to pluralism and inclusiveness and diversity, he needs to repudiate the Nation of Islam, and in much more unambivalent terms than any I have yet heard from him."

He points out that Jefferson included Islam in his list of protected religions and saves his coup de grace for the Jefferson Bible, when the future president trimmed out all the miracles from the gospels and published a much smaller book.

As far as I can find, he avoided any comment on the religious dimension of the war. But then, he avoided public comment on faith whenever possible. It was not until long after his death that we became able to read most of his scornful writings on revelation and redemption. And it was not until long after his death that The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth was publishable. Sometimes known as "the Jefferson Bible" for short, this consists of the four gospels of the New Testament as redacted by our third president with (literally) a razor blade in his hand. With this blade, he excised every verse dealing with virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, and other puerile superstition, thus leaving him (and us) with a very much shorter book. In 1904 (those were the days), the Jefferson Bible was printed by order of Congress, and for many years was presented to all newly elected members of that body. Here's a tradition worth reviving: Why not ask all new members of Congress to swear on that?

And here's a tradition worth inaugurating: The Quran repeats and plagiarizes many passages of the New Testament, including some of the most fantastic and mythical ones. Is it not time to apply the razor and produce a reasonable Quran as well? What could be more inclusive? What could be a better application of Jeffersonian original intent?

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Posted by B Feiler at 12:53 PM 0 comments

Are the Stem Cells Wars Over?
Monday, January 8, 2007

This provocative headline from TIME about a new study showing that stem cells are beginning to prove worth the hype -- without the concerns of some religious communities. One of my predictions for this year is that both houses of Congress will overrule a Bush veto on stem cells:

It's always dangerous to use the word "breakthrough," especially in an area of science haunted by contentious politics and the risk of false hope. But a new report in the latest issue of Nature biotechnology makes it hard to resist. Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard have just announced that they've derived stem cells and used them to grow an amazing variety of cells, including liver, bone, fat, blood vessel, muscle and nerve cells. And they did it without even touching an embryo.

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Posted by B Feiler at 4:22 PM 0 comments

A Tree Does Not Bloom in Brooklyn
Friday, January 5, 2007

One of my favorite parts of cherry blossom season in Japan, during the many years I lived there, was learning all the different words the Japanese have to describe minute differences in cherry blossom season. There's a word for the time when just the buds are out, a word for seeing them in sunset, a word for having a picnic under them, a word for taking a stroll beneath them, a word for when the petals coming raining down at the end. For all I know, there's a word for when the blossoms come out early, in the snow.

Maybe now we need a new word: Cherry blossoms have become the canary in the mine for global warming. Whenever we have a burst of springlike weather in mid-winter, as we've been having in New York, the ultimate expression of this odd turnabout is that the cherry blossoms are blooming early. I keep reading, for example, reports that the cherry blossoms are blooming in Brooklyn. Most recently on Drudge, at this hour.

Well, it certainly is unseasonably warm here, as it was last year. We're expecting weather in the high 60's on Saturday. But I live across the street from a cherry blossom tree, which bloomed last year on my daughters' birthday, April 15th. For the record: It is not blooming now, nor is it close.

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Posted by B Feiler at 11:42 AM 0 comments

It's Jefferson's Koran! (Updated -- Live on CNN)
Thursday, January 4, 2007

Well, now we know who has the better political skills! Keith Ellison, the new Rep who intends to use the Koran in his inaugural day tomorrow, surely gets the last laugh with his announcement that he intends to use a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Considering that Jefferson once published his own Bible in which he snipped out all the miracles, this move is unlikely to stop the carping from the Religious Right, but it gets my vote as political move of the year so far!

Here's the key graf from a report on the WaPo:

"He wanted to use a Koran that was special," said Mark Dimunation, chief of the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress, who was contacted by the Minnesota Dem early in December. Dimunation, who grew up in Ellison's 5th District, was happy to help.

Jefferson's copy is an English translation by George Sale published in the 1750s; it survived the 1851 fire that destroyed most of Jefferson's collection and has his customary initialing on the pages. This isn't the first historic book used for swearing-in ceremonies -- the Library has allowed VIPs to use rare Bibles for inaugurations and other special occasions.

UPDATE: Those political skills paid off! CNN is carrying Eillison's swearing in on Jefferson's Koran LIVE!! And here's Pelosi showing up. It goes without saying that no one else's private swearing in is being shown.

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Posted by B Feiler at 3:02 PM 0 comments

Catholics Top Congress

It says something powerful about American Protestantism these days that its fiercest members are more concerned about one Muslim in Congress than 155 Catholics. I've been re-reading the history of religion in America for my new book, and for most of our history, news that the TOP DENOMINATION in Congress was Catholicism would have meant marching in the streets. On swearing-in day, here's the breakdown (via CNN):

Roman Catholics are the largest single U.S. religious denomination among members of the new U.S. Congress which also includes two Buddhists and a Muslim.A survey published by Americans for Religious Liberty finds Baptists the second most common faith, followed by Methodists, Presbyterians and Jews.

The breakdown for the 535 members of the 110th Congress being sworn in Thursday: Catholic 155; Baptist 67; Methodist 61; Presbyterian 44; Jewish 43; Episcopal 37; Protestant nondenominational 26; Christian nondenominational 18; Lutheran 17; Mormon 15; United Church of Christ 7.Eastern Orthodox 5; Christian Science 5; Assemblies of God 4; Unitarian Universalist 2; African Methodist Episcopal 2; Buddhists 2; Evangelical 2; Seventh Day Adventists 2; Christian Reformed 2; Disciples of Christ 2; Church of Christ 2; Congregational
Baptist 1; Anglican 1.Reorganized Mormon 1; Quaker 1; Church of God 1; Muslim 1; Evangelical Lutheran 1; Church of the Nazarene 1; Evangelical Methodist 1.

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Posted by B Feiler at 12:24 PM 0 comments

The End of Fundamentalism?

Andrew Sullivan has what is, in my mind, the defining blog covering politics and religion. His mix of short squibs and longer, more thoughtful posts, gets the mix almost exactly right, in my opinion. I disagree with lots of what he says, for sure, but I enjoying seeing how his mind works. As he has written about there, and elsewhere, for months, his new book explores the role of humility in religion, and especially in dealing with God. This is a big theme of mine in Where God Was Born. Most people take confidence from the Bible; I believe in its very narrative, especially the way God continues to shift his allegiance from first sons to second sons, from king to prophet, from Israelite to non-Israelite, the Bible is sending a message that humility must be part of our relationship with God.

Andrew has just posted a new piece arguing that 2006 was the year of humility in religion. Here are two key grafs:

There was the strain of Islamic Wahhabism incubated in Saudi Arabia, exported to Afghanistan and wreaking havoc in Iraq. There was Shi'ite theocracy, centered in Tehran, made more terrifying by the apocalyptic worldview of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the West, the dominant form of Christianity was Fundamentalist Protestantism, gaining new converts and, fused with the Republican Party, flexing powerful political muscles. And in the Vatican, the conservatism of John Paul II found its natural successor in the austere and more thoroughgoing orthodoxy of the new Pope, Benedict XVI. There seemed no stopping this cultural surge, just various attempts to adjust to it, restrain it from violence and temper its extremes.

And then in 2006, there was an unmistakable pause, a moment of self-examination, even the hint of a great humbling. The most absolutist visionaries found a limit to their certitude. Benedict XVI went in a matter of months from proclaiming an irreducible gulf between Christianity and Islam to visiting a mosque in Turkey with white slippers on his feet. He publicly called for Turkey, a secular state but a Muslim country, to be integrated into the European Union. In the U.S., the religious right saw its most enthusiastic repre sentative in the Senate, Rick Santorum, go down to defeat by a crushing 18 points. For the first time, a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage failed — in Arizona. State initiatives for embryonic-stem-cell research became a wedge issue for ... Democrats. Religion finally cut both ways in democratic discourse. For the first time since the evangelical revival began in the 1980s, too much rigidity began to cost politicians votes rather than win them more.

If only this were so. I disagree that fundamentalism was the "dominant" brand of Protestantism. It's by far the minority. The Shia revolution in Iran was in 1979 and has been showing many, many signs of weakening in recent years, despite the political rise of the new president. His evidence of a turnaround in 2006 are more persuasive, but I think in retrospect will be tied to the overreach of the Iraq War, which, as I write in my book, was more tied to religion than anyone ever admitted. If anything, I can't help wondering if this "turning point" is more associated with the publication of his book. Its reaction in conservative quarters might be evidence against him, however.

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Posted by B Feiler at 8:40 AM 0 comments

Osama-mania
Wednesday, January 3, 2007

First CNN, now Yahoo! The Vast Clinton Left Wing Conspiracy?


Via TPMCafe.

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Posted by B Feiler at 10:45 PM 0 comments

Barack Hussein Obama
Tuesday, January 2, 2007

I've been looking for somebody to say something interesting about Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein, ever since some Republicans began making it their new favorite fact about the shooting star. Slate chimes in now with a history of the middle name as attack slur. It points out that middle names—often the maternal maiden name—came into fashion in the United States in the middle of 19th century. Only three of our first 17 presidents carried middle names: John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, and James Knox Polk.

But the bottom line: the name could prove costly.

The research of Grant W. Smith, a professor of English at Eastern Washington University, who has studied how voters react to the sounds of candidates' names, suggests that Obama's name could hurt him with undecided voters, who, since they sometimes cast ballots on the basis of vague sentiments, may be influenced by a candidate's unusual moniker. Surnames have a far greater impact than middle names, said Smith, who thinks voters will actually groove to the rhythm of Obama—though, he notes, it "would be better to have the accent on the first syllable"—O-bama (Apparently, names that echo the soothing cadence of nursery rhymes appeal to voters). Smith acknowledges, however, that Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden stir "very powerful associations" in the minds of Americans.


Obama's "Hussein" highlights the surprising, if very occasional, utility of middle names in politics, particularly in attack politics. Middle names can be particularly helpful in undermining a candidate's manufactured image. Consider Jim Webb's effective middle-assault on incumbent George Allen in the Virginia Senate race. To fend off charges that Webb applauded flag burning, a Webb aide repeatedly derided "George Felix Allen Jr." for choosing to "cut and run" rather than serve in the military during Vietnam, as Webb did. (Allen shares a first name and last name with his father but technically is not a junior


This was a brilliant swipe, since "Felix" conjures up not the image of a football-tossing, Confederate-flag-waving good ol' boy, as Allen portrayed himself, but of Felix Unger, the kvetching, overfastidious bachelor of TV's The Odd Couple.





Update: It's not just the last name. RawStory has news that CNN mixed up Obama and Osama last night.

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Posted by B Feiler at 9:08 AM 0 comments

Casus Belli?
Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Lest you think I'm making it up, the drumbeat on the Right about launching a war against Iran is steadily beating onward. Here's a story on the mega-site Instapundit suggesting the recent arrest of Iranian operatives in Iraq is either a casus belli or something to be "swept under the rug," as opposed to something we've known all along and is hardly surprising given the fact that Iran and Iraq have been rivals and at war for much of the last several decades.

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Posted by B Feiler at 9:53 PM 0 comments

Ramadan Moms

Fascinating squib in the Detroit Free Press about the rising clout of Muslim voters in the midterm elections this year. The key stat:

The [get-out-the-vote] effort was so organized that Muslim taxi drivers in northern Virginia took the day off to ferry Muslims to the polls, said Imam Mahdy Bray, a speaker at the [Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America] convention. Volunteers also made phone calls to Muslims in Virginia to urge them to vote, he said.

As a result, Democrat James Webb ousted incumbent Republican George Allen by about 9,000 votes in a race in which 50,000 Muslims went to the polls -- 47,000 of them voting for Webb, Bray said.

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Posted by B Feiler at 10:45 AM 0 comments

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