Taxi ride with Suleiman
On a ride to the airport around 5am, my taxi driver was listening to
melodic Muslim morning prayers. I wanted to see how he related to the
elections campaign, where much was made about whether Obama “is a
Muslim” or “an Arab.” He is not, but why should that have been seen as
such a threat? And how do Muslims relate to the way pundits and
politicians treated a religion or ethnicity with such suspicion?
How does an average devout Muslim immigrant from Egypt see it?
I asked him open-ended questions so as not to bias him, and his first
reply was:
“well, you see he just selected a Jew”
He was referring, disapprovingly, to Obama’s selection of Rham Emanuel
as his incoming Chief of Staff.
We have a long way to go – across all communities – to reach post-
racial politics that acknowledge our shared fate and responsibility to
tackle the big challenges that our globe will be facing.
Sent from my iPhone – pardon typos
.
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