His Name Was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan

23%.

That’s the percentage of Texans who believe that Obama is a Muslim. More than anything else, it is a disappointing statistic that reflects poorly upon my home state. Even more damaging, only 5-10% of the rest of the nation believe this myth.

The following is an interaction I had with a friend at a few months ago:

My friend casually made reference to the incorrect assertion that Obama is a believer of the Islamic tradition. I told him, "regardless of what you think of his policies, personality, and politics, he is a Christian." My friend continued to push the point and eventually I stopped arguing with him. What lay behind his assertion is that a Muslim should not occupy the Presidency. It was so obvious to him that it was not even worth pointing out.

My friend is a Jewish immigrant and a real embodiment of the American dream. Given his unique status as a naturalized citizen from a hostile nation, he has the passion, appreciation, and love for the freedoms of our country that natural-born citizens sometimes take for granted. Yet, why does he hold a prejudice he would find abhorrent if he found himself in Obama's shoes?

The interaction above is one example of a disturbing trend within the Jewish community. That trend is an increasing comfortableness with attitudes and prejudices that we fought vigorously when they were applied to us. For example, a different friend of mine suggested that Muslims cannot be trusted, they all support terrorists, and we should evict them from the United States. Obviously this is an extreme example, but it illustrates the trend. Have we become so complacent in our societal status that we are blind to other people's situations that reflect our own history and unique circumstances?

The Jewish community, above all, should be deeply respectful and appreciative of attitudes towards minorities in our nation. It is not only the rights on paper, as the Black community can attest to in the era from reconstruction to the civil rights movement, but the attitudes and actions that have a real and massive impact on our social environment. We should be vigilant and address these issues head-on. Even though we may not think so, we are not immune to ignorance and bigotry.

Dare I say it, so what if Obama were a Muslim? Colin Powell eloquently made the case on Meet the Press on October 19th when he said regarding Obama, "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?"

Powell then talked about a recent solider who gave his life to the defense of our nation on the Iraqi battlefield. He proclaimed, "at the very top of [his] 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."

One reason my immigrant friend loves our country so much is that it gave him the opportunity to do and be whatever he wished. The only limits to his success were the ones he placed upon himself. We should not place limits, written or unwritten, on any group of people when we have benefited so much from our country's openness.