47th & Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia - Obama celebration

Recently, as perhaps some of you have seen, I have been shifting the focus on this blog - refining its focus to concentrate more specifically on the religious phenomenon of Islam in America. A great deal of my writings pertain to the process of the indiginization of Islam in America. This post may depart from that slightly, though if I think you read closely enough, you will see its correlation.

No - this is not a post on how the 44th President of the United States is a secret Muslim. Barack Hussein Obama is not a Muslim. While his family may have roots in the historical Muslim world, he himself is not a Muslim. And that’s ok. As former general Colin Powell pointed out to us in his interview at Meet The Press, it should not matter that he is or isn’t Muslim.

And while it has been clearly established that President Obama is not a Muslim, this election, truly historic for America and her citizens, has presented the possibility as real. What I mean here is that for two hundred-plus of years, the United States of America has been dominated by one type of political figure: the white Christian Male. And as I stated above, the Christian part has not changed, but the white part most certainly has.

One of my greatest hopes from this election wasn’t that President Obama was going to solve the economic, environmental and other crisises that were are having. No one man can do all that. But that his election would bring about a much need psychological change to this country and perhaps even the world. To be sure, the type of change I speak of is subtle. But for the four hundred-plus years that Blackamericans have been in this country, we have never seen, let alone in recent generations, truly envisioned the possibility of a black man being the president of this country. President Obama has broken that barrier. He has illustrated that however unlikely, and however difficult, you can achieve great results. After all, these are some of the very ideals that America likes to champion around the world. And while it will take some time for the cynic in me to take his guard down, I will not attempt to hide the sense of vindication I felt when Mr. Obama won this evening.

So my little message is short and simple - to my Muslim brothers here in America, we have just watched a predominantly white audience vote in a black male with a Muslim name to the highest office of the land - mind you, just seven years since 9/11 as well [not to mention that Islamophobia is still raging strong and was even used as a tactic against his campaign]. The time has come for Muslims to truly recognize the blessings that Allah has offered us here. We have been placed within reach of obtaining great goals; for us and our children’s generation. But as always, the clock is ticking. I pray we can capitalize on this great boon we’ve been handed.

And a special note to my Blackamerican brothers and sisters in Islam. Tonight we saw the hopes and dreams of many Americans, white, black, Latino, Jewish and otherwise, all cast for one man. We must recognize that we are in the position to have the greatest effect in indigenizing Islam here in America. As we saw, unprovoked, on nation TV, general Powell came out in defense of Muslims in America. We truly must reflect and make the most of the opportunities. For we have witnessed tonight that change can and will come. The only question that remains is will we reap its benfit or curse our inability to act.

And God knows best.

I am not given over to commenting on politics [at least on-going discourses] with great frequency; I tend to prefer bigger picture issues, but I thought I would share a short piece on my reaction to John McCain and the rhetoric I’ve heard coming from the Republican party. This should not be seen as anti-Republicanism, as I am not a part line personality. Rather, it is a critique on what they are presenting to the American public, particularly as one coming from the Blackamerican population.

John McCain’s legitimacy, based on his service in the military, is a telling point. While it is certainly a terrible thing to be held in a POW camp, no one in the media has yet to look at the Vietnam war in terms of a) was this a beneficial war b) what did it accomplish for the United States and c) what has been done for all of the veterans who returned from the war, permanently scared [mentally and physically]. I find this whole legitimacy based on participation in an unjust war disgusting and misleading. It smacks of classic nativist ideologies. In fact, I was fully reminded of Marinetti, when listening to members of the Republican Party laud their support of McCain at the GOP convention:

“For twenty seven years we Futurists have rebelled aginst the the branding of war as antiaesthetic… Accordingly we state: … War is beautiful because it establishes man’s dominion over the subjugated machinery by means of gas masks, terrifying megaphones, flame throwers, and small tanks. War is beautiful because it initiates the dreamt-of metalization of the human body. War is beautiful because it enriches a flowering meadow with the fiery orchids of machine guns. War is beautiful because it combines the gunfire, the cannonades, the cease-fire, the scents, and the stench of putrefaction into a symphony. War is beautiful because it creates new architecture, like that of the big tanks, the geometrical formation flights, the smoke spirals from burning villages, and many others… Poets and artists of Futurism!… remember these principles of an aesthetics of war so that your struggle for a new literature and a new graphic art… may be illuminated by them!”

Some may find it an unduly harsh step to brand this kind of talk as facist/futurist but it does have many of the same talking points. Like Marinett’s Futurists, the GOP barked the very same anti-intellectualism that is present in Marinetti’s writings. That fact that the Republicans put forth war as an aesthetic, as something beautiful, is undeniable. The War On tError has certainly shown us plenty of burning villages and civilian casualties. And for what? What “evil criminal force” has been detained, dismantled or destroyed? Many a young man or woman returns home, their limbs replaced by that very same “dreamt-of metalization”. The poppy fields of Afghanistan are indeed ripe with “the fiery orchids of machine guns” and yet, drugs still pour into our country, not debilitated in the slightest. And as for the cannonades, we have our “shock and awe” and Missions Accomplished, yet do we have anything to show for it?

I cannot say with any certainty that Barack Obama will be able to bring about wide, social or economic changes, but given the doctrine that McCain and his party are spewing forth, given that someone as obviously unqualified as Palin has been championed over the accomplishments of the likes of Obama, we have to look and work for an auspicious outcome. The alternative seems grim indeed.

In a very short, some-what funny yet poignant YouTube video, Pastor Jamal Bryant delivers a sharp critique of the Republican National Convention as well as an overall observation of the political climate, public racial perceptions and that most unique of American neuroses, anti-intellectualism, especially when intellectualism takes the form of an educated Blackamerican. I don’t know about you, but by the end, I was ready to roll in the isles myself! Hat tip to Zain.