An American Muslim Journal

GOP and Muslims are perfect together | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/31/2011

Memo to Republicans: Muslims are cultural conservatives, too. And if you can stop maligning them for a moment, they might move over to your column.

via www.philly.com

I think what Professor Zimmerman is saying here is partially true.  In my youth I was a Republican in large part because I believed that it was most consistent with my faith.  Some 20+ years later I understand my faith and politics differently and that has led me away from the Republican Party (their hate helped move me a long but I think I would have left eventually nonetheless).  If the Republicans can get over their bigotry against Muslims, then Prof. Zimmerman's prediction might come true.

I hope not.  Yes, I do want the Republicans to stop being bigots (anti-Muslim and anti- everything else they get whipped into a frenzy over), but I don't want my co-religionists and fellow Americans to flock to the Right.  That would be wrong.

For American Muslims whose faith guides their individual political choices, I think those politicians who can strike a balance between securing individual freedom while making sure that the vulnerable segments of our society (the children first and foremost but also the homeless, the mentally ill, the unemployed, the working poor and so on) are not left in the lurch, will be most attractive to us.

Social values - sexual preference, abortion, and so on - are important issues to me and to many American Muslims but to think that American Muslims (or Muslims across the world) have a unified opinion on these issues would be incorrect.  These are personal matters and personal choices that are between individuals and God.  I'm pro-choice but I would want my wife to have an abortion.  I believe that homosexuality is a sin but so too is pre-marital sex in Islam.  Again, these are matters between individuals and God.  Frankly, I don't want promiscuity and lewd behavior in public spaces whether its between heterosexuals or homosexuals, but it is not for me to judge others on the basis of their personal choices.  

Furthermore, we've got many more important public and societal issues that we need to address and fix before we can even have time to debate the sinfulness of private adult activities, behaviors and choices. Food insecurity, food deserts, the evisceration of our civil liberties, homelessness, un- and under-employment, discrimination, un- and under-insured families, the rapidly deteriorating environment, our over-dependence on oil and the impact of our country's overall lifestyle and our foreign policies that secure that lifestyle are all issues that demand our attention ahead of sexual preferences and abortion.  

I hope that American Muslims will come to look deeper into their faith and into their duty as Americans in order to avoid flocking to the Republican Party (assuming it eventually abandons its anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies).  Muslims in America and abroad are charged to work for the common good of their neighbors and of humanity, and today's Republican Party does not work for the common good.

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To understand what Republicans and conservatives really want read George Lakoff's essay on Alternet (click here).

Terry Jones' "church" to be listed as hate group because of its stance on Gays and Muslims - Doh!

From Gainsville.com:

"It wasn't a very hard call to be honest with you," said Mark Potok, who tracks extremism for the Montgomery, Ala.-based civil rights organization and serves as editor of its magazine. "Essentially (Dove World Pastor Terry Jones) is completely over the top with his hatred of gay people and of Muslims."

Mmm mmm mmm.  Muslims are being lumped together with gay people...  What's the world coming to?

That's not going to go over well in a few mosques around my part of town.  I can almost see the cognitive dissonance steaming from the ears of some folks as they think to themselves "He hates gays and Muslims? So I have to like him and hate him at the same time?!"  Crazy.

And in other Gay and Muslim news...

A Christian minister in Minnesota said on his radio program that the nation's first Muslim member of Congress was soliciting the support of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community to implement Sharia law.

Damn!  They've discovered the secret Muslim-Homosexual-Sharia Law-Overthrow the Constitution plot. Frankly, I'm just surprised no one saw this one sooner!

So I guess all that anti-gay sentiment from earlier (where the locals at the mosque say bad things about gay people) is just a rouse to cover up the plot led by Congressman Keith Ellison.  Pretty sneaky!