Friday, June 20, 2008

Easy To Be Hard

There was a recent flap over campaign aids for Barak Obama not allowing two Muslim women wearing the hajib to set behind Obama while he was on the stage giving a speech. Obama later apologized to the women. He actually apologized to one of them directly, in person, and sent his sincere regrets to the other, expressing that his campaign was about bringing people together, and that he did not condone any kind of disrespect or exclusion of any minority races or religions. Apparently, the campaign workers involved were reprimanded.

Personally, I don't think Obama should be too hard on the campaign workers for not wanting the two Muslim women to sit behind Obama while he was on stage.

They were probably just afraid that things would get blown up out of all proportion.

8 comments:

Frank Partisan said...

I agree with the direction of your post. It's a light reprimand issue.

Maryam says just because you're wearing a hajib, it shouldn't be assumed automatically that they are Muslim. They could be forced by their family.

Graeme said...

Just imagine the pictures that would have went out with the emails claiming Obama is a Muslim after that. I had an intelligent, or at least I thought was intelligent, friend that asked me about Obama not standing up for the national anthem because he's a Muslim.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Ren-

Maryam has a story to tell. I wish she'd stop relying so much on links to videos, that gets old. She should do more regular posts. I'd like to interview her, but I don't have enough readers to make it worth her time.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Graeme-

"Just imagine the pictures that would have went out with the emails claiming Obama is a Muslim after that."

Yeah, that too. HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa

Anonymous said...

I agree with graeme. Obama was smart in not allowing them to sit there.

Frank Partisan said...

Maybe you could interview her, and put it on yours and my blog simultaneously.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Danielle-

Yeah. He, they, and the other members of the audience are still in one piece, for one thing.

I'm starting to think nobody caught on to my little joke.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Ren-

That would be good. I'm not sure I know how to go about conducting an on-line interview though. I guess I could send her some questions and have her e-mail me back the answers, but that kind of kills the prospect for a follow-up question. I guess I can live without that.

I would need some time to think of some good questions for her too. I would want it to be a serious interview, but with just a little bit of light stuff too. You know, give people a chance to see Maryam the human and the woman, not just the activist.

I'll do a little more research on her, so I can provide a decent background on her, then I'll let you know. Maybe you can set it up, if she's interested.