Adam L. Silverman, PhD*
At Salon's War Room, Justin Elliott brings a report on a Lebanese American who is trying to establish a Republican Muslim club in FL. As SST readers can no doubt imagine, this has been met with, shall we say, skepticism by some Republicans in FL (there are even more, and more inflammatory, links in Elliott's reporting, I'm not putting them here, if you want to click through to Salon and then click through fair enough). Apparently the fear of a MUSLIM AMERICA is so upsetting to some Americans that it has garnered Governor Perry some negative campaign publicity from everyone's favorite Islamophobes and deep thinkers, as well as a Muslim running for a GOP spot in VA's House of Delegates from one of the same deep thinkers. It has even led the Orthodox Jewish Candidate trying to hold Congressman Weiner's seat in NY for the Democrats to trail in the race, and combined with concerns over Democrats (because of President Obama) not being supportive enough of Israel has led Mayor Koch to endorse the Republican Candidate. And what really gets me is that the guy who wants to form the Republican Muslim club indicates in Elliott's report that he agrees with Congressman West on many of his views, not just those on Islam. That's after Congressman West sent him a less than pleasant letter, as a reply to a letter asking him to stop demagoguing on the Islamaphobia and shouted him down at a town hall meeting earlier this year (video at the latter link, as well as Elliott's report). This reminds me of Hannah Arendt's remarks about Leo Strauss: “he wanted to join a party which wouldn’t have him because he was a Jew.” And that's the irony in America ten years after the events of 9-11: Muslim Americans have, in many ways, become the Jewish Americans of the late 19th to mid 20th Century America...
*Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.
