Today, let’s enjoy a couple of events that cause certain heads to explode! It’s Cognitive Dissonance Day!
First off, there’s the awarding of the Miss USA beauty queen title to Rima Fakih, an American-Muslim. Now, American beauty pageants nearly all feature a ‘swimsuit competition’, with the contestants wearing, usually, bikinis. That right there—if the idea of a beauty competition weren’t enough—is setting off all sorts of complaints from conservative Muslims: the usual about ‘immodesty’.
What’s really interesting to me, though, is that right-wing extremist Americans see her winning as an example of ‘growing dhimmitude in the US! Wackos and nutcases like Debbie Schussel seem to believe that Donald Trump, owner of the competition, is leading the US to becoming part of the ‘universal Caliphate’ by ordering that a Muslim-American be chosen to win. This thread is being picked up by other Islamophobic websites.
Other sites and blogs, such as Sissy Willis’ SISU report more objectively. Interestingly, Willis throws in a comparison of conservative Muslim women’s dress with the habits worn by members of religious orders, even in the US.
Both sets of objections are, of course, without merit. Ms Fakih is an individual. She claims to be a practicing Muslim and we cannot but take her at her word. Being a Muslim is something that cannot be defined by others; it is a personal relationship with God. If her relationship permits her to publicly dress at the level of modesty afforded by a bikini, that’s between her and God, not onlookers. Her winning has received strong support from the Arab-American community in her hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, as a matter of ethnic pride. (Yes, Dearborn is largely Christian-Arab populated, but not exclusively.)
The conservative, Islamophobic group is equally wrong in its assessment. If Ms Fakih’s Islam permits her entering such competitions, it is far from the beliefs of the Caliphate crowd. It is a form liberal enough to be indistinguishable from average American culture. Had Ms Fakih competed while wearing a burqa, there might have been an argument to be made. As it is, a bikini is about as far as you can get from a burqa on nationally broadcast TV.
The second thing that caught my eye comes from the Religion Clause law-blog which focuses on the intersection of law and religion. This piece notes that efforts to ban the defaming of other religions cuts both ways. Here, a Sri Lankan Muslim is charged with offending Buddhists through the books she wrote telling why she converted to Islam. This isn’t at all the end envisioned by the OIC and other Muslim groups who seek to quash free speech; their view only sees Islam as the protected faith. Not so in Sri Lanka, at least. This is exactly why laws forbidding ‘defamation of religion’ or ‘blasphemy’ are so ill-advised. The only work to one’s own favor when it’s your own court doing the judging. If the legal playing field is balanced, then all critics of any religion are open to legal punishment. It’s easier and wiser to simply avoid the entire issue and let each religion speak for itself in response to speech it dislikes rather than to try and impose the power of the state.
Sri Lanka Charges Muslim Convert With Insulting Buddhism By Publishing Books
On Friday, the British-based Islamic Human Rights Commission reported on the upcoming trial in Sri Lanka of Sarah Malanie Perera, a Sri Lankan national who lives in Bahrain. While she was vacationing in Sri Lanka in March, she was detained by the Ministry of Defense under special emergency laws and charged with offending Buddhism. She was released on bail in April, but banned from traveling. Charges against her stem from two books she wrote describing her 1999 conversion from Buddhism to Islam. Authorities claim that writing the book in the Sinhalese language creates the insult. The trial was supposed to have begun on Saturday.
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May:18:2010 - 10:37
First I an thrilled to see an Arab-American win a beauty pageant! I think the neo-consevatives will find anything to baklash anyon who is either Middle Eastern or Muslim or both. In my opinion it is your connection to God. Here, in Turkey, my friends are a very very chic. It not that uncommon. Some Americans need to wake up, smell the coffee and hop on a plane and see for themselves, for Pete’s sake.
May:18:2010 - 11:13
“Wackos and nutcases like Debbie Schussel seem to believe that Donald Trump, owner of the competition, is leading the US to becoming part of the ‘universal Caliphate’ by ordering that a Muslim-American be chosen to win. ”
It would be unthinkable, save for the fact that a year or two ago a beauty contestant was deliberately and openly denied the Miss USA title by a judge because she described marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. This introduction of political bias into Trump’s beauty pageants has left the door open for people thinking of all sorts of abuse.
Factor that into the Hollywood trend of promoting Muslims and Arabs everywhere thinking it would protect them from accusations of racism and acts of religious violence (much as German Jews employed Nazis as servants in the 1930s) and this kind of suspicion is the result. I can’t tell if it’s justified, so I won’t label it a phobia.
The sad part is that Rima Fakih is a kind of victim in this, for she will never be sure if her victory was “dhimmi-political” or not, even though her very effort is a stand for a more liberal-thinking type of Islam.
May:18:2010 - 11:20
Yippee Happy Cognitive Dissonance Day! Is that a good or bad thing? I have dissonance about it!
I was shocked at some of the accusations launched at Miss USA by Schussel…those were some low blows. She went over the top.
May:18:2010 - 11:25
[...] …efforts to ban the defaming of other religions cuts both ways. Here, a Sri Lankan Muslim is charged with offending Buddhists through the books she wrote telling why she converted to Islam. This isn’t at all the end envisioned by the OIC and other Muslim groups who seek to quash free speech; their view only sees Islam as the protected faith. Not so in Sri Lanka, at least. This is exactly why laws forbidding ‘defamation of religion’ or ‘blasphemy’ are so ill-advised. The only work to one’s own favor when it’s your own court doing the judging. If the legal playing field is balanced, then all critics of any religion are open to legal punishment. It’s easier and wiser to simply avoid the entire issue and let each religion speak for itself in response to speech it dislikes rather than to try and impose the power of the state. link [...]
May:18:2010 - 11:33
I find the article by Religion Clause to be very interesting. I do agree that when Muslim groups tried to choke off any free speech or debate that they saw it flowing in one direction…away from Islam but potentially leaving all others open to critique. What I find so interesting is that it is Buddhism that is the religion that has taken a stand. They are generally thought of as a very benign religion. If you look back over some Muslim oriented blogs about the incident all of them seem united in their outrage about such an arrest. Funnily enough they didn’t mind putting a fatwa on Rushdie’s head years ago. Yet they are now outraged about someone arrested for doing exactly what he did. As I have always felt, you want something you have to be willing to give it and it cuts both ways!
The one thing I don’t think the government went far enough is…they say writing it in the native language creates the offense..for Islam writing it in any language is offensive. Unless I understand it wrong that means she can translate it into any language and it wouldn’t be offensive. But that is wrong…there are Buddhists of all types around the world and it should be offensive to all…if we are going to look at it from a banning free speech/blasphemy perspective.
As you said John…It is best to let each have their say and leave it at that.
May:18:2010 - 11:41
As Trump wasn’t one of the judges, and as the pageant has a reputation to uphold, I doubt that there’s anything related to ‘dhimmitude’ going on. Seeing pictures of Ms Fakih, I certainly don’t find any reason for her to have not won!
I also don’t see a flood of Arab or Muslim characters on TV or film. Other than the films set in Iraq or Afghanistan, where they’re rather unavoidable, I’m not finding Arab or Muslim characters appearing in things like ‘Law & Order’ or any of the ensemble programs. The one exception I find is ‘Bones’, with a Muslim pathology assistant who takes breaks at prayer time. If you know of others, I’d appreciate you’re pointing them out to me.
May:18:2010 - 11:41
Schussel is a nut case. I read her only when forced to do so and then get sick.
May:18:2010 - 12:30
Thank you for the opportunity to opine on the Miss USA pageant 2010.
Donald Trump is interested only in money and the publicity to make it. What better marketing scheme than to crown the first Arab Muslim American. So much press from so many quarters, so much attention to his problem-filled pageants–the one using alcohol and drugs, the one who was too politically incorrect on homosexuality, and to his ongoing lack of credibility in comparison with the one he tries to supplant, the Miss America pageant.
Beauty pageants are always highly subjective and politicized, as any honest contestant or organizer will tell you. Unfortunately, this winner has her win tainted by all this, instead of simply being celebrated for her beauty.
Thanks for the heads up, skipping Schussel–life is too short.
May:18:2010 - 13:20
However nutty Schlussel is, she does make the valid point that there has been an Arab-American winner before. (I wouldn’t have gone to her site if she wasn’t mentioned it the post.) A bit of fact checking can help any news story.
May:18:2010 - 14:06
Arab and Muslim not being the same, the distinction made by Schussel would just seem to feed the Islamophobia for some.
May:18:2010 - 15:08
I find controversy from the right about this very odd, but they have their agenda, they want all of us to worry about some vast conspiracy to restore the Caliphate.
Still I wonder about a woman who calls herself a Muslim and wins a beauty contest. I would be curious what the conservative Muslim press says (in translation of course).
May:18:2010 - 16:33
Aw heck…I think everyone (media/politics) should give the poor girl a break! Whether it was staged or not she must be darn excited about her win and I hate to see her golden moment tainted like this. From my perspective, we hear so much negative and restrictive about Islam maybe it is about time to hear from someone from the other side of that fence. If she can bring a face of moderate Islam or what many Westerners might think is moderate Islam to the forefront maybe Average Joe might think about Islam in a way other than violent or repressive. Personally, with things the way they are I don’t think that would be a bad thing.
I feel sorry for the girl…she is skewered by the Muslims for not being Muslim enough and she is skewered by the non Muslims for being the new face of Dhimmitude coming to life in America. She can’t win…I hope she holds her head high and fulfills her reign with dignity and shows the world that a Muslimah isn’t necessarily the oppressed, sad creature a lot of Average Joes think they are.