It’s bigotry season again

THE COLLISION was bound to happen – and it did, as if with clockwork precision.

When religious bigotry clashes head on with American-style politics, you know it’s gonna be one humdinger of a brawl.

And so it was, when two days before the biggest “religious event” – the Pope’s first ever trip to the US – two front runners in the presidential elections disparaged Islam as “the Muslim problem”.

A “Muslim should not be elected president,” retired neurosurgeon Dr Ben Carson said. “Islam is inconsistent with the US constitution.”

And billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump failed to rebuke a supporter at a public debate who said “America had a Muslim problem”.

It’s no coincidence that both are currently first and second-tier candidates representing the Republican Party, which as the official opposition here, had vowed to derail any initiatives proposed by the “Muslim” Democratic Party president Barack Obama, triggering a political war of words which has become a comedic circus.

The Pontiff – “the People’s Pope” – it must be mentioned, is religiously tolerant of all faiths, all embracing, and so it was a stark contrast to the Muslim-bashing taking place during his state visit.

The Pope sympathised with the Muslim community after last month’s tragic Hajj pilgrimage, and wished the Muslim community well in its Eid celebrations , urging the embracing of religious tolerance.

But American elections, being the reality show that they are, are anything but normal.

After all, religion and politics is one and the same here. It’s happened before that religious beliefs clashed with political ideology.

It happened during Obama’s presidential bid and again in his second- term reelection.

Who can forget the opposition party rumblings and questions on his faith, or that “Obama is a Muslim” charge?

While he cannot and is not standing for re-election this election cycle, the president’s ‘Muslim’ faith has cropped up yet again despite Obama professing he is Christian.

Maybe it has something to do with Obama’s middle name – Hussein – which continues to feed the negative narrative, with at least 43% of Republican Party voters decrying Obama’s “Islamic” or “Madrasa upbringing”.

While the Democratic Party front runner, Hillary Clinton, called out the bigotry comments, saying the candidates were “trafficking in fear, prejudice and paranoia”, this failed to diminish the popularity of the opposition candidates, who are in fact surging in the polls – an indication that it is resonating with the extremist rightwing nationalist-leaning voting base.

Businessman Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith came into question a few years back, while anti-Catholic prejudice dogged the John F Kennedy era in the 1960s.

Another Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 run, Herman Cain, said he would not have a Muslim in his cabinet.

The latest salvo was fired when Trump did not shut down the mike when a supporter at a town hall public debate wanted to know what the next president would do to curtail “this Muslim problem”.

“As you know we have a problem in this country and it is called Muslim. As you know, our current president (Obama) is a Muslim… he’s not even American,” the supporter said, adding “When can we get rid of this problem?”

Trump let the comments pass without a challenge, in effect throwing red meat to a rightwing base whose dislike for anything non-white and non-Christian was chewed up with relish.

Carson said on national television that Islam was “not consistent with the US constitution”.

“I would not support putting a Muslim in charge of this country,” he said in a Meet the Press interview. “I would not advocate a Muslim for president.”

While Carson subsequently dialed back what many here labelled the comments “bigotry”, the fallout was swift.

Back-peddling, he said he would support a Muslim only if the candidate “denounced sharia law”.

Trump, instead of scaling down the rhetoric, ratcheted it up, referencing the 911 attack: “It was Muslims who flew planes into the World Trade Center”.

The islamophobia comments have become fodder for television audiences eagerly anticipating what next they would come up with – a 24-hour reality show that is evolving every hour, with bottom-rung candidates fighting for media attention, some creative in their own bigotry comments to get coverage, it seems.

There is no such thing as bad publicity here. The sillier the comment, the more publicity it garners, and politicians have unfortunately sniffed this out, outwitting each other while scrambling for exposure, which the media slurps up unashamedly.

Islamic scholar and University of California Riverside professor Reza Aslan said on CNN he was not surprised by the Muslim-bashing: “The xenophobia, anti-Muslim bashing in the modern Republican Party today – sadly that’s how you get votes.”

Muslim scholar and professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, Dr Yasir Qadhi, said the element of fear and Muslim racism was unfortunate.

“It is nonsense that Muslims had a secret agenda to take over the world,” he said.

Religion cannot be a test for the presidency.

Anyone born in the US with good standing can occupy the White House, but that “bogeyman fear” is doing the rounds yet again – with clockwork precision.