LAST WEEK, two Muslim women in headscarves were moved from their seats behind Senator Barack Obama’s stage where they would have been visible on video monitors. The campaign has apologized to the women, and explained that the request by campaign volunteers was “counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together.”
It is hard not to sympathize with the campaign’s predicament. Polls reveal that a significant percentage of Americans are not ready to vote for a Muslim presidential candidate. With wild rumors circulating that Obama is a “secret Muslim,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has struggled to engage the Muslim community openly. Still, even many Muslims who enthusiastically support Obama are hurt by the headscarf incident, which seems to embody his campaign’s mixed signals.
While this recent episode brought Obama under fire, the Republican nominee has not exactly blazed pathways into the Muslim community either. Senator John McCain’s attention to Muslim affairs seems almost entirely about confronting “radical Islamic terrorism.” Millions of Muslims share this goal, yet want to know how he intends to engage not just the radical fringe but also mainstream American Muslims.
Indeed, neither Republicans nor Democrats have developed a clear approach to the Muslim community. Beyond the political implications for both campaigns, this shortcoming also impacts America’s social fabric. For the good of the country, McCain and Obama need to deal with the Muslim community openly and honestly.
Here is how they can engage and support American Muslims in a way that will also resonate with the broader American public.
First, the candidates should distinguish sharply between mainstream Muslims, who cherish America’s civil liberties, and Islamists, who use American freedom to advance a radical political and cultural agenda. Public attitudes are clearly impacted by the steady barrage of incidents at home and abroad where Muslims appear muzzling, chauvinistic, and violent. Yet just because Islamists often shout the loudest and appear in traditional clothing does not mean they should be accepted as representatives of Muslim authenticity.
Both campaigns can strengthen our national tapestry by welcoming mainstream Muslim supporters and celebrating the internal diversity of the Muslim community, which includes individuals with a wide range of spiritual and cultural practices. Most Americans are eager to embrace fellow Muslim citizens who both celebrate and contribute to what makes America great. They want to be inspired by responsible Muslim leaders and want to believe our open society can succeed in bridging the religious divides that have torn apart many other countries.
The candidates can encourage this impulse and help broaden popular awareness of diversity within Islam. Just because a woman wears the headscarf, as I do, does not mean she supports the Islamist agenda. By the same token, just because an American Muslim woman goes without hijab does not mean she is somehow inauthentic or unrepresentative. We are both proud Americans exercising our precious right to religious freedom.
On foreign policy, the candidates can lay out a clear strategy for supporting and empowering reformers in the Muslim world, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
Across the region, courageous Muslim men and women, including free-thinking journalists, civic leaders, bloggers, and women’s rights advocates, are struggling to advance universal human rights in the face of political and social repression. They need to know that whoever next occupies the Oval Office will stand with them. Both America and the Muslim world would benefit from a vigorous debate over how best to support Muslim reformers, not simply how to handle the region’s dictators.
Yes, many American Muslims have family ties to the Muslim world. But the deeper reason we want Washington to show responsible and principled leadership in the Muslim world on civil rights - women’s equality, minority rights, free speech, religious freedom - is because these are core values of our American identity.
Finally, a piece of advice for both candidates: Remember that you need us out there in the floodlights, not just for the image of America in the Muslim world, but for the health of this nation as a whole. We already share this country with you, so let us share the stage, too.