Rima Fakih celebrated her Miss USA coronation Sunday night like many pageant winners before her -- with shock, tears and a sparkling white smile. Also like a number of recent tiara wearers, controversy has already found her.
Fakih, 24, a Lebanese immigrant and University of Michigan graduate from Dearborn, Mich., is under fire after pictures surfaced of a her competing in a Detroit radio’s station’s “Stripper 101" pole dancing contest in 2007. She won the competition, taking home her own stripper pole and “adult toys,” according to TMZ.com.
Partying pageant queens are nothing new (see: former Miss USA Tara Conner), but Fakih’s win may be historic because she is believed to be the first Arab-American and Muslim to win the Miss USA title, though pageant officials said they could not yet confirm that. The aspiring lawyer who immigrated to the U.S. as a baby and attended a Christian school in New York during her childhood has said she identifies as an Arab-American who celebrates both the Christian and Muslim faiths.
For some Muslims, Fakih’s win is bittersweet. There is pride over her ascension to the visible role of Miss USA -- and disappointment that she had to bare her body to get there.
“After watching the pageant, some people said, ‘It’s cool. She’s an Arab. She’s representing us,’ ” Noorulain Abdullah, 23, a staff member at the Mas Quran Institute, a Muslim school and community center in Detroit, told AOL News. “But in order to be Miss USA, you have to wear a bikini. That’s not allowed in our religion.”
Abdullah said she respects the community outreach component of the Miss USA title, but suspects Fakih, formerly Miss Michigan, will continue to wear clothing that some Muslims may deem inappropriate.
“It’s OK to look beautiful, but at the same time, you’re supposed to cover up your beauty,” she said. “Show your beauty by helping people.”
Fakih has said she competed in the pageant with the full support of her family, particularly her mother.
“I think the community in Michigan, in Dearborn, might be a little on the strict side,” Fakih told the Detroit Free Press before her win. “But my family, in general, are not.”
One of Fakih’s biggest supporters is Imad Hamad, the Michigan director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who said he doesn’t feel offended or “shy” about Fakih’s participation in the swimsuit competition or her appearance in racy prepageant photos.
“People young and old were very thrilled to see Rima in such a position. It shows them that their dreams come true even with obstacles and challenges,” Hamad told AOL News. “Even those who might have reservations about the competition can’t deny Rima’s accomplishment. ... It’s not about us. It’s about her. She was qualified and she won it.”
Some of those reservations about Fakih are not based on her bikini, but what conservative bloggers allege is her relation to Shiite Muslim terrorists in her native Lebanon. Citing “intelligence sources in Lebanon,” conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel has accused Fakih of being a Hezbollah supporter with cousins working with the terrorist group.
“I would like to see her specifically condemn Hezbollah, and we won’t see that because she supports it,” Schlussel told AOL News. “If she doesn’t do that, that basically tells us that Donald Trump is a coward who will fire Miss California for alcoholism but won’t care when Miss USA won’t denounce a terrorist group.”
The Miss Universe Organization, which runs the Miss USA pageant, did not respond to AOL News’ interview request today. After Fakih’s win, Trump, co-owner of the Miss USA pageant, called her “a great girl.”
Hamad stood by Fakih as a role model to the Arab-American community.
“We take pride in Rima winning this pageant as an immigrant and Arab-American of Muslim faith,” he said. “What makes this nation great is that we are the nation of immigrants.”
That there will be contrasting support and criticism from the Muslim and Arab-American community over Fakih’s win comes as no surprise to Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom.
“Like the Christian community and the Jewish community, the Muslim community is diverse. Some of us are more liberal or more conservative than others. That is religiosity in America,” he told AOL News. “Some will have problems with this pageant and others won’t. There is all sorts of diversity in our community.”
For his part, Bray said he perceives Fakih’s Miss USA victory as “positive.”
“I don’t endorse beauty pageants because I think they’re sexist,” he said. “But when you consider all of the negative things reported about the Arab and Muslim world, to see her win is an honor. It accentuates that we are part of America.”