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MUSLIMS IN AMERICA ARE AS PATRIOTIC AS ANYONE

By LEWIS W. DIUGUID

The Kansas City Star

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Muslims keep trying to fit in to America, but too often they face people who push them away.

A hurtful case appeared to come from the Democratic campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. The New York Times reported this summer that Rep. Keith Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim congressman, eagerly wanted to help campaign for Obama last December in Iowa and later in North Carolina.

In both cases, Obama’s campaign people told him no. Ellison was told that Obama had “a very tightly wrapped message.”

For North Carolina, they brushed him back saying the state was “too conservative.”

It was also hurtful that Obama campaign operatives kept two Muslim women wearing head scarves from appearing behind Obama at a Detroit rally.

They might have given conservatives an image of the black candidate apart from the every-American image he has tried to create ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Yet despite Obama’s best efforts to distance himself from Muslims, crafty folks keep attaching the Muslim label to him. He would be better off accepting invitations to mosques.

Had Obama attended an interfaith banquet in Topeka earlier this year at Washburn University he would have heard Ingrid Mattson talk about Muslims in America. These are not people to be avoided.

They are as patriotic as anyone. Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, decried efforts of the misinformed to “divide us to create fear.”

“A lot of damage can be done by people with misinformation,” said Mattson, director of the Islamic chaplaincy and professor at the Macdonald Center for Islamic Studies & Christian-Muslim Relations at the Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. “All that means is our work is harder. We need to work more to get our message out.”

They want others to welcome and accept them. They want everyone to see they are Americans, too.

Muslims have been among those who’ve cheered Obama’s candidacy. His father was a Muslim. Obama is African-American, and he has the international appeal of a world-class leader.

For people of different faiths and people of color, the possibility of Obama becoming president creates enormous expectations about their own future. Finally America’s promissory note of constitutional freedoms, opportunity and equality might be near reality instead of being returned to minorities with an insufficient funds stamp, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. described in his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Mattson applauds the good will, understanding and religious freedom in the United States. “Diversity gives us strength,” she said.

Obama needs to embrace and not try to distance himself from people who historically have been pushed to the untouchable corners of America.

Mattson said the many different colors, languages and faiths of Muslims make them among the world’s most diverse people. “It’s a sign of God’s creative power,” she said.

People can revel in that. “We can learn from each other, and this is God’s plan,” Mattson said.

I agree. If the Democrats fear negative consequences from their candidate being seen with people of color too often or with Muslims, then the chances increase that Republicans and Sen. John McCain will fill the void.

Republicans at their conventions aren’t shy about including people of color and people of different faiths — at least for photo ops. It’s a start toward more inclusion, and Democrats shouldn’t be timid about going all out, too.

Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com.