How it must feel

I was perusing the TimesOnline today during lunch, and was stopped short by a link to an article called, "Who started the 'Barack Obama is a Muslim' smear?" Now, I'm no political correctness maven, but to regard alleged Muslimness as a smear is, I think, extraordinarily insulting to Muslims. Could you imagine if people spoke of a "'John Kerry is a Jew' smear"? Hey--it's not a smear! And yet, day in and day out, we hear indignant denials that Obama is a Muslim, the very thought dismissed as a scurrilous rumor without so much as a Seinfeldian "not that there's anything wrong with that" to follow it up.

Most noticeably, Obama himself studiously avoids giving any indication whatsoever that there is, in fact, nothing inherently wrong with being a Muslim. Maybe asking him to do the decent thing and speak up about it is asking too much of a half-Kenyan presidential candidate in the process of ingratiating himself with working-class whites in the South and Midwest. On the other hand, maybe risking electoral success to do right by a beleaguered minority is the sort of long-term investment in one's political character that can pay dividends years down the road.

In any case, I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a Muslim in this political environment--not only voiceless, but disrespected and insulted, too.

EDIT: After actually reading the article I linked to, it turns out that the author is explicitly addressing the issue of Obama's alleged Muslimness being considered a "smear", so--bad example. But I think the general thrust of the post still stands.