The Obama Post ( Because There had to be At Least One)

I must admit that most Moroccans know more about Obama than I do, and they should considering how much TV news they watch.

Whenever they "discover" that I am American generally the first word out of their mouths is "OBAMA!". It probably also has something to do with the fact that Mr. Barack and I are both brown-skinned. I must also admit that Mr. Barack has done what Michael Jordan couldn't, which is to actually open up peoples minds internationally to the presence of Black-Americans. When i first came to Morocco years ago, i realized that in exporting our TV shows and movies, we almost always showed portraits of White- American life, and people had a hard time even believing there was any significant number of Black Americans in America.

So, anyway back to "OBAMA!" When Moroccans bring him up to me,they almost always ask me if he is Muslim or they tell me that they think he is Muslim, or that they think he is a closet Muslim. I catergoricaly deny the idea of him being a Muslim. I actually have a little speech that I say, " Father was from Kenya and of Muslim heritage, but as best we know died an athiest, his mother was an American humanist, he and his wife are now committed Christians." Sometimes they insist, that no, as soon as he is in office, he will let his Islam show - "do you think he could get elected President of the United States if he was openly Muslim?" they ask me.

If the conversation gets to this point, i generally drop it, or change the subject by telling them I actually ran into him once in a bookstore in Chicago a few years ago. I mean far be it for me to deny Mr. Barack the right to be a Muslim.

Please dont take this post the wrong way, I am a commited registered non-voter and will not be casting a ballot, absentee or otherwise for any one in November God-willing. ( please no comments about this, i've heard all the pro-voting arguments)

I just thought I'd add to the chatter out there about how the Muslim world would "accept" Mr. Barack. No one here thinks he is an apostate from Islam and the reporters that perpetuate this idea are either careless or have very little understanding of Islam or both. People I have met are generally happy about Obama's
presence in the political arena and are quite shocked when i tell them that I do not believe he will win because America is not ready for a president of
color. They do not understand the depth of racism in America and how we have failed to address it collectively as a society.

Let me end this post by retelling a dream I had about a week ago( you can tell i've been in Morocco too long when I start using dreams to comment about a "real" situation). In the dream I am at home in America and the door bell rings at about 1 in the morning, I am not startled, I do not think "who could be calling at this hour," instead I open the door without even looking through the peephole. Barack Obama walks through the door , we both kind of nod at each other, I go back to what I was doing and he goes to the guest room or whatever. Apparently my apartment was like a "safe-house" where he could come and relax away from the campaign. He makes himself at home, goes to the kitchen, etc and I intentionally leave him alone, not asking him about the latest polls or anything. A little later, as I am walking past the guest room I see Mr. Obama praying like Muslims do, making prostrations, etc. I am totally floored and disappointed, not because he is Muslim, but because he lied.

I guess all this dreaming being done by Moroccans and Muslims in general is for an America that moves past incriminating and bombing Muslims, to electing one its leader. And for Black Americans, there is the dream that after hundreds of years of slavery and racial injustices we might have finally reached that promise land called Equality where someone who looks like us might actually be the President.

There are a lot of people with their hopes tied up in Mr. Barack.

------------------

Okay, so I am going to play with time, and two weeks (today is June 19, 2008)after my original post add a link to an article about the recent refusal of the Obama campaign to let two Muslim women sit behind him at a function. Someone is being extra careful to not be associted with us scarf-heads.
Oh well.