Faith and Politics

I’ve been watching with deep interest, the accusations from political opponents of Senator Barack Obama that he is a covert Muslim and off course his denials that he is not. Last night I even watched an interview by Senator Hillary Clinton, where she also expressed her confidence that Senator Obama is not a Muslim, as she believes whatever he is saying about his faith.

Faith and Politics

 

What I have been longing to hear from the political elite is that someone stands up and tells the American people, that the constitution gives equal rights to followers of all faiths, as long as they are born citizen of the United States, to run for any office. Unfortunately nobody has dared to say that so far.

I have read some articles on a few websites (with very marginal readership) about this issue but nobody prominent has stood up to speak out against this discrimination towards the Muslim faith. It is as if American public has accepted it as a fact that United States is at war with the religion Islam, instead of a handful of its misguided followers who are using Islam to justify their crimes. It also seems to suggest that a Muslim American can not be trusted for a leadership position like this, or if Muslims are not patriotic or American enough.

As a humble follower of the faith I have a very clear conscience that Islam doesn’t allow use of terrorism or violence to achieve someone’s political or any other ambitions. However I still feel that majority of Muslims who share the same beliefs as I do must be feeling afraid of what more is to come for them in United States, if the hostility towards Islam and Muslims keeps growing like this.

America embodies many of the ideals I have as a Muslim, liberty, freedom, justice and equality. It will make me really sad if the homeland I have adopted turns away from the ideals of its founding fathers, the same ideals which have inspired so many people having different backgrounds to come from all over the world to settle in this country.