Hiiraan Online

by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf
Sunday, November 30, 2008

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I am befuddled and quite honestly a bit embarrassed by Ali’s pejorative brush, though dressed up, of religious intolerance (see “Misguided Somali Support for Obama by Ali Abdulla”).   The premise of his argument is based on a nocuous, preconceived notion that the man chosen for the most powerful seat, President elect, Barack Obama, of America and the first black man anywhere ever outside of the continent of African to reach the pinnacle of power, should not be admired by Somalis because he is Christian and accosted by Jews. In doing so, Ali went on further to also diminish the gallantry of Dervish guul over the British, colonial power and Ali Mire’s courageous counter-offense that caused Corfield’s death to a dreadfully senseless of a dragged, dead, cut off hand.  Glorifying the most gruesome part that “…Ismail Mire, dragged Richard Corfiled amputated arm behind his horse from where Corfiled [sic] was killed to the Dervish Headquarters...” because he was Christian “The dragging of the arm [sic] illustrates the precautions that Mire took so as not to touch it in any way, believing that carrying it or touching it would somehow dirty his soul…” belittles us and in totality is tasteless.  Even Somalis then had a saying against this type of a terrible treatment of the dead: baqtiwareen.  The action and any behavior of boqtiwareen (dead desecration) was looked down upon by many a Somali man!   

What a letdown; letdown because though Ali’s articles are usually articulate, in this, his logical calculation left a void in me.  Yes, he quoted Abraham Lincoln right, yet neglected to illuminate the fact that African Americans were property (slaves) the time he chose to lecture us about.  They were owned as chattels (not deemed human beings) let alone social and political equalities.  Thus, Abraham Lincoln was the first white man in power who did not only recognize the grave foul of the greatest human tragedy but put America thorough the bloodiest civil war, in part to rectify the wrong, with which in the end, made it possible for him to muscle emancipation away from the slavery’s jaws.  So you see that it is only logical to ascend stairs one step at the time!  A baby does not run to the top of the hills the minute he wills himself to walk but learns to take the first step then falls, takes the second, then the third and on. 

On other hand, it is well established fact that the quote of Lincoln that Ali has cited has been used in political science classes but only to measure the dept of the sourest siren a politician sounds at the height of American election fever, just to win over a few fickle voters!  Thus, validating the point that Abraham Lincoln knew how prejudice America was then but wanted to win.  What he did with that victory was what matters the most.  Courageously Lincoln did what American southerners and many northerners did not want him to do (to end slavery once and for all).  Now we know that history rewarded him right for his courageous course of action by draping him with the title of “American’s best president!” 

In this argument however, yes, Barack Obama said--once--that if he were elected, he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.  And yes, as a Muslim it pained me too, but did not diminish my admiration for the man an inch.  Fortunately, the same day, almost minutes later, Mr. Obama reversed himself by back tracking that same statement, concluding that, the Jerusalem issue should be left to the Palestinians and Israelis to sort it out themselves if peace is reached!  Therefore, either Ali is ill-informed because he himself has been misled by the Arab news or is ignoring the facts altogether. 

Furthermore, it is distasteful to read derogatory statements such as, “…it is wrong to support a guy who has very strong opinions about making Jerusalem the undivided capital of the Zionist entity at the expense of the downtrodden Palestinians. It is wrong to support a guy who has picked Joe Biden as Vice President, a staunch supporter of the Zionist Regime…. It is wrong to support a guy who has picked Rohm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff, another staunch supporter of the Zionist Regime and who fought alongside the Israelis army in Palestine. It is wrong to support a man who has renounced his Islamic roots and denies his name just to win an election.”  Brother Ali, even though there are numerous issues in this paragraph alone, who is in office in American that does not proclaim unfettered support for Israel?  And by the way, even the Arab world as of late banished the word “Zionist” from its vocabulary! 

Candidly, as a Muslim man and a Somali, there are things that I would have erased from Rohm Emmanuel’s resume as well as the gaffe that his father gurgled when he responded to a question from a journalist, stating, ‘Obviously he'll influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to be mopping floors at the White House.’  This was the most unfortunate racist epithet anyone remotely connected to Barack Obama’ presidential election time as well as post election uttered.  And for one, Mr. Emmanuel responded forcefully against his father’s asinine and insulting remarks, stating, ‘From the fullness of my heart, I personally apologise on behalf of my family and me. These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family.’  And though Ali’s argument is predicated on the same argument, his article predated this blunder too.  Second, Barack is the President, and neither Emmanuel nor Biden is.  Presidents get their way, the smart ones do anyway!       

What I can’t seem to understand here however, is why the most racist elements of America, religious rights (Christian fundamentalists) and Ali are on the same page that Barack Obama is Muslim.  No, he is not!  His mother was not, his grandparents were not, his stepfather was not, his sister is not, his country is not, and you know what?  The only Muslim he had contacts with was his father, and what did his Muslim father do?  He deserved him.  Thus growing up all Obama had, was Christianity, his mother and grandparents.  Now that he is the most powerful man in the universe, Ali wants to claim a part of him but only after forcing his “identity” and faith on him.  Listen, chuffing your religion on someone else’s throat, anywhere, is unacceptable.  Where is it going to stop? I am sure Ali knows that those of us who are Muslims but not only live in America (and other places in the western world) and probably by now naturalized, do not want anyone forcing his/her religion on us nor on our children.  And guess what?  They do not, though, if they were speaking from Ali’s point of view, they would have argued that Muslim children, including ours, who were born in America/west and raised here, are repudiating their identity and culture by remaining being Muslims!

By the way, we Somalis here in America and elsewhere in the west know that when the richest, Arab Muslim nations discarded us, the Christians and yes some Jews, took our maato in and fed them.  Same for the Palestinians, I may add.  Hell, Arabs are still deporting generation of Somalis who, get this, were born in their countries, and have never been to Somalia nor speak the Somali language and do the same to the Palestinians.  How many of their Somali/Palestinian Obamas do they disown each month by shipping them off like sheep?  Just last month when the so-called al Shabab charlatans (who are dumber and more dangerous than Abdullahi Yusuf, Riyale and Cadde-yaal combined) closed off the Mogadishu airport, the only plane that landed in months (because of fear of being shot down) was full of Somali deportees from Saudi Arabia.  So please, do not read me a lullaby of Muslim fraternity.  Let me remind you friend, while Muslims are busy deporting their Obamas, American is busy nurturing them, and guess what?  They become presidents or will be one day!  So leave me to be a Muslim living among Jews and Christians.  At least my child has a better chance here to chase a dream, even if he is Muslim!  Why not, America may produce yet another President from a very unlikely group before the Arabs have the least inclination of letting others without the portfolio of patrimonial pedigree!  On other hand, he whose father is a Muslim, a black and an East African is in the White House.  And you know what; anywhere else in the world this man would have been a foreigner, even in those countries that are not as dumb as Arabs to depart the likes of him from his birthplace!  Only in America, only in America my friend, would this be possible!

I should console you with a note that all is not lost here, for I at least agree with you on the point you had raised about the motherland “Somalia” and her misery.  Yet in conclusion, I have to concede to the irony that in fact we both are Somalis, and, what are we arguing about?!

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Ahmed I. Yusuf
E-Mail:[email protected]