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My Christian-Muslim American President
By al-Husein N. Madhany
gateway manager at patheos.com
The day before last November's presidential election, I was checking my bags at the domestic counter for one of the big American airlines in San Francisco. When I handed my driver's license to the woman behind the counter and told her my name--al-Husein Madhany--she gave me a look (a mixture of confusion and apprehension straining behind a mask of polite, professional composure) that I'd seen many times before.
"I'm sorry," she said carefully.
"My first name's al-Husein," I replied, winding up my wicked curveball. "You know, like Saddam Hussein."
After a beat, I got a blank stare and a nervous little laugh. Then I let the moment pass and steered the conversation back on script.
That familiar exchange had been a fixture in my life from the time of the first Gulf War until Election Day 2008. Muslims had become the scary "other" for most Americans, but we existed in the popular imagination as inhabitants of that gray part of the globe beyond, say, France. Not as neighbors who lived, worked and prayed in the same communities as our non-Muslim fellow citizens.
The point of my well rehearsed airline-agent routine--and of most of what I've done professionally--has been to draw attention to the blind spots in relations between Muslim-Americans and the rest of the people who make up this great country. Over the past couple of decades, it has become vitally important for Americans to engage the Muslim world. But precisely because this notion of Muslims as "others" is so pervasive, it has become even more important for Americans to engage their Muslim neighbors.
What a difference an election can make.
When I flew back into San Francisco a couple of days later, the agent again did a double-take after I told him my name, but I had already revised my routine.
"My first name's al-Husein," I told him. "You know, like Barack Hussein Obama."
A Christian man with a Muslim father and a large extended Muslim family had become the country's first African-American President. Even more significant was the fact that 68 million Americans had voted to put the "other" in the Oval Office.
I've always felt like an American; like most Muslims who live here, I'm as comfortable claiming both my religious and national identities as Protestant, Catholic or Jewish Americans are--as comfortable as Americans of any faith usually are.
But since Election Day, my non-Muslim peers have been able to see me as an American much more easily than they could before. Americans in general now see Muslims a bit more clearly than they did before.
Barack Obama's presidency has allowed us to begin to have the conversation that Americans have been afraid to have. The purpose behind my work at Patheos--in fact, the vision that guides everything we do--is to begin to build a bridge across that perceptibly narrowing divide.
Over the next couple of weeks, Patheos will feature content related to President Obama's upcoming speech in Egypt from an array of faith traditions, including contributions from Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, author of My Year inside Radical Islam, and members of the White House Office for Faith-Based Initiatives. And starting on May 28, the site will highlight half a dozen Muslim perspectives on the President's visit to the Middle East.
As a nation, we have come to a point where it behooves us not to fall back on empty stereotypes about religious "others." This requires that the global conversation about religion and spirituality must be made public--not simply for the sake of our individual well-being but also for the sake of all of us. As we like to say at Patheos, it's about time.
Al-Husein N. Madhany is the Muslim gateway manager at Patheos.com, a safe place to engage in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality and to explore and experience the world's beliefs.
For more commentary on Obama's speech to the Muslim World, go to the Saban Center at Brookings' Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and the Doha Network.
By al-Husein N. Madhany |
June 3, 2009; 9:03 AM ET
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Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | June 4, 2009 5:23 AM
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Zebra4: You write of Abhab: "Now I get this garbage from this zionist."
I have been blogging here for two years, and I have yet to see a post by Abhab on Israel, yet you call him a "zionist" (sic).
Kindly explain the basis of this claim, which branch of Zionism (key figures, please), he subscribes to, where I may find his comments on Israel.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | June 4, 2009 5:21 AM
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I guess I should also add, that if you're attempting to expedite bureaucracy, and your name is spelled with one 's,' ... it's probably best not to refer to a famous name spelt with *two* s'es.
If I'm named 'Donaghue,' it's not helping to say, 'Like Phil Donahue'
Posted by: Paganplace | June 3, 2009 10:57 PM
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And, no, Chatard, whoever writes the subtitles is probably not thinking, never mind it being a damn conspiracy.
Soon... It will be just the trolls here, and the place will implode.
Posted by: Paganplace | June 3, 2009 10:50 PM
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I mean, I hate to nitpick, here, but:
""I'm sorry," she said carefully.
"My first name's al-Husein," I replied, winding up my wicked curveball. "You know, like Saddam Hussein."
"After a beat, I got a blank stare and a nervous little laugh. Then I let the moment pass and steered the conversation back on script."
I can't help but notice a flaw in your comparison here. If you'd said, "Hussein, like Queen Noor's husband,"
You might have gotten a better response.
You know, like if your name was Adolf, you could have said, 'Adolf, like the guy who founded Coors Beer,' rather than mentioning abother famous Adolf I'm sure I needn't mention.
Yes, I know it's a common name in a lot of the world. If you feer you're in a place to freak out security personnel... well, I guess you could do that.
Posted by: Paganplace | June 3, 2009 10:47 PM
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Why is the Post NOW comfortable with publishing a piece by a man who refers to "My Christian-Muslim
President"? Muslim was taboo during the election, as was Hussein. Trinity Church was all the rage. Now after "America is not a Christian nation", and after negative Christian stories in The Dailies...daily...."America might be considered one of the largest Muslim countries in the world" and Barack Hussein Obama has such a nice ring to it. In just a few short weeks Obama has paid homage to the Saudi King twice, is urged on by CBS News which is hopeful that Obama will give 'the Muslim world' HOPE. This comment could go on for hours. Obama spent two years denying he was a socialist and denying he was a Muslim. The veil is being lifted. He is being revealed as a Muslim Socialist.
Posted by: chatard | June 3, 2009 10:35 PM
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Zebra4
Syed Kimran Mirza?????? He is Abhab! He is Helocelz1!!!! (All three in one)sometime he is arif2. What they are doing is childish.
The site he is refering to belongs to his father ali sina, a snail in the hiding.
These people are all paid to write against Islam and hence no serious discussion can be carried with them.
Posted by: hitman2 | June 3, 2009 3:46 PM
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ABHAB's garbage is familiar to most readers. Sometimes he calls himself Captain ABHAB.
I served American interests abroad, served my state and the country faithfully for more than 3 decades. Now I get this garbage from this zionist. My answer to him is GET LOST! I owe people like you nothing.
Fortunately, most rational Americans realize now that a person's worth should be the ideas he/she brings in and the sincerity with which this person serves his state or the institution he/she works for and not the color of his/her skin or the identity (religious affiliation, race etc). Barak Obama was elected to be our President for this reason.
Posted by: zebra4 | June 3, 2009 1:06 PM
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Madhani asserts:
“I've always felt like an American; like most Muslims who live here, I'm as comfortable claiming both my religious and national identities as Protestant, Catholic or Jewish.”
This is big time BS! That is unless he is different than all his co-religionists.
A Muslim, even a no practicing one, might be living in Spain, Russia or Honduras, but will never consider himself anything but a Muslim; a member of the Muslim nation called Ummah. At one time Muslims lived in a federation called caliphate under the headship of one king or caliph. After the disintegration of the last caliphate in 1924 there is now a sort of an emotional confederation called “The Islamic World”; a collection 57 impotent and failed so-called states. Muslims identify with that confederation yet risk life and limb to break away from there to reach the “lands of the Infidels.”
Posted by: abhab | June 3, 2009 11:02 AM
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Zebra4:
A point of clarification regarding my previous post: When I say "key thinkers," I mean seminal/germinal thinkers, theorists.