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Alexa Foresees New Powell Doctine: "His Name Was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, And He Was An American"

By blueness

Back in July, amid the fuss over Barry Blitt's New Yorker cover--the one that portrayed Barack and Michelle Obama as gun-toting, flag-burning, Osama-respecting Muslims--Alexa posted here a diary that asked:

Is there something wrong with being Muslim?

What message do the heated denials and debates send out to Arab Americans, and to our own children, when Barack Obama is challenged about being "as far as I know" (not Muslim)? . . . .

No matter what you think you know about Muslims, here's a news flash: They aren't any different than you or I . . . .

Don't we have enough Arab American resentment in this country? I would love it if just once, just one time, the media would make a distinction that puts this particular "slander" into perspective: Barack Obama is not Muslim, not that there is anything wrong with being Muslim.

In this, Alexa foresaw what I call the New Powell Doctrine, pronounced this morning by Colin Powell on Meet The Press, amid his endorsement of Barack Obama for the office of President of the United States.  
Powell tackled on Meet the Press the "Obama is a Muslim" canard head-on, baldly stating he has heard this lie expressed by senior members of the Republican Party:

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is: what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith.  

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life.

Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way.

The photo referenced by Powell, like Blitt's cartoon, appeared in the New Yorker. It may be found here. Because I am a 20th Century man marooned in a 21st Century world, I do not know how to embed the photograph in this diary. Nor am I able to embed the YouTube videos of Powell's appearance on Meet the Press, and of his further street-side remarks to reporters following that appearance. So until some other, more technified site-admin moseys into this diary and then proceeds to edit these visuals into it, you can find both YouTube videos here, in icebergslim's diary on Daily Kos.

More from Powell, this time from his post-MTP remarks to reporters on the street:

We have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. So those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about, not about Mr. Ayers, not about who's a Muslim or who's not a Muslim.

Those kinds of images going out on Al-Jazeera are killing us around the world. And we have got to say to the world, it doesn't make any difference who you are or what you are, if you're an American, you're an American.

And this business, for example, of the congressman from Minnesota who's going around saying, "Let's examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America or not pro-America"--we have got to stop this kind of nonsense, pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and in our diversity. And so, that really was driving me.

And to focus on people like Mr. Ayers and these trivial issues, for the purpose of suggesting that somehow Mr. Obama would have some kind of terrorist inclinations, I thought that was over the top. It was beyond just good political fighting back and forth. I think it went beyond.

And to sort of throw in this little Muslim connection, you know, "He's a Muslim and, my goodness, he's a terrorist"--it was taking root. And we can't judge our people and we can't hold our elections on that kind of basis.

It needs to be remembered that Colin Powell once seriously considered seeking the presidency. From what I have been able to determine, he eventually decided against it in no small part because his wife had convinced him that if he were to run, either his person or his character would be killed . . . just as, according to Powell himself, "senior members of my own party" are even now endeavoring to kill the character of Barack Obama. Like probably no other human being alive, Powell can empathize with where Obama is today . . . because he nearly went there himself.

Powell didn't need to make this endorsement. He didn't need to so forcefully attack his own party in doing so. He didn't need to call out the McCain campaign, and he certainly didn't need to come to the defense of the nation's Muslims. But he did. Colin Powell is an imperfect man who has done imperfect things. Some of those things have caused, or contributed to, great suffering. But, today, I say bless Colin Powell. If anybody is going to be able to get across to this nation the fact that Muslims are equal Americans, equal human beings, it is Colin Powell. No one is going to accuse him of being a Muslim, a terrorist. Powell is the man, after all, who presided over three wars against the two biggest Muslim/terrorist boogey-men of our time: Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

In the histories, Colin Powell will probably best be remembered for what has come to be known as "The Powell Doctrine," an article of war. But I suspect that Powell himself would prefer to be remembered for this new Powell Doctrine, an article of peace: "And His Name Was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, And He Was An American."

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on October 19, 2008 (boomark / email).