Brooklyn Bedouin

Republicans: Tell me why I should vote for any of you and not President Barack Obama --- Seriously, I am listening.

I just want to make this clear before you start reading this blog post and you are from the Romney, Paul, Santorum, Gingrich, Bachmann, Perry, Huntsman, Campaigns: I am black american, I am male, I am Muslim. Just giving you all this informaiton up front just in case any of those tags brings up any red flags. 

-----

The Republican presidential race is nearing an early climax. In just a few days Republican voters in Iowa will cast their votes for who they think is the best person to beat President Barack Obama in the general election. They are pretty much all lame and inspire little confidence. 

Here’s my situation. I am deeply disappointed in the performance of Obama. I say so with the perspective of someone that works in perhaps the best managed executive office in the country. Managing institutions at this scale is incredibly difficult. To do it well happens very rarely. 

So, you could say that I am someone that looked at the Republican primary season with some general interest. What if there could be a candidate that spoke to me in a way that addressed some of my primary concerns? 

I define myself as a “nuts and bolts” guy. I am not interested in social issues, so that takes 99% of the Republican and Democratic candidates off the block for me. In fact, when I vote I look for what a candidates track record is on water, waste, energy, food. Along those lines I have stated how I think all of those systems need to be best managed in my book Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet and I firmly think that both government and private sectors need to reform - but also play a very important role. Both are part of the problem and both need to be part of the solution. 

Basically, I am looking for the candidate that will invest in water, cleaner energy, and will work to make sure that people eat good food that provides nourishment. I would also like a candidate that is not constantly obsessed with telling the world that my religion is plotting to take over the country. I want a candidate that will not have a not-so-secret- racist past or present, and a candidate that will actually make the choice to keep us out of a war, instead of constantly looking for one. 

Where is this candidate? 

It seems that so many of these folks running for office want to tell you what kind of person they are, how they grew up, etc. I am actually less interested in that. I want to know what you think about protecting and cleaning up water supplies, incentivizing clean energy technology and development, and in cleaning the air around us. I want to hear about how you plan on saving lives instead of how you will put more in harms way. I am less inerested in how much you do or do not support Israel or Pakistan and more interested in what you are going to do to make sure that students in Appalachia are able to get an education and not have to worry about coal slurry destroying their ancestral lands. 

Where are the serious public servants?

Serious public servants maintain a template of services that it makes sense, for the general welfare, for the government to manage. All the companies that claim to want zero regulation would not exist had it not been for the roads and bridges and water and trash removal, etc, all offered by a good government. Claiming government is the problem or that capitalism and corporations are the problem is a cop-out. People make bad decisions everyday. Systemically, groups of people feel no social pressure to do otherwise and so keep making bad decisions that they are unaware of. So where, again, are the real servants who will set up the structure of our main systems so that we can then make our own decisions?

Right now Obama is still the best choice based on his attention to environmental issues, his funding of the building of roads and bridges, etc. I would love it if one of these Republicans stepped in and really challenged him on protection of the basic, bottom-line, systems that make living feasible. 

I would love it if a Republican candidate started talking “nuts and bolts” instead of dancing in a make-believe world that makes sense to none but the ones running and the idiot news media that follows them. 

I dare you Republicans make a platform that a Black American, descendant of enslaved Africans and later Homesteaders, highly educated, Muslim by birth, married with a child, with savings and disposable income, values and a deep understanding of American history, politics, and culture... tell me why I should vote for any of you and not President Barack Obama --- Seriously, I am listening. 

PS: President Obama please refresh my memory on why I voted for you. Thanks. 

 

What Next After the Boycott of Lowes?

Today is a big day for Muslim organizers and what I hope, is the first of many. Right here in Brooklyn, thousands are coming together to protest the bigoted actions of Lowes Home Improvement stores. For those of you who don't know, Lowe's pulled all their advertising from TLC's new reality show, "All American Muslim."  This was in response to a right-wing group in Florida that thinks the show is deceptive because it shows Muslims in everyday environments and not planning terrorist plots.

Admittedly I have not seen the show. But it sounds like a decent effort to combat Islamophobia by showing 5 families in Dearborn, Michigan, living, working, playing, studying, praying like the rest of America. 

I am proud of the Muslim community today for so quickly, efficiently, and successfully organizing against Lowes.  Now, I challenge the Muslims to use their obvious power to organize against other companies whose actions hurt not just the Muslim community, but hurt everyone.  

Muslims have used the power of online organizing to quickly create a website, generate a petition, and gather over 40,000 signatures.

Muslims organizing a boycott is significant, important, and something to pay attention to.  You see, Muslims, as a demographic, have an incredible amount of spending power. Recent studies show that annually, Muslims spend between $125 and $200 billion in the United States alone.  Ironically, this article shows $33 billion of spending in housing and housing services - too bad Lowe's!  

Now here comes my challenge to the Muslims.  If we put together our speed in organizing, our consumer power, and our allies, think of our impact on other corporations! We can harness our power to bring to light wrongdoings that other big companies are committing against everyone. We can help reshape American spending to support those with socially responsible, ethical practices. 

What if Lowe's was McDonald's? One pulls advertising the other props up a factory farming system destructive to the planet and to people's health. McDonalds brags about serving Billions - but what are they serving? 

What if Lowe's was Walmart? I know Muslims in my family that spend exorbitant amounts of money at Walmart when they should see them as bigoted as they now see Lowe's. Walmart's crushing labor practices, unsafe working conditions, and negative community impact have more heinous, more long lasting implications on not just Muslims, but everyone, than say Lowe's pulling its ads. 

No question about it, I have high hopes for the Muslim community that we can be leaders in bringing movements together and in organizing on issues that don't exclusively impact Muslims. In fact, we can use the issues that impact us to advocate for everyone's rights!  I try to establish Muslims as leaders on environmental issues in my book - Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet - because the environment affects everyone.  So congrats my people on a successful campaign against Lowe's, but let's choose the next campaign that will bring about positive change for all.