The New Yorker's Obama Cover: Fanning the Fire

JULY 15, 2008— -- Author's Note: Daniel Pipes has complained that my op-ed piece was false in asserting that he "nurtured the rumor that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim." For the record, it is true that Mr. Pipes has stated that he accepts that Obama is now a practicing Christian. In retrospect, I should have said that Pipes has nurtured rumors that Obama practiced Islam in his youth. -- Eboo Patel, Jan. 30, 2009

My wife called as I was staring at the cover of this week's New Yorker, trying to decide whether the depiction of Barack Obama dressed in traditional Muslim garb giving his machine-gun-toting wife a fist tap in the Oval Office was "tasteless and offensive" (as both the Obama and McCain camps stated) or mere humorous satire.

I am a loyal New Yorker reader and not easily offended, but something she said gave me pause.

Driving through central Illinois on a business trip, my wife could not believe what she was hearing on right-wing radio talk shows:

"Do you know what they're saying about Muslims on the station I'm listening to now?" she asked. "Basically, that we're a bunch of fundamentalists intent on suffocating people of other religions, and the only way to stop us is to get us all to convert to Christianity."

And that is what concerns me: The New Yorker cover is not so much offensive as it is dangerous, precisely because of the prevalence of negative stereotypes of Muslims (not to mention the resurrection of the ghost of black militancy), stereotypes now further cemented in much of America.

As the progressive Huffington Post blog said: "Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism -- well, here's your image."

Magazines exist in a broader environment and have to take that into account when they publish. There is a difference between falsely shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater and shouting the same word in an open field, where everyone can look around and see that you are lying.

Unfortunately, too much of the American populace is fearful and suspicious of Muslims. In a 2007 Pew Poll, 45 percent of Americans said Islam encourages violence. And a recent Gallup World Poll found that Americans' views of Muslims have actually gotten worse between 2006 and 2008, dropping 13 points.