Should America have a Sunni or Shiite president?

By Cindi Knox on August 22, 2008 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In Iraq, there are three major factions: Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish. 60% of the Kurds are Sunni, mostly of Sufi sects.

We here in the United States are mystified, amused, or aghast at the influnce of slamic clerics in the politics of Iraq. They seem to be able to dictate who will vote for whom, and how the political leaders will act. And many of us decry the treatment of the religious minorities, such as Judaism and Christianity, in Iraq.

On the heels of Rick Warren's political debate at his Saddleback church, with an eye on James Dobson's and Pat Robertson's (et al) views on the candidates, and remembering the scandal of the sermons of Reverend Jeremaiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, we might take the time to recognize how the US is not all that different from Iraq.

The myth that Barack Hussein (yes, I said it) Obama is Muslim wil not die, but why is it even an issue? Flip the issue and imagine it in Iraq: "William Bush Johnson denied widely circulated rumors that he is a Christian, and points out that he has been a member of a local mosque for twenty years." Many Americans would talk about how awful it was that someone would be attacked for being a Christian, and how backwards that country is.

Many of us actually look at the clerics at the places where one candidate worships and declare the candidate unfit because of a couple of sermons given by the cleric - while ignoring the fact that another candidate rarely attends services.

Many of us choose candidates based on their alignment with our faith, impugning the faith of those who are in a different denomination, and trust our clerics to tell us how to choose candidates.

In short, many of us choose candidates based on sectarian division instead of trying to choose someone with a vision for the whole of the country. We may not (yet) be forcing people out of their homes because they believe differently (well, except for the Muslims chased out of some neighborhoods), but we still divide our country based on a subset of doctrine.

For those of you who are thinking that the United Church of Christ attended by Obama isn't Christian enough, or McCain is too Evangelical, or your local candidate is too Catholic: