Religion in the 2008 Election Cycle

It's been a while, I've been kind of busy.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Twelve hundred years ago, Baghdad was the center of knowledge...today, it's the center of despair. Learn more about historical Baghdad.

This week, there has been a big to-do about comments made by Jeremiah Wright, retired pastor at the Trinity United Church for Christ in Chicago. Wright also happened to be an advisor to Senator Barak Obama. Wright had made comments about the attacks on September 11th, 2001, saying "the chickens have come home to roost." Now I am not an apologist, "Loose Change" freak, or anything like that, but I don't think what Pastor Wright said was completely off base. What is the alternative? The hijackers flew the planes because they hated America's freedom? No dice, Mr. Bush, but thanks for dumbing it down for the simpletons. I digress. The uproar over Pastor Wright's comments has thrust religion to a more prominent role in the presidential campaign. Coincidentally (or not?), Senator McCain is in Israel, trying to court Jewish favor and kowtowing to the evangelicals in the Republican party. Senator Obama gave a speech yesterday talking about how race has become an issue, and although he touched on religion, he left quite a bit unsaid. Now I'm NOT going to pull an Umar Lee and make up some speech that I wish Senator Obama said. What I do know is that multiple efforts have been made by various Muslim organizations to contact the Senator through his campaign, but he has yet to respond. This leads to a potentially scary scenario for American Muslims. Senator McCain is going out of his way to impress Evangelicals, which by definition means he will go out of his way to avoid Muslims. Senator Obama, who is rumored to be a "secret Muslim", will do everything to prove to people he is NOT Muslim, meaning he won't meet with or even take any calls from leaders like Dr. Ingrid Matson, Hamza Yusuf, or even Keith Ellison. The prospects for the 2008 election seem to getting bleaker by the day.