Egyptians are cautiously rejoicing over the recent appointment of a veiled Egyptian American Muslim woman as an advisor to President Obama.
Dalia Mogahed, senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, was appointed this month to Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Arabs are closely watching for signs that the new leadership in Washington is making efforts to improve relations with Islam, which many Muslims believe were severely damaged during the eight years of the Bush administration. The selection of Mogahed is viewed by many in the Middle East as a step by Obama to move beyond the stereotypes and prejudices that Muslims believe they have encountered since the attacks Sept. 11, 2001.
That’s crazy. President Bush reached out time and time again to reassure the Islamic world that our struggle was not against Islam, but against extremists. We maintained a good working relationship with Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Turkey, and many other Islamic nations, not to mention very good will from the Muslims liberated in Iraq.
It’s clearly the author of the article inserting his preconceived notions as fact into an editorialized article masquerading as a news story.
Jim Elliott
The reporter shows his bent for accuracy by calling her a “veiled…woman” then showing a picture without a veil???
RalphM, when Muslims say “veiled” they mean “wearing a headscarf,” or at least that’s what they mean in Egypt, and the pictured woman is Egyptian. In Egyptian, she is “muhigaba,” veiled, rather than “muniqaba,” wearing the face covering which you think of as a veil.