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Arabic names and other non-conventional names
Barack Obama has an arabic name and it is causing problems for him in the presidential election, Barack's namesake is his Kenyan father, who was a non-practicing muslim but Barack himself has had nothing to do with Islam and never was a Muslim.
1. Why in America can people discriminate so heavily based on a name that is obviously handed down?
2. This question is for any of the Muslim bloggers, does it offend you that it is even an issue with his name and the Arabic origin, isnt this suggesting America's distrust toward the Middle East with discriminating against his Arabic name?
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1. Because they are ignorant, paranoid and mislead by government and media propaganda.
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Technically, Barack is an Anglicized version of a Swahili name with an ultimate Arabic derivation. The most common form of the name in Arabic speaking countries would seem to be Barakat. Well, people can do all sorts of foolish and prejudiced things and do so all the time. There will always be people who will dislike things that are new and unfamiliar to them, especially things that they will immediately link in their minds to scary concepts such as terrorism. For many, it's a natural part of the personality characteristic called "authoritarianism".
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1. People in America can be stupid. Just look at some of the forwards that go around about Senator Obama. (http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/obama.asp) People discriminate based off of a person's skin colour, accent, sex--why wouldn't a name be fair game?I feel that this is a question that could be better suited to the Lounge, as Senator Obama's name is only peripherally related to the larger issue of anti-Arabic sentiment.Array
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The lounge, ok! I just thought it was kind of opinion oriented but it is more political than most of the topics here. Yeah your right about Americans discriminating on race and sex--two things people have no control over, and names should fall under that category aswell, many people may say that Brack can just change his name but that is such an ignorant proposal, perhaps he likes his name, it has a beautiful and strong meaning. It's just sad that something like a name or race could jeopardize his chances at bettering this country and setting us on the right path.
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