The Far Right: "Miss USA is a terrorist!"

[ck4829]

It probably did not require a Ph.D. to predict that some would be unhappy to see an Arab-American win the Miss USA pageant. The backlash against Rima Fakih, whose Lebanese heritage includes Christian and Muslim family, quickly hit certain fringes of the conservative blogosphere. (The majority of conservatives, and of pundits overall, do not share their criticism. And of course the extreme fringe is always ready to offend.) Here's what they're saying and a few attempts at understanding why they're saying it.

Fox News' Gretchen Carlson asks, "Did the Muslim-American win because of the whole P.C. society that we find ourselves in?"

Conservative writer Debbie Schlussel goes there: "It’s a sad day in America but a very predictable one, given the politically correct, Islamo-pandering climate in which we’re mired. The Hezbollah-supporting Shi’ite Muslim, Miss Michigan Rima Fakih–whose bid for the pageant was financed by an Islamic terrorist and immigration fraud perpetrator–won the Miss USA contest. I was on top of this story before anyone, telling you about who Fakih is and her extremist and deadly ties."

National Review writer, Bush-era State Department official, and Giuliani campaign adviser Daniel Pipes writes on his personal blog, "This surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageants makes me suspect an odd form of affirmative action. My suspicion is borne out by the selection of Anisah Rasheed as Miss A&T at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University." He cites four Muslim-American beauty pageant winners.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Why-Some-Are-Outraged-by-Arab-Miss-USA-3632

This is probably one of the ugliest examples of bigotry you can find, "An (X) can't be successful at something unless there is a conspiracy behind it!"

Let's try another one, shall we?

"Larry Bird can't be good at basketball, there must have been a conspiracy behind it!"

See how crazy that sounds?

[MIprogressive1]

1. A better example than that would be...

President Obama was elected president because of his race. Im sure thats what the teabaggers think. just horrible!

[bbernardini]

2. Where's Schlussel's documentation to back up her claims? nt

[ck4829]

5. She says she has "intelligence sources"

And by "intelligence sources", it's really just unsourced and unverifiable filler.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Why-Some-Are-Outraged-by-Arab-Miss-USA-3632

She also has "intelligence sources" for the following:

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/3510/so-this-is-peace-muslims-kill-at-least-ten-jews-wound-35-in-deadly-attack-on-jewish-school-in-israel-update-insider-source-new-hezbo-grp-in-gaza-takes-credit/
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/3757/exclusive-from-lebanon-iran-revolutionary-guard-caught-fighting-for-hezbollah/
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/4268/who-is-ali-taleb-how-a-hezbollah-terrorist-wanted-in-lebanon-tried-to-frame-my-counterterrorist-client-in-court-and-lost-no-thanks-to-ice/
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/3399/it-gets-worse-more-on-adls-hezbollah-speaker-ties-to-syria-more-terrorists-etc/

She might as well just stop with the "intelligence sources" and use "true story" or "FACT!" instead.

[RKP5637]

3. "This surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageants makes me suspect an odd form of

affirmative action."

Here's my take on this, maybe they're better looking, more appealing and sharper than bleached blonds with fake tits.

[nickinSTL]

4. Rima Fakih is certainly way more appealing

than 90% of beauty pageant contestants, IMO.

[madrchsod]

9. she has a very cute face...way more interesting...

[elehhhhna]

17. first winner with real boobs since, like, forever.

oh, and gorgeous.

call me racist but Persians ARE often gorgeous (by western standards, anyway)

[nickinSTL]

18. yeah, the real boobs is a big one for me

and, uh...if she's Lebanese, that's not the same as Persian.

[krabigirl]

6. They are just mad that a typical bleached-out blonde didn't win.

[KonaKane]

7. Gee, she couldn't have possibly won based on her beauty and talents.

No, the goons at FAUX SNOOZE are "wondering" if its some other nefarious force at work.

[madrchsod]

8. good old debbie.....

it seems to me she`s just a bit unhinged when it comes to arabs. i think a "muslim" screwed the shit out of her and never went out with her again. ya, i`m rude and crude but that guy must have pushed all the right buttons....

[Saphire]

22. He must have screwed a lot of people then, cause their all pissed off.

[etherealtruth]

10. Though I am biased

My 16 year old daughter is considered a beauty (she is mercifully aware that outer beauty is simply the convergence of genetics and societal norms and standards). She is an American .... but, her name is very typical of a Muslim and she shares many attributes of my and her father's ethnic backgrounds.

These jerk-offs are simply upset that she doesn't look like Palin's redneck "real" Americans.

[gratuitous]

11. Cheap outrage, patently manufactured

I don't know what the lead content is in the paint, but this "outrage" on the right looks everything like cheap plastic manufacture that breaks as soon as you get it home. They have to get their drooling viewers upset about something, no matter what it is, no matter how silly or far-fetched. It’s not meant to be about anything, and they’ll forget about it within seconds, so many bad-for-you empty anger calories it might as well be a KFC Double Down sandwich. If you bring it up again in six hours, six days, six weeks or six months from now, you’ll get a stare of such blankness you’ll wonder if you suddenly started speaking Navajo.

[hyphenate]

12. She's beautiful and intelligent

That scares most of the idiots on the right.

I suppose the next thing they're going to say is she's going to use her status to go into places and reconnoiter them for "other" reasons.

Hell, the bitches on the right are probably going to hate her more than many of the men. At least many of the men are going to have to admit she's attractive. The women are going to be the main attackers--just think, a woman with middle-eastern roots trying to "flaunt" her womanness! Women can be real bitches--something, as a woman, I can say honestly.

Women don't like to compliment other woman a lot of the time. Even though it's easier to help light another candle, some are too selfish to do so.

[phantom power]

13. The Manchurian Contestant -- nooooooooooooooo!

:rofl:

[indepat]

14. How could such a drop-dead gorgeous contestant not win?

:shrug:

[jberryhill]

15. Non-Jumped Sharks Are Officially An Endangered Species /nt

[chrisa]

26. That fact that she was called "The American-Muslim" instead of her name.

Leads me to believe that the non-jumped sharks are flying off the rails.

[librechik]

16. of course. All Muslims are terrorists, and all RW Fundies are

retarded.

(pardon my unPC term.) But I think we can all agree on this.

[hulka38]

19. She won over four blonde finalists

which must have added to their frustration.

[political_Dem]

20. Screw them. Their racism and religious supremacy is showing. Their attitude is very ugly.

n/t

[underpants]

21. The worst part is that it usually takes a lot of pot to be this paranoid

I was always amazed at how stupid the ideas coming out of the Neo-cons camp were when they were basically talking to themselves. There appears to be no excessive pot smoking or even drinking involved. They showed up, for no reason really, every day in suits to sit around and talk about fantasties that no one can connect to the real world.

[customerserviceguy]

23. The reich wingers just don't realize

that they've been jerked around yet again by Donald Trump. He engineered the whole Carrie Prejean thing last year, and now he wants to screw with their heads one more time.

It all makes headlines for an institution that should have died out a decade or two ago.

[The Midway Rebel]

24. She may not be a terrorist but she certainly is...

the bomb!

[chrisa]

25. These people are disgusting racists.

I'm embarassed to live in the same country as them.