The D'Oh of Xenophobia

When whackadoo xenophobia crosses wires with cultural illiteracy the results can be, if not tragic, then at least pretty comical.

Meet Circuit Judge Elijah Williams of Florida. He's a veteran family court judge down in Broward County Florida and he faced a primary election on Tuesday. But a few weeks ago an group of bloggers began suggesting that Williams had not been straight with voters about being a Muslim.

Only Williams isn't a Muslim. So what was the evidence? Well, that his first name is "Elijah" and that's a Muslim name. Only, of course, "Elijah" isn't a Muslim name. To the extent that names have religions, it's a Christian name. Actually, it's an anglicized version of a Hebrew name that has been assimilated into being a Christian name.

Presumably the confusion is that longtime leader (actually not the founder) of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Mohammed (who was born into a Christian family in Georgia in in 1897 as Elijah Poole) was Muslim so Elijah's a Muslim name.

"It was a bit surreal,'' Williams told the Miami Herald. "I ended up explaining to people -- some of them prominent, educated people who asked about this -- that if my name concerned them, they should know `Elijah' has Hebrew roots, that Elijah was a prominent prophet and leader in the Old Testament. But the situation was also uncomfortable.''

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/08/the_doh_of_xenophobia.php

Not sure which is worse: that the idiot bloggers who thought the judge was a Muslim based on his name or the implication that his religion is relevant to how well he has or hasn't done his job. (Constitution; freedom of religion; does any of this ring a bell, boys?)

Judge Williams real "offense" can be found at the link.

"And before this election season, no one has ever suggested he was Muslim, anymore than anyone's ever suggested Williams was born a white woman, is secretly an Asian man, uses the alias ``Barack Obama,'' or is really a circus bear wearing a human suit and faking his way up the food chain.

So while it has become quite unfashionable these days to believe that race could play a role in anyone's success or failure, it would seem by process of elimination that the only ``evidence'' his blogging detractors hoped to woo the gullible with are the facts that Williams is black, and shares a first name with Elijah Mohammed, late founder of the Nation of Islam sect of African-American Muslims.

No matter where he worships or if he worships, ``Elijah'' Williams is the name of a U.S. citizen, and a former U.S. Air Force captain, among other things.

And as of Tuesday evening, it's the name of a judge, reelected to a second full term to the bench."