Islamophobia continued

At the Islamophobia workshop last night, there was a variety of different types of people. This was conducive to a very opinionated atmosphere. Of course, as previously mentioned, the recent election was on everybody's mind. What really stuck with me from the discussions was when a young Middle-Eastern looking man shared his personal experience with the election. He spoke of how excited he was about Barack Obama and he wanted to do all he could to help. He then said that because of all the controversy over the rumors about Obama being Muslim and the negative reaction, he felt like he shouldn't "advertise" for Obama because he didn't want to "turn off" any possible voters; just because he was Muslim. "Yes, you have the freedom to vote, but what happened to your freedom for advocacy?" I had never even thought about a situation where people can't express their opinion on the election because of their nationality or beliefs. Of course, I know this is occurring all over the world but to hear about it on such a relevant and recent topic. It made me sad that this young, intelligent man didn't feel comfortable supporting his candidate of choice, especially during such a historic election. 

xoxo Hen