Former Secretary of State Colin Powell brought up an excellent point this morning on his Meet the Press appearance.  I think it is an issue that goes deeper than an endorsement of any specific candidate, and it’s one that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has really tackled during this election cycle: the status of Muslims in America.

He said during the explanation of his decision:

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said.  Such things as, “Well, you know Mr. Obama is a Muslim.”  Well, the correct answer is, no he’s not a Muslim, he’s a Christian, he’s always been a Christian.  But the really right answer is, what if he is?  Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.  Is there’s something wrong with some seven year old Muslim American kid believing he or she could be president?  Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop this suggestion, “he a Muslim, and he might be associated with terrorists.”  This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Now, to be fair to Republicans, bigotry against Muslims is certainly not owned by them.  There are Democratic bigots just as much as Republican bigots.  Every party (third-parties included) has them; it’s just a matter of how strong their voice is in the party.  Also, some Democrats have a tendency toward anti-Christianism, or at least, anti-evangelicalism.  And obviously not all Republicans are bigots against Muslims.  As Powell pointed out, John McCain is certainly not one of these people.

Yet, the Republican party has recently been dominated by elements that would associate all Muslims with terrorism.  And that’s what Powell is talking about when he made that monologue.  America prides itself on its inclusiveness.  We thrive off it.  We learn from it, and in turn teach those we include about the American way.  It’s a give-and-take situation.  The Christian conservative domination of the party in the past several years has made including Muslims in political discourse more difficult, not easier.

But what if an actual Muslim were to run for President?  My view is that they wouldn’t get past the primaries.  Any Muslim would have an uphill battle, and that’s putting it generously.  It’s difficult to run as a Muslim when over 75% of your country is Christian, and when many of them are pretty strong in their beliefs that their religion is right and all others are wrong.

It isn’t always the case that Christians would never vote someone from another religion into a high national office.  Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Jew, nearly became Vice President in 2000, after all.  The country has  also had to historically deal with other denominations within Christianity itself.  In 1960, the U.S. elected John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, to the presidency.  So while a Muslim running for president would be a challenge, it would not be completely impossible.

Still, the best bet for a Muslim president would for the country to become more secular, at least in its view toward federal office.  Right now an unofficial requirement to become president is that you represent the view of the majority religion.  Yet, if the view on that requirement were to change, it’d be easier for a Muslim to run.  I’m not saying people must became less religious, but that the perception of government as a secular institution become stronger.  If the requirement to become president were not intrinsically linked to the religious view of the majority, they would probably more easily accept someone from another religion.  And not only would it affect Muslims with president aspirations, but also Jews, polytheists, agnostics, and even atheists.  All of them would have a chance to strive for the top office of the land.

Another part of the problem is the perception Muslims currently have.  When people think of Muslims, they don’t typically think of them in America.  They think Afghanistan or Iraq.  Perhaps Iran or Saudi Arabia.  And that’s the perception that would bar a Muslim from becoming president of the United States at the current time.

It’s certainly not a perception that John McCain or Barack Obama are doing much to combat.  Perhaps it is not up to them to battle for inclusiveness, but as president of this country, they would do well to at least try.  The worst offender is probably Obama.  While fending off accusations of being a “secret Muslim,” he has perhaps unwittingly increased the gap between Muslims and the rest of the population by being somewhat defensive about the whole thing.

Earlier on in the campaign is when it showed the most.  At one of his rallies, two Muslim supporters were barred by members of his campaign from sitting behind him.  It gave rise to the same question Powell posed this morning, “is there something wrong with being a Muslim?”  I don’t think Obama thinks there is but the actions of his campaign in dealing with the issue hasn’t helped bring a strong “no” answer to that question.  McCain has similarly done little to bring about comfortable relations between Muslims and Christians.  Both have had the opportunity to change the level of discourse about Muslim relations in this country, and have failed to do so.

In the end it will take a change in how most American view the unofficial religious requirements of the president in order for a Muslim to even think about running for president.  I can’t predict how long that will take, but I don’t see it happening in the next generation or so.  Perhaps when I’m significantly older (I’m 22 now), but probably not any sooner.