While most of you had your eyes glued to Todd Gurley and the Bulldogs last Saturday, one of the most surreal debates in Georgia political history unfolded in Evans, Ga. – just outside of Augusta.
Through the magic of YouTube, it’s still there for you to see.
The players were U.S. Rep. John Barrow, the Augusta Democrat, and Republican challenger Rick Allen, a local businessman. The only thing that separated the two candidates was air, a few issues, and a stenciled, paper sign denoting the sponsor of the event: The Islamic Society of Augusta.
This, even as F-22s wreak havoc over Syria and Iraq, with their lasered weaponry pointed at strongholds of the Islamic State — or ISIS, or ISIL. What a bewildering and marvelous country this is.
Not that there weren’t hitches a-plenty. The Columbia County News-Times was required to drop its co-sponsorship of the event by its parent company, Morris Communications Co., which also owns the larger Augusta Chronicle.
News-times publisher Steve Crawford would eventually be allowed to continue as debate moderator. But the venue was changed from the 800-seat Islamic Community Center to a much smaller government venue.
One of the two parties involved was uncomfortable in such a place of worship, Augusta Chronicle president Dana Atkins explained to local talk radio host Austin Rhodes of WGAC (580AM). “It was the Rick Allen campaign headquarters,” Atkins said, when pressed.
Nonetheless, the debate limped forward. Then came Saturday afternoon, and — just as the crowd began gathering — the Hand Shake Incident.
The event organizer was 73-year-old Dr. Hossad Fadel, an Egyptian-American and now-retired physician recruited to Augusta in 1975 by the Medical College of Georgia. Also in the room was Dewey Galeas, chairman of the Columbia County GOP.
“I made every attempt to avoid the man. I walked by (Fadel), acknowledged him, thanked him for his hospitality, and then I walked on,” Galeas later said.
Fadel pursued and offered Galeas his hand. The county GOP chairman refused. Galeas said it wasn’t Fadel’s Muslim religion that motivated the slight, but his own “deep religious conviction over abortion.”
To explain: Fadel was brought to Augusta to establish a new specialty at the medical school called maternal fetal medicine. It concerns the management of high-risk pregnancies, which do not always end well.
Fadel declined to speak of the incident, except to say that Galeas later emailed him an apology, which he has accepted.
But the incident goes to the nature of Augusta’s Muslim enclave. It is highly educated and economically prosperous, built around MSG and the Savannah River nuclear site. ”Mostly we are engineers, but many of us are physicians as well. Most of us have a post-graduate education,” said Fadel, who founded the Islamic Society of Augusta the year after he arrived.
Saturday’s standing-room-only crowd was brought to order by Taufiq Lakhany, president of the Islamic Society. “Everyone knows that the Muslim community in Augusta is educated and quite successful, and we’ve been an asset to the community,” he said. “We are on this side of the Atlantic, not the other side.”
One can imagine much the same thing coming from German-Americans during the Great War, or Japanese-Americans in the one that followed.
The 12 District race between Barrow, the Democratic incumbent, and Allen, the Republican challenger, has been a hard-fought, multi-million dollar affair. Both men were careful in their remarks, well aware of the audience beyond the room.
It was the final question that was the likely focus of the crowd: How will you help other members of Congress understand that not all Muslims are terrorists?
“I think I do it by example, by treating every law-abiding citizen alike. That’s what the Framers intended. That’s what we should do,” Barrow said, reminding the audience that it wasn’t his idea to move the debate.
“I think that John Barrow should be asked the question, ‘Why he insisted that the debate be in the Islamic Center?’” Allen replied. “The idea behind this is, we want to make everybody feel welcome at every facility, okay?”
As for the tension between Muslims and their fellow Americans, Allen had this recommendation: “What I want, from everyone who is a citizen in this country, is to speak out – and to speak out heartily – against [ISIS]. That’s what I want to see from every religion. We must stop this radicalism,” he said.
The Islamic Society of Augusta has, in fact, already done so.
It is tempting to think that the circumstances of Saturday’s debate in east Georgia are unique. But on Tuesday, I had the Rev. Jesse Jackson on the line, talking about his doings in Atlanta this week.
He asked me if I’d seen Monday night’s NFL game. I had not. Jackson told me of Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdulla, a Muslim, who was penalized 15 yards when he knelt to pray after scoring a touchdown.
“Tim Tebow became an icon of prayer in the end zone. Two sets of rules,” Jackson said. Hours later, the NFL agreed and said the penalty was a mistake.
Like I said, what a bewildering and marvelous country this can be.
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