NY Politicians Part of National Trend Against Islamophobia
by Brittany Hamze | Monday Nov 12, 2012
Election week is over—unless you are Congressman Allen West’s legal team—and Americans took notice of the fall of prominent Islamophobes who lost big last Tuesday.
Allen West (R-FL), John Walsh (R-IL), Charlie Fuqua (R-AR), and Adam Hasner (R-FL) were four of election Tuesdays biggest losers, who also happen to be four of America’s biggest Islamophobes.
However with attention on these results in the US Congress, it may have been easy to overlook the more telling results in local state elections.
New Yorkers voted against Islamophobia last Tuesday by ensuring the defeats of incumbent State Senator David Storobin (R-Sheepshead Bay), and Assembly Candidate Ben Akselrod (D-Brooklyn). David Storobin was an incumbent who earned a reputation demonizing American Muslims and palling around with Pamela Geller—the Islamophobe behind recent anti-Muslim MTA ads. In true Geller form (Geller created the hysterical opposition to the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero) Storobin sought to gain political capital by protesting the construction of an Islamic center in Sheepshead Bay. He sent two letters to Mayor Bloomberg expressing concerns for his supporters (members of the “Bay People” group pictured here) and for public safety. Storobin claimed the Muslim community the Islamic center will serve had ties to terrorism; as well as ties to New York City's parking woes.
Storobin’s relationship with Pam Geller was perhaps central to his campaign. He was a guest speaker at her 9/11 anniversary event titled "Stop the Islamization of Our Nations." At the event where guest speakers defined Islam as a “bacteria that will kill us,” Storobin told the audience that his family was the victim of “Islamist separatists.” It was perhaps those same separatists he sought to kill in August when he visited Israel to pose in an army uniform with dress shoes while his chief-of-staff pointed his weapon at a near target. Thank goodness, like this photo-op, his bid as a state senator was nothing more than an act.
Storobin was not the only losing Islamophobe on election day. Relatively unknown candidate Ben Akselrod, also tried and failed to use anti-Muslim hysteria to secure a seat in the State Assembly. After Storobin earned media attention (and ridicule) for attacking the construction of an Islamic center in Sheepshead Bay, Akselrod decided to try the same strategy. What may have set Akselrod apart, is that his irrational bigotry was not limited to American Muslims. In August, the Akselrod campaign distributed a mailer detailing the increase of crime in the Sheepshead Bay “NEGROhood.” In his apology, Akselrod referred to the gaff only as an “error.” He also held back no punches in attacking his Jewish opponent for marrying a "gentile woman" after the death of his first, Jewish wife.
This election cycle has seen the loss of Islamophobes on a national and local level allowing greater hope as our democratic process continues to grow and include more diverse voters than ever in our nation's history. Future candidates should take heed that bigotry never was, and never will be a winning platform. Constituents are fed up with racist sideshows, and are often times smarter than the candidates vying for their votes.