Much ado about a middle name

Is pronouncing a man's middle name tantamount to insulting him? In the case of Senator Barack Obama, the favourite to win the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency of the United States, the answer appears to be yes.

Senator Hillary Clinton, Obama's last remaining rival within the party, has already apologised because her aides used "the unmentionable middle name", ostensibly without her consent.

Last week, it was the turn of Senator John McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive nominee and Obama's possible rival in the final contest, to apologise because the host of a meeting he attended was rash enough to pronounce the seven-letter word.

The word in question is Hussain, Obama's middle name that was also the name of his Kenyan Muslim father.

What is astonishing is that Senator Obama has accepted the apologies as if the use of his father's name was, indeed, an insult.

What is the rationale behind this strange behaviour?

It is simple. Hussain is an Arabic word supposed to have a negative resonance with many Americans, reminding them of Saddam Hussain, the late Iraqi dictator who has entered American folklore as arch-villain. The fact that, in Arabic, Hussain means "most benign" or "very beautiful" is not enough to persuade Obama and his PR gurus to treat it more kindly.

However, Obama's problem does not end with censoring his middle name. His first name, Barack, is also Arabic, from the stem barakah meaning "blessing". His surname Obama, from Swahili, the Arabic-based lingua franca of East Africa, refers to members of the Luo tribe who converted to Islam.

In other words, Barack Hussain Obama Jr's name is a perfectly ordinary identification for someone with an ethnic East African Muslim background.

However, Obama insists that, despite the fact that his paternal grandfather and his father were both Muslims, he himself never felt he was ever a Muslim in any way. Instead, he says he preferred his American mother's Christian faith and has always considered himself a practising Christian.

Constitutional rights

In Islam, of course, anyone born of a Muslim father is automatically regarded as a Muslim. However, Obama, not considering himself a Muslim, is not at all obliged to abide by what Muslims may or may not think of his religious status. As a citizen of a free and democratic state, he can cross from one faith to anther or have no faith at all without losing any of his constitutional rights, including the right to stand for the highest office in the land.

What is troubling about Obama's approach to the mini-storm stirred by his political enemies over his name, is what may look like an attempt at obfuscation. He has behaved as if he did have a family secret, and as if the name Hussain was something to be ashamed of.

It would have been much better for Obama to state the situation clearly at the outset. Something like this would have done: I was born in Hawaii and spent part of my childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. Half of my family background is Islamic. My paternal grandfather and father were both Kenyan Muslims. My father gave me Islamic forename and middle name. However, my mother was from a Christian background and I chose her faith.

I am not an expert on American sensibilities. However, having travelled to the United States on numerous occasions over the past four decades I believe most Americans would judge a candidate on the basis of his or her politics rather than the religious background of his parents.

In a country where everyone has a rich biography in terms of ethnic and religious backgrounds, Obama's family story would not have sounded all that exotic. Some Americans may have even regarded the Islamic part of Obama's family as a plus if only because the biggest post-Communist challenge to the United States' global leadership position comes from forces speaking in the name of Islam.

One could play endless games with the origins and meanings of personal names.

Senator McCain's first name, John, for example, is of Hebrew origin (It means "God Is Gracious") while Senator Clinton's Christian name, Hillary ( meaning: cheerful), comes from pagan ancient Rome.

Obama's efforts to distance himself from Islam, is in contrast with his innovative approach to US relations with its Islamist challengers.

President George W. Bush has chosen the "iron fist" option by invading Afghanistan and Iraq, building quarantine around Iran, keeping the Baathist regime in Syria in check, and helping a dozen Muslim states fight Al Qaida or its variants on their soil. Both Senators McCain and Clinton offer variations on the same theme, albeit with caveats designed to satisfy their respective constituencies.

By contrast, Obama is offering a policy of dialogue and accommodation. He has opposed the listing of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, and proposed a grand bargain with the regime in Damascus. Obama is even prepared to ignore two United Nations' Security Council resolutions that require Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme as a precondition for talks at the highest level.

Key demands

In an important symbolic move designed to signal an end of the special relationship between Israel and the United States,, Obama has become the first major American presidential candidate in more than 30 years not to commit himself to transferring the US embassy to the Jewish state from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem.

Last but not least, Obama has promised to withdraw from Iraq within the first year of his presidency, thus meeting one of the key demands of radical Muslim forces, whether Sunni or Shiite.

The message is clear: Obama wants a new relationship with radical forces in the Islamic world while distancing the US from its traditional allies in the region. In other words, he proposes to reverse policies that have taken shape over more than six decades under 12 successive American presidents.

It is this revolutionary idea that deserves to be closely examined, studied and debated, not the origin and meaning of Obama's middle name.

Amir Taheri is an Iranian author based in Europe.