Political Irony

Lebanese-born Arab-American (and Muslim) Miss Michigan Rima Fakih won Donald Trump’s Miss USA competition, and the right-wing is going absolutely bat-shit crazy.

Debbie Schlussel calls her “Miss Hezbollah” and says that she won because the contest is fixed and “Clearly, there is affirmative action for Muslim women in beauty pagaents”.

Well, except that Rima’s family contains both Muslims and Christians, and she attended a Catholic school in NY City when she was growing up. In fact, Fakih’s parents celebrate Christmas and have a painting of Jesus in their home. But that doesn’t stop Schlussel from saying that she has a “devout Muslim family”. Of course, sending her to Catholic school was probably just part of their sinister plot.

Personally, the only sinister plot I can imagine here is the Miss USA pageant trying to get some added publicity … and if so, it worked.

As for affirmative action, Daniel Pipes claims that there has been a “surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageants” recently. His proof? Five (count ’em) other Muslim women have won beauty pageants in the last five years, around the world, including such world-famous competitions as “Miss Nottingham”, “Miss Picardie” (a region in northern France), and “Miss A&T at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University”. Wow.

UPDATE: Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin harps on how Fakih “nearly tripped over her gown“. Huh? Nearly? So she didn’t trip, she only nearly tripped. I guess that’s a good enough reason to hate her.

And the Centrist Zealot has it right: “a hot chick won a beauty contest”. Who cares? “Some people will argue of anything, apparently.”