Miss America is A Muslim?

I wonder, did Ms. Rima Fakih, the new Muslim-born Miss America, say Al-Fatiha (the oft repeated Muslim prayer) before she entered the stage in her swimsuit? Can you imagine her saying "Oh, Allah, please let the judges find my form the best in this category, let me slide on the 'do not display their (your) adornment' part of the Holy Qur'an?(24:30-31)" I am having a hard time understanding how she was able to reconcile some of the Miss America categories with herself as a Muslim during the competition.

But what does this say for Muslim women in America and Muslim women in general? Is it time to remove our garments and become 'all American girls'? What is this an indication of, is this part of a concerted trend to change the perception of Islam and the Middle East? What about the new film Sex and the City 2 being set in the Middle East? How does the 'Hollywood factor' play into this new turn of 'all things Middle Eastern?'Is the selection of a Muslim woman as Miss America part of some push to try and show that the U.S. really isn't at war with Islam even though negative media seems to have run a muck with terrorist stories nearly every day? Is this also an effort to show that the U.S. isn't at war with Islam as the president has stressed in the past?

I can only enjoin the Muslim woman to hold fast to her virtue and righteousness, because at the very least the suggestion is being made that your efforts to be modest should be abandoned or worse case scenario--you are being warned that you will be unclothed, willingly or unwillingly.

(Image--Lil' Kim on the December/January 2003 cover of Russell Simmons’ defunct 'One World Magazine.')