SOUL FOOD:

For nearly two years detractors have accused Barack Obama of being a Muslim. Ultra-conservative commentators have referred to him as B. Hussein Obama and deliberately likened his surname to bin Laden’s first name Osama.

He has defended himself while also condemning the prejudice toward Muslims these acts reflect. As a presidential candidate he has stumped relentlessly on unity, equality and justice.

So to hear of him snubbing two Muslim women at a Detroit political rally in June rang dissonant. In case you missed the incident, I’ll explain.

Shimaa Abdelfadeel and Hebba Aref, the two women, went to the rally at the Joe Louis Arena with separate groups of friends. When their friends were approached by campaign volunteers to sit on the stage, Abdelfadeel and Aref were uninvited because each wore the headscarf some Muslim women wear for religious reasons.

Criticism billowed from the episode, which Obama quickly condemned, and he called both women to apologize. But from Illinois to India headlines kept the so-called snub alive.

It took me a while to find local Muslims who would tell me what they made of it. Many said they feared retribution.

Dina Adbel Mooti, a 13-year-old Mesa View Middle School student, was the first to speak her mind. Her family came to the United States from Alexandria, Egypt, 11 years ago and moved to Huntington Beach from Los Angeles earlier this year.

Dina believes Obama is a fair man and doesn’t fault him for what happened. Were she old enough to vote, she wrote in an e-mail message, she would register as a Democrat to vote for him.

That he apologized to the two women, Mooti wrote, “made him look bigger in my eyes.” She says she and her whole family are confident that Obama, as president, would treat all citizens equally whichever “religion, color or gender they are.”

Mike Malley, who with his brother Aziz runs FamVans, a commercial vehicle sales and service company in Fountain Valley, didn’t take offense at what happened, either. He chalked it up to “what needs to be said and done publicly to win a seat in American government.”

He plans to vote for Obama, who for Malley represents “a different approach” than the Bush administration of the last eight years. He is especially weary of the intransigent war in Iraq, which he thinks we never should have begun.

He thinks Americans now know Iraq wasn’t involved with the Sept. 11 attacks and never had aspirations to attack our nation. Muslims and Arabs, he wrote, especially long for the United States “to regain its voice and power throughout the world as one of truth, justice and freedom.”

Others I spoke with shared that sentiment, along with an opposition to the Iraq War. Huntington Beach Realtor Wardeh Abdelmuti told me about a confrontation she had in front of the Vatican while visiting Rome.

After discovering she and her children were Americans, an Italian man derided them, calling them “warmongers.” These days, the Chicago-born Abdelmuti told me over the phone, when people find out you’re American, it’s like, “Ew. Ew.”

“This is one of the best countries in the world, and people in Europe look down on us now,” she said. Until Hillary Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, Abdelmuti was prepared to vote for her.

Now, along with her husband and five children, all Democrats, she will vote for Obama. “Hillary said and Obama says we’re gonna get out of [Iraq]. Not like McCain, who said we’re gonna be there for a hundred years,” she said.

Three of her children are sons; she feels sorry for the families whose sons and husbands are being sent “to a war that is senseless.” She’s certain Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We’re there because of the oil,” Abdelmuti insists. “And look what’s happened to the oil. Pay $4.50 a gallon? Come on.”

Jordan-born Haitham Bundakji, a real estate investor who lives in Fountain Valley, was disturbed by the way Abdelfadeel and Aref were initially treated. But he chose not to blame Obama for what he hopes and prays was the poor judgment of campaign volunteers.

As he sees it, fear of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the self-described “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby,” causes political candidates running for any office to distance themselves from Arab-Americans and Muslim Americans regardless of their views.

“Right now,” he laments, “we are facing a prejudice against us.”

He has twin sons who go to Fountain Valley High School. Sometimes they are picked on for being Arab, he said. “They think if your name is Mohammed or Ahmed you’re automatically associated with terrorism.”

In every way you can think of — economically, politically, even emotionally — Bundakji believes this country needs a change. Our economy is limping. Our relationships with many other nations, he said, are down the drain.

“As Americans, when we travel, we are not as respected as we used to be,” he told me.

If McCain is elected in November, he sees four years ahead of us worse than the last eight. He’s praying for a president who will restore the economy, “who has a vision to bring peace to the world, not continue to beat the drums of war.”

He’ll vote for Obama. “May God will bless America with a good administration,” he said.

Like Bundakji, Savas Yilmaz lives in Fountain Valley. The political views of Muslims, he says, are more diverse than portrayed by the media, noting that Muslims come from cultures as distinct as Indonesia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran.

Although he doesn’t agree with Democrats on all issues, offering gay marriage as one example, he has lost confidence in the Republicans. As Yilmaz sees it, putting McCain in office won’t bring change.

He’s ready for a president who will improve health care, spend more on education, get our troops out of Iraq and bring gas prices down.

Yilmaz dismisses what happened with Abdelfadeel and Aref as political strategy.

In November, he too will vote for Barack Obama.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at [email protected].