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Editorial: Anti-Muslim letter drags attack ads to new low

 
Published Nov. 1, 2016

Lies and insults define so many political fliers, bearing the names of their sponsors as required by law, that it's hard to understand why anyone would see the need to send one anonymously any more. There's one targeting Wael Odeh in the Temple Terrace City Council race. It looks like a letter but shares all the qualities of this campaign season's worst attack ads.

Through a committee she funds, we've seen state Senate candidate Dana Young slam her opponent for no more than working as a lawyer — and even after she stood on a soapbox to insist she'll be the positive candidate. Then there's David Jolly's head attached to the body of another man in a crude attempt to tie the congressional candidate to fellow Republican Donald Trump. Challenger Charlie Crist waited a while to seek its removal.

This latest Halloween horror is on a smaller scale. Temple Terrace has only about 17,000 voters and it's not clear how many mailboxes the typed, single-spaced, one-page letter landed in. But in many ways, the letter is even more disturbing than the traditional drive-by attacks for the way it masquerades as the work of a thoughtful local citizen.

There's nothing thoughtful about its message — that Odeh is a Muslim and Muslims cannot be trusted in office.

Maybe Odeh deserves election in Temple Terrace, maybe not. He is a first-time candidate, a civil engineer, a father of four and one of six candidates vying to fill one of two open seats on the five-member city council.

But Odeh certainly deserves consideration, and that's what the coward or cowards behind this letter are seeking to head off. They say in closing that recipients may copy and distribute the letter to family and friends in Temple Terrace. They say that recipients will understand the need for anonymity: "Islamic terrorist attacks." And they insist they aren't running for office themselves.

The questions they raise are a waste of the ink that went into them and will get no ink here. It is telling, though, that they amount to no more than questions. No effort went into answering them. Staff writer Paul Guzzo of the Tampa Bay Times ran them by a puzzled Odeh last week and none of the answers revealed any cause for concern.

But one question in particular seemed to concern the candidate, who was born in Palestinian territory and has lived in the United States 38 of his 56 years. His response: "Does he want to know where the other candidates were born? My country now is America."

One quality does separate this campaign hate mail from the fliers we're more accustomed to: The public nature of the election process seems to have emboldened the authors to reveal in the name of civic duty a broader resentment of Muslims.

As many as one in four people in Temple Terrace are followers of Islam, by some local estimates, and many have a family heritage that traces to countries where Islam is the major religion. City Council member Grant Rimbey told Guzzo he sees signs of racism in Temple Terrace among people reluctant to move forward from a decades-old vision of the city — once a largely white, middle class, citrus and golf course community.

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Odeh has invited anyone with questions about Muslims to reach out to him — including the author or authors of the anonymous letter.

Late last week, he said people have approached him with offers of political support after news of the letter spread. He welcomes that, of course.

But there have been no takers yet on the offer of help in understanding Islam.