NEW YORK — Arab-Americans rejoiced Monday over the crowning of raven-haired beauty Rima Fakih, a 24-year-old Lebanese immigrant from Michigan, as Miss USA, calling it a victory for diversity in the United States, especially at a time when Arabs suffer from negative stereotypes in this country — and anti-immigrant sentiment is in the news.
Meanwhile, some harsh critics wondered if Donald Trump’s Miss USA organization was trying to send a message, sniping that the victory amounted to “affirmative action,” or implying the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA, suffered unfairly because of an answer she gave supporting Arizona’s new immigration law.
The tiara had scarcely come to rest on her cascading dark tresses Sunday night when the blogosphere went ballistic.
Debbie Schlussel, a conservative blogger, charged that Fakih was a radical Muslim because she shares her family name with some officials in Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite Muslim group. By Monday afternoon “rima fakih hezbollah” had become a suggested search term on Google.
The Jewish Internet Defense Force, a pro-Israeli website, proclaimed it “a dark day for America.”
Daniel Pipes, an outspoken neoconservative author and former adviser to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, wondered about “this surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageants” — he listed five examples in three countries since 2005 — and suggested that the pageant had bowed to affirmative action.
Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish political scientist and one of the world’s leading experts on Hezbollah — Arabic for “Party of God” — said it was “ludicrous” to suggest that Fakih, whose family includes Christians and Muslims, is a Hezbollah sympathizer.
With her low-cut gown and jewel-encrusted bracelet — not to mention the tiny bikini, “She would be flogged if she showed up in any of Hezbollah’s neighborhoods in Beirut,” the Lebanese capital, Ranstorp said.
If all that weren’t enough, photos emerged of Fakih pole-dancing in skimpy shorts and a tank top in a radio show contest in 2007. The show’s producers said they’d been contacted by representatives of the Miss Universe contest requesting more photographs and information. But the show also noted — correctly — that the photos were no more provocative than anything on the Miss USA website.
In any case, Arab-Americans were elated by the victory of Fakih, who was born into a powerful Shiite family in southern Lebanon and whose family said they celebrate both the Muslim and Christian faiths.
“With all the stigma that goes around — especially after 9/11 and how people portray Muslims and Arab-Americans — it’s just a great way to knock down all those barriers,” said Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, 22, a Muslim law student from Dearborn, Mich., who uptated her Facebook status to read, “woot woot who knows maybe I can be the next Miss America?”
Abed Ayoub, the legal director for the Washington-based Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, called the win significant. “It shows our country’s diversity and the opportunity it offers all citizens.”
He decried the negative blog postings as “disgusting.”
“Rima had a great event,” he said. “Her religion and race was not an issue during the competition, and I hope not during the judging either. She won on beauty, elegance and eloquence.”
Not that Fakih and her family hadn’t been prepared for negative publicity. Even before the pageant, Ayoub said, when Fakih had won her state pageant, his group had helped prepare the family.
“We told the family they should expect this,” Ayoub said. “We told them that some people spew hatred. But she was strong. She held her ground.”
Fakih was born in Srifa, a village in southern Lebanon that was heavily bombed during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. She moved to the United States with her family in 1993 and attended a Catholic school in New York. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.
Her sister, Rana, who moved back to Lebanon a few months ago for a new job, said she had spent the night exchanging messages with her father, Hussein, and another sister, Ruba, who were attending the competition.
“It was a beautiful surprise,” she said from Srifa. “It was not easy for Rima to reach this title. We’re very proud as Lebanese Americans and as Lebanese that Rima reached this point despite all the pressures and stereotyping about Arabs and Lebanese. She made it. She fought and reached her goal.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
