THE SUNDAY TIMES: The crowning of a Lebanese woman as Miss USA has sparked rows about rigging and radicalism
SHE isn’t the first American beauty queen to be caught out by racy photographs from her past but Rima Fakih, who was crowned Miss USA last week, is certainly the first to be plunged into a political controversy about radical Islam, affirmative action and her family’s supposed links to the Hezbollah political and paramilitary organisation in Lebanon.
After her success as the first Muslim immigrant to win the Miss USA title, Fakih swiftly shrugged off the mildly salacious pole-dancing pictures that were leaked by someone she had considered a friend.
Less easy to dispel was an outburst of right-wing anger over a beauty pageant result that some believed had more to do with political correctness and commercial calculation than feminine appeal.
“If I had lost, people would have said, oh, it’s because you are a Muslim,” Fakih told The Sunday Times. “It’s funny, because now they are saying instead, oh, it’s because you are a Muslim that you won.”
Fakih, 24, moved to America with her Lebanese parents in 1993. The family settled in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the country’s largest Arab-American communities. She said she had wept when she heard that many of the city’s immigrants had taken to Dearborn’s streets to cheer her victory at the televised Las Vegas pageant last Sunday.
It did not take long for hostilities to commence on the internet, where an off-hand comment by one of America’s most prominent critics of radical Islam sparked angry exchanges about the judges’ intentions and whether or not Fakih deserved her crown. >>> Tony Allen-Mills in Washington | Sunday, May 23, 2010
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