Washington Times echoes anti-Muslim commentator in attack on Miss USA

Today the Washington Times is out with an editorial echoing the attacks of right-wing, anti-Muslim commentator Debbie Schlussel on Rima Fakih, the newly crowned Miss USA.

As Media Matters noted, Schlussel said Fakih's win was the result of the “politically correct, Islamo-pandering climate” in America and calling her a “Lebanese Muslim Hezbollah supporter with relatives who are top terrorists.”

Enter the Washington Times editorial:

Miss Fakih, who as Miss Michigan took the Miss USA crown last weekend, was born in southern Lebanon and, as commentator Debbie Schlussel has reported, has extensive family connections to Hezbollah. But that reportage has been overshadowed by the more politically correct “first Arab-American Miss USA” storyline, dovetailing as it does with President Obama's efforts to promote Islam at home and abroad.

The first Arab-American to win the Miss USA crown was really Julie Hayek in 1983. However, Miss Hayek was a Lebanese Christian, and the notion of Christian Arabs is probably too complicated for the liberal media to bother explaining.

The Times goes further in its attacks, raising the notion that Fakih beat out Miss Oklahoma Morgan Elizabeth Woolard because Woolard had indicated her support for the controversial new Arizona Immigration law:

This year's victim was [Woolard], who was hit with a hot-button question regarding Arizona's new law against illegal immigrants. She said she was “a huge supporter of states' rights” and that the Arizona law was “perfectly fine.” Miss Woolard had been leading Miss Fakih by a wide margin through the swimsuit and evening gown portions of the competition, but - like Miss Prejean last year - the Okie finished as first runner-up.

The judges passed up the opportunity to ask Miss Fakih about her views on radical Islamic terrorism or whether Israel has a right to exist.

Of course, it mattered little to the Times that Woolard has rejected the idea that she lost to Fakih because of her answer, saying, “I don't believe that answer cost me the crown.”