Barack Obama, Benjamin Franklin and other Semitic Names

Juan Cole, professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, made a simple, but eloquent point about the controversy over Barack Hussein Obama's name in his weblog recently. Semitic names from Benjamin to Rihanna to John Adams are prevasive in our society and, obviously, something to be proud of. Cole notes that Hussein (Barack's grandfather's name) means "the Good" and, Saddam aside, is a proud name the world around:

The other thing to say about grandfathers named Hussein is that very large numbers of African-Americans probably have an ancestor ten or eleven generations ago with that name, in what is now Mali or Senegal or Nigeria. And, since so many thousands of Arab Muslims were made to convert to Catholicism in Spain after 1501, many Latinos have distant ancestors named Hussein, too. In fact, since there was a lot of Arab-Spanish intermarriage, and since there was subsequent Spanish intermarriage with other European Catholics, more European Americans are descended from a Hussein than they realize. The British royal family is quite forthright about the Arab line in their ancestry going back to Andalusia.

It's incredible how such an obvious-seeming point can be overlooked not only by fanatical McCain supporters, but also by the major media powers. So, in honor of Barack Hussein Obama, say "hi" to a person with a semitic name today. I bet you can't help yourself!