All in for Islam

As I write this, we are sitting around on a very sunny Arizona afternoon waiting for the Super Bowl to start. Neither Rick nor Erika is a football fan. Rick despises the NFL. Last night sitting around the propane fire table by the pool, he volunteered that he knew the names of two professional football players----"Tom Brady, and that guy, uh, Kaepernick?"

"I couldn't name another one for a million dollars," he said. I volunteered the names of a few more that he might know, getting only one correct hit out of him.

Despite his loathing of football, he is up to watch the Big Game today out of the party spirit. After all, as I pointed out to him, it's pretty much a tradition now, as he watched last year's game with us in our apartment on East Burnside in Portland, when he first came up to Oregon.

We have been discussing the upcoming game this morning---not the actually football game itself, but rather the halftime show by Stefani Germanotta (who goes by a more well-known stage name, but I'm adopting Rick's attitude of refusing to go along with the persona that these folks want us to buy).

Ms. Germanotta is well-known hater of all things Trump, and even appeared with Hillary Clinton while clad in something resembling a SS uniform (in tribute to Michael Jackson, to the Third Reich). She bullhorned Trump Tower after the election.

After much speculation about her intentions, Germanotta has pretty much admitted that she will indeed be making a political statement during her half-time.

"How could she not?" I said. "She's speaking out against the new Hitler, after all. If she didn't speak out, it would be tantamount to endorsing him."

The question is what kind of protest would it be. To me it was obvious that it involve something pro-Muslim. Would she don a hijab at some point? I joked that if she really wanted to make a strong statement, she would proclaim the shahada and convert to Islam on the spot during the performance, and urge the audience to follow her example.

"The Left is going all in for Islam," I said. "They have really boxed themselves into the corner on this, and there is little way out."

I said that I expected that the coming fawning adoration for hijab-clad women by the Left (as means of showing how non-racist and "welcoming" they are) will soon give way to stronger statements. In the near future I expect to see, coming from Leftist friends, an admission of fascination for Islam itself. Maybe there is something good about Sharia that we should look into.  Perhaps Islam offers a path of spirituality that fits my lifestyle and needs.

This will followed by outright conversion in some instances. I feel so liberated wearing the hijab. It will be the ultimate way to say F@CK YOU to Donald Trump and his supporters. What's not to like? After all, there isn't anything bad or negative about Islam, is there? Is there?

Islam is perfect for many on the Left as it has all the benefits of an established monotheistic religion (hard and fast rules to follow, unlike squishy creeds of the East) but without the "racist/homophobic/hateful" baggage of Christianity, nor the ethnic exclusivity and other issues of Judaism.

I think we are closer to this trend than people realize. Certainly I think it will become noticeable among college students within the next year I think, and then move to other age groups. The trend will accelerate as each additional person is greeted on by a warm applause on social media akin to that previously reserved to people coming out as gay.

Because of this, unless Germanotta goes all in for Islam during her show, it's going to seem tame by the expectations that people have. Just in the last few hours, I have seen others on Twitter anticipate that she will do something along these lines.

So if she is going to be an edgy artist on the forefront of trends, she had better up her game. It's the  Super Bowl, after all!

EDIT: Red's verdict on the Halftime Show was "Very good. She stayed in her lane." I was disappointed in the lack of strong political statement, of course. But how could you top the social justice message in over half the commercials?