A Muslim Miss America? Shock, Horror, Scandal

First Arab-Muslim woman crowned Miss USA

She was hailed as the shining example of the American dream, a Lebanese-born woman who became the first Muslim Miss U.S.A.
Marketing executive Rima Fakih, 24, beat 50 other contestants to win the beauty pageant in Las Vegas.

The controversy began as soon as the glittery diamond tiara was lowered on Rima Fakih's dark tresses.
Is she the first Muslim Miss USA? Will she be able to keep the title after photos surfaced of Fakih winning a pole-dancing contest?
And -- on the conservative blogosphere -- is she a secret Islamist extremist?
Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant from Dearborn, Michigan who was raised in both the Christian and Muslim faiths, is clearly no fundamentalist.
Pageants are intended to be full of the kind of drama that comes wrapped up in the suspense of seeing who takes home the glittering crown. This year, it's political drama that has taken over in the aftermath of Sunday's beauty contest.
Since Miss Michigan Rima Fakih was crowned, the pageant has been deconstructed by political commentators on the right and the left.
Fakih, who is from Dearborn, was born in Lebanon and has been celebrated by Arab Americans as the first Muslim Miss USA. (Contrary to the widespread reports that Miss USA 1983, Julie Hayek, was of Arab descent on her father's side, Hayek said in an e-mail that her father grew up in Ohio and is half Czech and half German.)

False claims on blogs, Wikipedia, and even some mainstream media outlets have asserted -- without any reporting -- that Miss USA 1983, Julie Hayek, was an Arab-American with roots in Lebanon.
But Hayek says that is not true.
Contacted by the Free Press, Miss USA 1983 said that she has no ancestry in the Arab world at all and is not Arab-American.
"I am not Arabic," Hayek told the Free Press on Wednesday. "I am Czech. Hayek is of Czech descent."

After Fakih's win Sunday, some bloggers, Wikipedia, and newspapers claimed this week, without offering any evidence, sources, or reporting, that Hayek's father was Lebanese. The falsehood circulated around the world, with other reporters and people picking up on the idea that Hayek was Arab-American and Lebanese-American.