The boss emeritus is goofing on her for being something of a doofus, which is fair enough, but (a) the intellectual bar at these things has never been set high, and (b) there’s a more important principle at stake. Says The Anchoress:

I am not sure how a beautiful Muslim woman strutting before millions in a bikini (or tripping in a low-cut evening gown) is going to somehow please those religious fundamentalists devoted to hijab. Rather than accuse Rima Fakih of serving Shari’a, perhaps we should be worried that she will be marked for destruction by those who would kill a daughter for the dishonorable action of having been raped.

Or, who knows, perhaps Miss Fakih’s victory will help Muslims feel more mainstreamed, and less marginalized in a way that helps them identify with America. Wouldn’t that be a kick? If the most superficial of events, a beauty pageant, brings diplomatic progress?

Who needs “smart” diplomacy? Bring on the pretty girls!

Howie at Jawa Report, thinking along the same lines, writes: “…give it time, time for her bronze hotness to work its magic on the Arab mind.”

Melissa Clouthier:

She’s in America. She’s doing what beautiful American girls do. She’s acting Western.

In an Islamic country, she’d likely be hung, beheaded, tortured or “honor” killed for shaming her uptight, sexually repressed, backward, stone age husband or father.

So while I get that people are upset about this, I suggest taking the big picture here. We have a young Muslim woman, without a burqa, who won Miss USA.

Let the Islamofascists put that in their pipe and smoke it.

Yeah. Her answer about birth control being covered by insurance is welcome too insofar as it implies a degree of sexual freedom that isn’t exactly sharia-friendly. But then, this is a woman who’s sufficiently “liberated” to have won an amateur stripping contest when she was 21. I’m hearing arguments today that she was some sort of “affirmative action” pick, but I’m not sure why. She’s plenty, and I do mean plenty, hot enough; if the judges decided that her being Muslim was a political “plus,” I can handle that in this case because of the larger message her victory sends about cultural assimilation. A beauty pageant seems like an awfully low-cost way to promote integration.

Here’s Miss Oklahoma’s answer on Arizona’s immigration law, which ought to be good for a “Hannity” appearance or two. Good for her for refusing to give the answer she knew she was “supposed” to give.