Benji Sarlin reports that Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who famously called for a social issues "truce" angering social conservatives, is accepting an award from the Arab American Institute on for his "his broad record of public service."
A spokesman for AAI, Omar Tewfik, contrasted Daniels' relationship with the Arab-American community with other potential candidates in the 2012 primaries in a post on the group's website.
"Gov. Daniels piques our interest not only because he is Arab American (his grandparents are from Syria), he is a politician who - even in today's hyper-partisan political climate - has not digressed from his primary focus; fixing the economy," he wrote. "He has insisted that other issues not become a distraction and has not pandered to the anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiments expressed by many other potential GOP presidential candidates."
The AAI hasn't drawn much ire from the sharia panic crowd, so I don't know that this hurts Daniels that much. Not all Arabs are Muslims of course, but in the U.S. Arab and Muslim are sometimes used interchangeably by people who don't know any better.
It's somewhat extraordinary that part of why Daniels is being recognized here is that he's met the rather low bar of not openly expressing enmity towards Arabs or Muslims.
