Miss USA, Rima Fakih: Terrorist in a Bikini?

A new Miss USA, Rima Fakih, was crowned at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday night.

The first-generation Lebanese-American beauty queen moved to New York at 7 and as a teenager moved with her parents to the Detroit area, home to the largest concentration of Arab-Americans on the continent.

Readers may recall that in previous years, Miss USA contests have been followed by controversy. When they were, contest owner Donald Trump took a very personal interest in protecting and marketing his brand. One year the real estate developer-showman extended compassion to a hard-partying winner because he had "always been a believer in second chances," and last year he supported first runner-up Miss California Carrie Prejean following her remarks against gay marriage. (Prejean eventually gave up her runner-up ribbon because racy pictures she posed for prior to the pageant had been released).

Although the latest winner previously claimed a Detroit radio program Mojo in the Morning 2007 'Stripper 101' title, most of the controversy stirring around her win is of a less fun-loving nature.

The local Muslim community is delighted to see a favorite daughter take the crown, but the young hospital employee is under attack by area conservative blogger, anti-Arab activist, Facebook icon and self-styled expert on "radical Islam" and "Islamic terrorism," Debbie Schlussel. (According to Andrew Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh included Schlussel's Web site as "one of the 13 sites he reads daily.") The frequent cable guest claims (but presents no evidence) that "at least three of Fakih's relatives are currently top officials in Hezbollah and that at least eight Fakih family members were Hezbollah terrorists."

By all appearances, the new title holder, who has a bachelor's degree and hopes to attend law school, seems qualified to tell fans her ring tone choices and wave regally from parade floats while turning a year of her life over to a PR campaign for pageant proprietor Trump. Defending herself against claims from bigots that she is connected to terrorist groups should not have to be part of her job description.