Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010

Last year, the Miss USA pageant was at the center of a proverbial firestorm of publicity after celebrity judge Perez Hilton asked Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean, to state her views on gay marriage. As everybody knows, she said she was against it — albeit for reasons that were completely false.

“Well I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other,” said Prejean. “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage.”

Which, of course, we do not. Prejean lost the title, and later said she believed her statement cost her the crown. That point is moot, of course, because she would have lost it anyway when it was revealed that she’d starred in several self-made solo sex tapes.

This year, Rima Fakih, 24, a member of a powerful Lebanese Shiite family, was crowned Miss USA 2010:

Rima Fakih was born in Lebanon, moved to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York City, where she attended a Catholic school. She told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003, where she later became Miss Michigan USA.

Pageant officials told The Associated Press that pageant records were not detailed enough to show whether Ms. Fakih was the first Arab-American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local swimsuit competition in Long Beach, Calif.

Ms. Fakih is from Dearborn and is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned her bachelors degree in economics with a minor in business administration, the pageant said in a release. She said she planned to attend law school after completing her term as Miss USA.

According to the AP, Fakih was “born into a powerful Shiite family in a village in southern Lebanon that was heavily bombed during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. But she and her sister said the family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths and prefer to be referred to as Lebanese, Arabs or Arab-Americans.

The AP also notes that “as is common among Lebanon’s Shiites, Fakih comes from a large, extended clan that includes everything from supporters of the Islamic militant groups Hezbollah and Amal to secular Shiites and even communists.”