ShareThisHey, America, since its August, why don't we get all hot and bothered over religion and politics?
Two new polls show Americans increasingly falsely believe President Obama practices Islam. Time magazine says 24 percent wrongly believe the president is a Muslim. Another poll by the Pew Research Center and Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life indicated 18 percent incorrectly think Obama is Muslim.
More astonishing is Pews finding that only one-third of Americans correctly knows Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent last year.
After the 2008 contretemps when millions of voters were furious at the anti-American comments of Obama's Christian minister, it's amazing so many have forgotten his religion.
Are we getting dumber? Last year only one in ten wrongly said the president is a Muslim compared with one in four today.
Equally depressing is the politics involved. Among Republicans, 31 percent wrongly are convinced that Obama is a Muslim. Of course, many of them still falsely think Obama is not an American citizen despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Some GOP pundits are unable to refer to Obama without emphasizing his middle name, Hussein. Are all men named Benedict Catholic?
Just because people don't like the president or his policies, they cling to false information about him. What happened to know thy enemy?
What's truly upsetting is that millions of Americans think being a Muslim is evil and equate practicing Islam with being a terrorist. To condemn the worlds second largest religion because a small percent of extremist followers are murderers is not American.
It ignores the millions killed throughout history in the name of religion. It also overlooks the Muslims who were victims of the 9/11 attacks and the condemnation of Osama bin Laden and everything he represents by billions of Muslims.
Part of the reason for this latest hornet's nest is that Obama weighed in on the great mosque brouhaha in New York City. Political pundits have stirred up a huge, ridiculous, mind-bending fight over whether a moderate Muslim sect (the Unitarians of the Muslim world) should build a long-planned community center, swimming pool and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan. (The city gave them a permit, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorses the plan.) The sect argues part of its mission is to try to improve relations among religions.
Time magazines latest cover shrieks Is America Islamophobic? What the anti-mosque uproar tells us about how the U.S. regards Muslims. That we're bigots?
Obama said religious freedom is a bulwark of this nation and must be preserved. He said Muslims have the same right as everyone else to practice their beliefs. Later he said he was not endorsing the specifics of the New York Islamic Center plan but did not regret weighing in.
Some Republicans saw a political opportunity to stoke a fire, excoriate the president, raise money and placate families of 9/11 victims. These Republicans argue Obama isn't listening to people who say it would be a travesty to let anything related to any Muslim be built anywhere near the site where the Twin Towers stood.
Some pundits are advising Obama to solve his religion problem by being photographed going to church on Sunday (instead of worshipping at Camp David where photographers are not permitted or playing golf).
It may be that when everything seems to be falling apart -- the economy is terrible, millions are out of work, the environment is messed up, the war in Afghanistan is going badly, etc. -- its easier to channel outrage and frustration into a phony issue. This August that issue is building an Islamic community center on private property two blocks from the World Trade Center site, as if that somehow demeans the memory of the 9/11 victims. Wouldn't it show the world America still practices what it preaches?
After all these years there is no proper memorial at Ground Zero to the victims. To me that is the true outrage.
(Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986. E-mail amcfeatters(at)nationalpress.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
WHITE HOUSE WATCH
Obama a Muslim?
The outrage is that after two wars in Muslim countries and trillions of dollars spent Americans have yet to identify who whatexactly it is they are fighting with. By Sharia law Obama is a Muslim because his father is a Muslim and once a Muslim always a Muslim. Jihad is used to spread Sharia law and is one of the 5 pillars of Islam required by the Koran. Americans need to understand what Islam actually is all about before they generalize about religions being the same. Islam is much much more than a simple religion. If you want to know more about it;
www.citizenwarrior.com
I think Obama is right,
I think Obama is right, everyone deserves the right to have his own religion and belief.
Of course Obama is right to
Of course Obama is right to be anything else would be contrary to your country that was built on religious freedom and brotherhood as a country. People could get along in spite of their differences. We re all americans we're all good people...