Obama a Muslim: How Silly Can We Become?
Leslie Savan is the author of Slam Dunks And No-Brainers: Pop Language in Your Life, the Media, and, Like...Whatever and The Sponsored Life: Ads, TV, and American Culture.
Not that there'd be anything wrong with it, but President Obama was not, as the Reverend Franklin Graham so unequivocally states, "born a Muslim."
After that sad Pew Research poll came out suggesting that a record 18 percent of Americans now believe that Obama is Muslim and 43 percent say they don't know what he is (he is, of course, Christian), Franklin Graham, son of evangelist icon Billy Graham, went on John King's CNN show and spouted this drivel:
"I think the president's problem is that he was born a Muslim. His father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim. His father gave him an Islamic name. Now it's obvious that the president has renounced the Prophet Muhammad and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That's what he says he has done. I cannot say that he hasn't. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said."
So much is so wrong with that, starting with the Rev's "that's what he says" dog whistles. Hillary was slammed for punting that "as far as I know" Obama wasn't Muslim, but now coy innuendo about Obama's faith is standard GOP fare. "The president says he's a Christian," Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on Meet the Press. "I take him at his word." (Mitch and Franklin say they're Christian family men with valid birth certificates. I cannot say they're not. So I just have to believe that they are what they have said.)
Meanwhile, Graham, who has called Islam "a very wicked and evil religion," was foisting outright falsehoods. The president has not, as Graham claimed, "renounced" Islam-and before some winger twists that to "The Nation admits Obama never renounced Islam!"-let's be clear: He had nothing to renounce. He was not a Muslim, he wasn't raised as a Muslim, nor did he choose to practice or worship as one. Perhaps Franklin Graham (who surely has his own daddy-seed issues to deal with) has confused Obama with his Kenyan father, who was indeed raised a Muslim. But, as the president writes, "by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition." Which leads to Graham's next doozy: The atheist father was highly unlikely to have given his son "an Islamic name"-but he did give him his own name, Barack Hussein Obama.
And though the next night John King brought on a religion professor who scorched Graham for his Islamophobia, King didn't challenge Graham's central claim, that President Obama was "born a Muslim."
This misconception has long been out there, and was neatly shot down during the presidential campaign. The military historian Edward Luttwak had written an embarrassing New York Times op-ed stating that because "Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood," he'd risk his life visiting Muslim countries for having committed the "apostasy" of "converting" to Christianity. Again, he "converted" from being nonreligious, not from Islam. But just think: for Fox News-type purposes, how much better it'd be if some foreign Muslims whacked the president than American whites, or white supremacists-who, in reality, have been the prime source of plots and threats against Obama. In any case, Obama's successful trip to Egypt last year pretty much shut down the false "apostate" alarm.
And thanks to then--New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt, who essentially fact-checked Luttwak, we learned that he--and now Graham--are way off on the "born a Muslim" meme.
Hoyt interviewed experts on Islam and, he wrote, "All of them said that Luttwak's interpretation of Islamic law was wrong…. including assertions that in Islam a father's religion always determines a child's, regardless of the facts of his upbringing [and] that Obama's 'conversion' to Christianity was apostasy…"
In fact, one scholar, Hoyt wrote, cited an ancient Islamic jurist "who said, 'If you divorce a Christian woman and ignore your child from her to the point that the child grows up to be a Christian, the child is to be left,' meaning left to make his own choice." Obama's father, of course, divorced his mother and left the family when Obama was 2 years old.
But if Graham really wants to pick at genealogical grubs, what's he to make of the fact that Obama's father's father was a Christian who converted to Islam (and only then took the name Hussein). Aha! What religion is that seed now?
Personally, I'm stuck on the word seed. Graham meant it in the Biblical (or Koranical) sense, but when I hear about a "seed passing through" in the context of an American president, I can't help but see Monica Lewinsky and her "semen-stained blue dress."
Regardless of what the Muslim world may or may not believe, this whole seed fixation is profoundly un-American. It says that genealogy is destiny, that a man is Muslim regardless of what he espouses or believes. It's all about descent-and nauseatingly close to the "one drop rule" of the post-Reconstruction South. That rule held that if a person had any African or Indian ancestry whatsoever, he or she was classified as "colored" and subject to anti-miscegenation laws, voter disenfranchisement, and segregation at large. At least eighteen states adopted some form of the rule; Virginia's 1924 law, for instance, was called the Racial Integrity Act.
Whether it's a drop, a seed, a particular kind of birth certificate, or a distance of six blocks from Ground Zero instead of two, these selectively applied purity tests are far more dangerous to our national character (and, as Frank Rich points out, to our overseas troops who rely on Muslim goodwill) than Islamophobics accuse Muslims of being to our freedom.
By Leslie Savan
Reprinted with permission from The Nation
The Nation Not that there'd be anything wrong with it, but President Obama was not, as the Reverend Franklin Graham so unequivocally states, "born a Muslim."
After that sad Pew Research poll came out suggesting that a record 18 percent of Americans now believe that Obama is Muslim and 43 percent say they don't know what he is (he is, of course, Christian), Franklin Graham, son of evangelist icon Billy Graham, went on John King's CNN show and spouted this drivel:
"I think the president's problem is that he was born a Muslim. His father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim. His father gave him an Islamic name. Now it's obvious that the president has renounced the Prophet Muhammad and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That's what he says he has done. I cannot say that he hasn't. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said."
So much is so wrong with that, starting with the Rev's "that's what he says" dog whistles. Hillary was slammed for punting that "as far as I know" Obama wasn't Muslim, but now coy innuendo about Obama's faith is standard GOP fare. "The president says he's a Christian," Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on Meet the Press. "I take him at his word." (Mitch and Franklin say they're Christian family men with valid birth certificates. I cannot say they're not. So I just have to believe that they are what they have said.)
Meanwhile, Graham, who has called Islam "a very wicked and evil religion," was foisting outright falsehoods. The president has not, as Graham claimed, "renounced" Islam-and before some winger twists that to "The Nation admits Obama never renounced Islam!"-let's be clear: He had nothing to renounce. He was not a Muslim, he wasn't raised as a Muslim, nor did he choose to practice or worship as one. Perhaps Franklin Graham (who surely has his own daddy-seed issues to deal with) has confused Obama with his Kenyan father, who was indeed raised a Muslim. But, as the president writes, "by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition." Which leads to Graham's next doozy: The atheist father was highly unlikely to have given his son "an Islamic name"-but he did give him his own name, Barack Hussein Obama.
And though the next night John King brought on a religion professor who scorched Graham for his Islamophobia, King didn't challenge Graham's central claim, that President Obama was "born a Muslim."
This misconception has long been out there, and was neatly shot down during the presidential campaign. The military historian Edward Luttwak had written an embarrassing New York Times op-ed stating that because "Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood," he'd risk his life visiting Muslim countries for having committed the "apostasy" of "converting" to Christianity. Again, he "converted" from being nonreligious, not from Islam. But just think: for Fox News-type purposes, how much better it'd be if some foreign Muslims whacked the president than American whites, or white supremacists-who, in reality, have been the prime source of plots and threats against Obama. In any case, Obama's successful trip to Egypt last year pretty much shut down the false "apostate" alarm.
And thanks to then--New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt, who essentially fact-checked Luttwak, we learned that he--and now Graham--are way off on the "born a Muslim" meme.
Hoyt interviewed experts on Islam and, he wrote, "All of them said that Luttwak's interpretation of Islamic law was wrong…. including assertions that in Islam a father's religion always determines a child's, regardless of the facts of his upbringing [and] that Obama's 'conversion' to Christianity was apostasy…"
In fact, one scholar, Hoyt wrote, cited an ancient Islamic jurist "who said, 'If you divorce a Christian woman and ignore your child from her to the point that the child grows up to be a Christian, the child is to be left,' meaning left to make his own choice." Obama's father, of course, divorced his mother and left the family when Obama was 2 years old.
But if Graham really wants to pick at genealogical grubs, what's he to make of the fact that Obama's father's father was a Christian who converted to Islam (and only then took the name Hussein). Aha! What religion is that seed now?
Personally, I'm stuck on the word seed. Graham meant it in the Biblical (or Koranical) sense, but when I hear about a "seed passing through" in the context of an American president, I can't help but see Monica Lewinsky and her "semen-stained blue dress."
Regardless of what the Muslim world may or may not believe, this whole seed fixation is profoundly un-American. It says that genealogy is destiny, that a man is Muslim regardless of what he espouses or believes. It's all about descent-and nauseatingly close to the "one drop rule" of the post-Reconstruction South. That rule held that if a person had any African or Indian ancestry whatsoever, he or she was classified as "colored" and subject to anti-miscegenation laws, voter disenfranchisement, and segregation at large. At least eighteen states adopted some form of the rule; Virginia's 1924 law, for instance, was called the Racial Integrity Act.
Whether it's a drop, a seed, a particular kind of birth certificate, or a distance of six blocks from Ground Zero instead of two, these selectively applied purity tests are far more dangerous to our national character (and, as Frank Rich points out, to our overseas troops who rely on Muslim goodwill) than Islamophobics accuse Muslims of being to our freedom.
By Leslie Savan
Reprinted with permission from The Nation
He believes in a woman's right to an abortion ,and he believe that gays can marry. Muslims do not. The end.
Of course You will never hear Obama say that himself, only through third parties will "they" deny he's muslim.
If Obama wanted to end these rumors once and for all... all he would have to do is directly answer the question, but he can not do that himself without denouncing the Islam and he will not do that.
The governor of Hawaii was about to reveal once and for all if Obama is truly a US citizen.
Elsewhere on this site is an article which states hewas told by the state's attorney it is against the law to release such information without that person's (Obama's) permission.
We already know this is never going to happen, because Obama has spent well over a million dollars to prevent the release of his college transcripts and his birth certificate top secret.
Elsewhere on this site is an article stating the reason his birth certificate cannot be revealed.
Oddly enough, there is no sppace for anyone to "add a comment" anywhere on this page.
A few months ago, I got an email stating that "very quietly, the question of Obama's citizenship was going before the Supreme Court".
Haven't heard one word about it since.!
I can't stand people saying obama is muslim.
Look, Mr. OBAMA can not be a muslim, if you are muslim and practice islam you would offer your little girls to fellow muslums. so do u see Obama offering his girls to be married , sodomized, beat and impregnated for allah NO OF COURSE NOT. HE IS NOT LIKE THIS
Here is a learning center for those who want to examine islam, mohamad lunacy;
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/index.html
What needs to be considered is whether islam is a religion or fanaticism. islam can not be practiced in America without approving crimes against children such as rape and sodomy;
Why would anyone equate anything sacred about Islam is my question? If you have a young daughter; would you want to be a devout Muslim or offer your child to one? Consider the teaching of;
Ayatollah Khomeini's Religious Teachings on Marriage, Divorce and relationships; "A man can marry a girl younger than nine years of age, even if the girl is still a baby being breastfed. A man, however is prohibited from having intercourse with a girl younger than nine, other sexual act such as foreplay, rubbing, kissing and sodomy is allowed.?
1. (Al Hadis, Vol. 1, p. 215) Omar reported from the Holy Prophet who said, "No man shall be questioned for beating his wife."
In the very next Hadith a woman complained to Mohammed that her husband beat her while she prayed. Mohammed told her to change her time of prayer or pray shorter prayers so that her husband could get on with the joy of beating her. (Reported by Abu Sayeed al-Kodri, Attest by Abu Daud)
None of this is a joke. This is the realism of islam
i would like to inform you that what you wrote are myths about Islam .. and your recourses were meant to make you even more terrified ... it's funny though..
i never heard about what you've wrote in my entire life. i believe it's been conveyed by scared, non-muslim and trying to find problems with islam ..
this is not the realism of islam .. these are just misconceptions ..
i am muslim , proud to be.. and i don't know those funny things you wrote.. i understand completely this is just away to make people get scared ....
What IS Christian Liberation Theology?
It is an "invented" religion created by Marxist/Communists in South America because the people would not give up religion to the communists. So the commies simply created a religion to preach communist principles sprinkled with bits of "religion and God".
Be honest... CBS. You are not serving this country by deflecting, obfuscating, and distracting the public.
The Internet, for serious seekers of truth, has rendered you (CBS), irrelevant.
There is still some question about whether he was actually born in Bermuda, and a "birth certificate" created after the fact, in Hawaii.
That isn't silly......it recognizes a number of factors, regarding that situation.