When criticisms have come couched in extravagant and misleading rhetoric, most papers have offered little pushback outside of the editorial pages. In a report on Republican criticism of the Park51 development, the Times ran Newt Gingrich’s now infamous statement that “building the mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks ‘would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.’” It would not have been ideological editorializing to challenge that assertion, adding, as many have pointed out, that the analogy is extreme and inaccurate. Instead, it was left to stand.
We can’t leave the inflammatory and misleading to stand. We must be as vigilant about correcting the record on all matters of Islam as we have been on the president’s faith. More so. The stakes for him are political; the stakes for Muslim Americans are far greater. From this week’s Time cover story:
…to be a Muslim in America now is to endure slings and arrows against your faith — not just in the schoolyard and the office but also outside your place of worship and in the public square, where some of the country’s most powerful mainstream religious and political leaders unthinkingly (or worse, deliberately) conflate Islam with terrorism and savagery.
Why do people think he's Islamic? Here's a nice example of the hysteria in motion: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/19/obamas-islamic-agenda/?page=1
#1 Posted by Ben Welsh, CJR on Fri 20 Aug 2010 at 10:27 AM
“I must say,” Mr. Caldwell said, “never in the history of modern-day presidential politics has a president confessed his faith in the Lord, and folks basically call him a liar.”
Funny how the creators of “Jesusland” want nothing more than to convince their fellow Americans that Obama is a good Christian. Wonders never cease.
#2 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Fri 20 Aug 2010 at 01:08 PM
On Sept 7, 2008, on ABC interview with George Stephanapolis, Barack Obama talked about his muslim faith. He admitted that he is not a Christian but a Muslim. Check it out, it's on youtube.com
#3 Posted by John Roberts, CJR on Fri 20 Aug 2010 at 07:54 PM
You whining little baby. The reason people believe Obama is a Muslim is because he IS a muslim. What makes you feel the necessity to dispel facts which you have no proof are indeed correct. You can't even deduct your kids in the US on your taxes any more without providing proof to the IRS that they were born here. What makes you believe that we should accept undocumented, questioned statements regarding the citizenship and faith of the man who is holding the reins of our government and the power to destroy the earth. GET REAL and get off you leftist high horse.
#4 Posted by TruthSpeaker, CJR on Sat 21 Aug 2010 at 07:41 PM
People believe Islam and Muslim is bad because their law and ideology includes Flogging Women, Cutting of limbs , Cutting out tongues, outrages punishments. Need I say more ? Is this who their god is ? Allah ? My God is not that god.
#5 Posted by Salvatore Bucca, CJR on Sun 22 Aug 2010 at 08:34 AM
All of this hysteria is out of ignorance not education. Education might cure the sickness. There are backward groups in every culture and ideology. Those who practice killing and abusing women are evil in any society and should be condemed and punish by law. Wars are evil when innocent men, women, and children are the victims, and this goes on in all religions. True Christians do not follow Christ's teachings and are not true to the beliefs because many voice hatred, bigotry, and are not concerned about the poor and saving humanity,and not by pushing one faith over another, by actions and deeds, not lies and falsehood. Christ was killed because of his beliefs to teach love and peace in the world. That will get one the same today, whose a christian and moslem, that will do the business of Christ? Not talking about sitting in a church all day and public show? Leave the president to do his job, and hold the chatter from the propagandists.
#6 Posted by stormy lady, CJR on Sun 22 Aug 2010 at 10:36 AM
All of this hysteria is out of ignorance not education. Education might cure the sickness. There are backward groups in every culture and ideology. Those who practice killing and abusing women are evil in any society and should be condemed and punish by law. Wars are evil when innocent men, women, and children are the victims, and this goes on in all religions. Some Christians do not follow Christ's teachings and are not true to the beliefs because many voice hatred, bigotry, and are not concerned about the poor and saving humanity,and not by pushing one faith over another, by actions and deeds, not lies and falsehood. Christ was killed because of his beliefs to teach love and peace in the world. That will get one the same today, whose a christian and moslem, that will do the business of Christ? Not talking about sitting in a church all day and public show? Leave the president to do his job, and hold the chatter from the propagandists.
#7 Posted by stormy lady, CJR on Sun 22 Aug 2010 at 10:40 AM
I have noticed that some of those who express differing opinions resort to name calling and obscenity rather than reasoned debate. This alone makes me question the validity of any argument they make. If you wish to be taken seriously, isn't it imperative that you make an intelligent point to engage others and open them to your point of view?
#8 Posted by Maryelens, CJR on Sun 22 Aug 2010 at 11:07 AM
This is another case of cherry-picking. For instance, for 40+ years I've been hearing from media people that Richard Nixon said he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, by way of explaining why Nixon won in 1968. I called out Jonathan Alter on this urban myth, and he generously admitted there was no evidence of Nixon having said any such thing. The myth was not whipped up by talk radio - it was believed by lazy MSM journalists, encouraged by Democratic politicians. (And thus accepted without much skepticism.) It is also an inconvenient circumstance that the idea that O.J. Simpson was set up by the Mafia or the L.A. police is still widely believed in African-American communities, as is the belief that the moon landings were faked by NASA. The notion that George W. Bush planned, or knew about in advance, the 9/11 attacks remains widely believed, too - but, unlike the 'Obama is a Muslim' meme, the above urban legends are not the subject of vigorous hand-wringing by our non-partisan journalistic fraternity/sororities. There are many notions that 20% of the public in one poll or another believe that would strike CJR as silly, but it concentrates its fire on the 'right-wing' myths, though 'the Right' is not in power at the moment. Wasn't an administration official discharged because he signed a '9/11 Truther' document?
#9 Posted by Mark RIchard, CJR on Sun 29 Aug 2010 at 06:52 PM
Apologies for continuing on this theme - Obama opposes same-sex marriage, for instance. In these he is supported by a majority of those polled, who are routinely characterized as bigots, etc., full of hate and so forth. But Obama himself is seldom characterized as bigoted and hateful, though bigotry and hatred are the only explanations that gay-marriage supporters seem to be able to come up with as an explanation for opposition to their issue. Why? Because they think he secretly supports same-sex marriage, but cannot say so for reasons of public support. I would guess the people who believe Obama is a Muslim fall into that same category of thought - that he had to say he is a Christian in order to become president of the United States, but that 'secretly' he holds Muslim beliefs.
I don't believe it, but I'm just trying to point out that these poll questions and the public rhetoric are complicated, based on the assumptions of what the poll is really asking. I don't see many reporters working to get an accusation of hatred and bigotry out of Barack Obama for his opposition to same-sex marriage from activists for the latter. On the other hand, journalists at CJR are obsessing about this Obama-the-Muslim notion as a way of painting his opponents with a very broad brush. The double standard is always there. Check out the labeling and coverage of Glenn Beck vs. 'Civil Rights Leader' Al Sharpton for examples of how it works.
#10 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Sun 29 Aug 2010 at 07:00 PM
To clarify, a statement above, reporters do not ask same-sex marriage activists if Barack Obama is a bigot and hate-monger for opposing their cause, though activists for this cause routinely characterize all opposition thusly.
#11 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Sun 29 Aug 2010 at 07:03 PM
Posted by John Roberts:
**"On Sept 7, 2008, on ABC interview with George Stephanapolis, Barack Obama talked about his muslim faith. He admitted that he is not a Christian but a Muslim. Check it out, it's on youtube.com"**
This is utterly false. As a university media instructor we discuss just this sort of misinformation in our media literacy studies. This particular idea has taken up entire class sessions. We even watched this particular interview. But the president has never said he is muslim. Oddly enough because he's not. But since when do we go around asking public figures to show their "religion card" anyway? And if he was, does that automatically mean something bad?
If by the logic of some, all Muslims are bad, then are all Germans Nazis? Are all southern Christian males over age 50 Klan members? Are all Russians, soviet hardliners ready to bomb the United States? When does this fear mongering end?
If you watch the entire clip it's very clear the president is being sarcastic. And when George attempts to "correct" him he further explains he was speaking hypothetically. It's pretty cut and dry. But maybe he was too subtle.
More importantly people will believe what they want to believe. Regardless of the actual facts. Repeat something often enough and more than a few people will believe it as truth. No matter how far fetched.
It makes me sad.
#12 Posted by J Martin, CJR on Sun 29 Aug 2010 at 09:22 PM
The answer is simple. These people know damned well he is not a Muslim. They are engaging in raw hate. Yet their hate in actuality is not directed at Obama. They are engaged in shadow projection. These young souls are not aware of their own dark side so they project it onto a "hook" for their projection. Hitler's hook and scapegoat was the Jews. To narcisistically wounded white anglo saxon "americans" ...Obama is a convenient hook for their self hatred and self loathing. The USA and the world will be better off when the unconscious, narcissistic baby boomers die off.
#13 Posted by Rob, CJR on Tue 21 Sep 2010 at 10:29 AM