"Poll shows more Americans think Obama is a Muslim" Washpost

 "Those results, from a new Pew Research Center survey, were drawn from interviews done before the president's comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, and they suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues.

The president's religion, like his place of birth, has been the subject of Internet-spread rumors and falsehoods since before he began his presidential campaign, and the poll indicates that those rumors have gained currency since Obama took office. The number of people who now correctly identify Obama as a Christian has dropped to 34 percent, down from nearly half when he took office."  Washpost

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Collective madness?  Cynical manipulation of the bigotry of the ignorant?  A bad joke?  Some of all of that?

Do these people imagine that Islam is a sort of tribe into which one is born with an indelible mark upon the soul?  There are Muslims who think that but do the Americans who think that Obama is a Muslim also believe that?

Since the USA is a heavily Christian country, I don't understand the belief on the part of so many that Obama is Muslim.  Christians generally believe that Christ is the redeemer who died in expiation of our collective sin and that he is available to us if we take him as moral exemplar and guide.

Obama publicly proclaims his faith.  He worships as a Christian.  He educates his children as Christians.  He walks like a Christian,  prays like a Christian, etc.  Why would one say that he is not a Christian?  

Is it that he expresses compassion for Muslims?  I think that if you cannot feel compassion, then you are not much of a Christian.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081806913.html

Comments

[BillWade]

It's pretty bizarre but I expect it's true. I first heard it from a good friend of mine who lives in Arizona. He's otherwise sane but is emphatic that Obama is a secret Muslim. I can't for the life of me understand him on this issue. On the other hand, he's convinced that the new Arizona immigration law is not a good one, "driving the good Mexicans away while the criminals are staying".

[William R. Cumming]

His conversion to Christianity is well documented.

[batondor]

I am not a Christian and may not be much of a religious person, Pat...

... but I really do need to say Thanks and Amen!

[Constant Learner]

Simple : they don't think he has the color of a Christian.

[Cato the Censor]

Col. Lang:

1. Why let facts get in the way of what you want to think?
2. For many of Obama's opponents, I think their definition of "Christianity" wouldn't square with yours.

[John Minnerath]

I read that report this morning.
I'm not sure if I was shocked, unsurprised, frightened?
What sort of person will take time to answer an unsolicited telephone pollsters questions?
Not I, more than enough non-profit, yada yada, types get around the "do not call" list and interrupt my peace.

Can this Pew poll actually represent the thinking of the public at large?

I don't know, but take a walk down the aisles of a Wally World or just scan passers by on a side walk and think about where they get their news or what papers they might read.
Or do most even bother?

I guess it is actually frightening.

[Fred]

Col,

This is the effect of the closed minded who obtain news from the narrowest sources possible so as not to have to do any thinking of thier own.

[jonst]

Constant Learner,

I think your conclusion, with all due (but, no more)respect is utter nonsense. But it is increasingly a popular tool of the Left (a camp I have always put myself in till recently)to attribute bigotry to every dispute in this nation. Many people ARE bigots. And many bigots may indeed think Obama's 'color' means he is not a Christian. But many people make think he is a Muslim (ludicrously, mind you) but absent racist leanings.

[Hawk Of May]

I see strong parallels to the claims that the Clinton's murdered people that were going around during President Clinton's presidency. The 'beliefs' regarding President Obama birth certificate and religious preferences are just the most convenient stories that fit in with a particular narrative.

How smart someone is doesn't correlate to their chances of believing these fictional tales. What matters more is their mode of thinking. Everyone has a system of beliefs into which new information enters into. For some folks that belief system is so rigid and unyielding that even facts get filtered out and only those bits of information that reinforce their current beliefs make it past their filters to modify their current world view. We are talking about mode of thinking which is dedicated to a particular world view first and the data (facts) second, if at all.

Where do I get my world view from? I probably read too much Asimiov:
http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm

[John Howley]

"American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind."
Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paranoid_Style_in_American_Politics

[psc]

President Obama is not a muslim. Obama worships Obama.

Read his books. Two autobiographical accounts of himself by the age of 50. That's alot of self love.

[Patrick Lang]

Constant Learner

Not even these idiots can be that foolish. The next pope is likely to be a man of color. pl

[lina]

Put it down to the power of propaganda.

I walked into a private mailbox facility yesterday to send a package. FOX News was blaring on the overhead TV. Obviously it was the choice of the people who owned/operated the place to be watching/listening to this channel while they worked. The pervasive, insidious, toxic ubiquity of the right wing propaganda machine cannot be minimized or denied.

It might even be blamed for the fact that more and more Americans demonstrate a complete disregard for The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They simply don't value the principles this country was founded upon. It's not just that they don't know any history. They put a greater premium on contemporaty "information."

The American "ideals" of Washington, Madison and Jefferson are circling the drain.

[oofda]

Colonel,
You probably are correct about the color of the next pope- but never underestimate the stupidity of some of these idiots.

[505thPIR]

Hate and ignorance go hand in hand. Look no further than the demographics of his opponents.

True Believers like the Ralph Reeds of the world have departed from high public profile and have hijacked the GOP/Tea Party types in thorough and well orchestrated grass roots fashion.

Now the mantra of "no more Mosques" rings from shore to shore. There is a far greater danger of constitutional erosion/applied theocracy from the Christian Right than there ever has been or will be by American Islamification.

Hate/Racism et al are all spawned by economic competition. In this case, the currency is souls.

This struggle, played out in Church and Media will flash at times into violence as the nuts absorb it and feel compelled to act (bombing abortion clinics is going to be kiddy-stuff). Worse yet, while we are all listening to this modern day version of Nero's fiddle,the great and ultimately meaningful business of the day will not get the attention it is due with predictable and sad results.

[johnf]

Apologies - the BBC radio news announcement must have been a mistake. Its not followed it up on its website.

[johnf]

And now they have:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11028317

[Stormcrow]

I'm afraid that what this means is that the impact of contagious mental illness is growing.

That what this is. A sickness of the mind that spreads from person to person.

The country is in a state of evident collapse, and most of the citizenry are being actively lied to, on a daily basis, about all of it. That quite frequently drives them functionally insane.

They mostly do not understand the pervasiveness of the lies or the extent to which they, themselves, have bought into them.

That really doesn't matter very much. Toxic levels of untruth can send their targets out of their minds whether they understand they're hearing lies or not.

The same way the LSD you don't realize you've drunk can still drive you temporarily insane.

[William]

I saw this article on the general subject of fact-denial earlier this summer:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/?page=full

"The only thing more dangerous than believing the enemy's propaganda is believing your own." Joseph Goebbels

[Eric Dönges]

Not even these idiots can be that foolish. The next pope is likely to be a man of color.

Colonel,
many years ago I had a Protestant explain to me in an Usenet discussion (this was before blogs) that Roman Catholics are secret devil worshipers and not really Christians at all. I think he was being serious. Nothing the Catholic Church does would have any bearing on their opinion (except when it reinforces their prejudices, of course).

Is it that he expresses compassion for Muslims? I think that if you cannot feel compassion, then you are not much of a Christian.

It seems to me that those that claim to be Christians the loudest are those that show the least compassion. They should read their New Testaments more carefully.

[Paul]

In my opinion we are a nominal (in name only) Christian nation. I was brought up with the idea that Christians practiced the virtues (charity, temperance, humility, etc.) that correlate to the Seven Deadly Sins.

A couple of hours watching television, especially the 24/7 cable channels, shows the full range of deadly sin practiced by our alleged leaders. The lack of virtue is deafening. Indeed, those skilled in the vices (such as Limbaugh, Palin, Gingrich et al) are emulated by the sheep of the nation.

[Hasib]

xenophobia--if it sounds or appears different be afraid.

If he had only changed his name to "Barry Obaman" or something, he wouldn't be having nearly as much trouble.

I'm speaking from personal experience--as I'm from an ethnically Muslim family from Bosnia have a middle-eastern sounding name but look European--very confusing to people. I love it!

[Harper]

I have a different take on this Muslim identification of Obama. I think that the real message people are sending is that they don't think that Obama has an American outlook. Yes, of course, there is all the anti-Muslim prejudice, the lack of any sophisticated understanding of a religion of about 1.4 billion people, etc. But note that the same day that this Muslim poll grabbed all the headlines, obama's approval rating sank to 41 percent, with 52 percent disapproval. That is way below the survival line, and the broader repudiation of Obama's failed presidency is the larger framework for viewing this Muslim flap. Not only have Obama's policies failed miserable, for the vast majority of Americans, suffering through what this guy continues to call a "jobless recovery" (talk about oxymorons). On a deeper level, he seems to repudiate any idea of American republicanism, which is often called "American exceptionalism." American exceptionalism is not racial, or religious, or any other demographic delineation. It derives from the fact that we are the unique constitutional republic on this planet. Churchill begrudgingly said it well: "Americans always get it right--after everything else has failed." Obama lacks that American impulse, and I think the Muslim label is an unfortunate obscuring of what some of these people are trying to get at. "He ain't one of us."

[Patrick Lang]

Harper

I don't think a belief in "American Exceptionalism" has much to do with the republic. It began in the Puritan self congratulation of having founded what they thought to be a godly society and has continued in a largely irreligious (but church going) country as a delusion of the victorious Northern culture that they really are something special. pl

[Adam L Silverman]

Sir,

This seems to go along with the reports from earlier this month of people, usually identified with the tea parties, traveling to Colonial Williamsburg and engaging the actors playing the Founders at the park, as if they were the actual founders, regarding what to do about what they perceive as the problems currently facing America.

Here's one of many links I found. This one, like most of the others link back to/reference a WaPo story on this:
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/tea-party-heads-williamsburg-question-founding-fathers