Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Faux news attacks Obama with "1 in 5 Americans believe he is a Muslim" ploy.

A new survey reports a sharp increase in the number of Americans who, incorrectly, say President Obama is a Muslim. The increase has occurred over the last couple of years, and the poll was taken before the president stepped into the fray of the Ground Zero mosque controversy.

The findings are part of the "Religion, Politics and the President" poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life early this month. It also explores Americans' attitudes toward religion's impact on society and voting preferences in the upcoming 2010 congressional races.

According to the survey, nearly one in five Americans (18 percent) say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in 2009. Obama is a Christian, but the number of people say Christian when asked his religion has gone down sharply, from 51 percent in 2008 to 34 percent today. And 43 percent say they don't know what religion the president follows. - fox

Look at the weighting of the wording in the hit piece:
"Obama Is Muslim, Survey Shows"
"President Obama is a Muslim."
"Obama is a Muslim."
"Obama is a Muslim"

"Obama is a Christian"
"Obama as Christian"

"the president is a Muslim give him a negative job approval rating."
"people see Obama as a Muslim. ... It's a troubling thing"

And then, this seeming evidence to prove that he IS a Muslim:
"He doesn't attend church regularly, and there are no photos of him leaving a house of worship on Sunday morning with a Bible in hand."

Well, know what? There were no photos of Lauren Green leaving a house of worship on Sunday morning with a Bible in hand, so she is a Muslim.  And so what if Lauren Green is a Muslim? Some people believe Lauren Green is a Muslim, I'm sure. Perhaps 8 out of 9 people, or 1 out of 100, or 3 out of 25 people believe Lauren Green of Fox News is secretly a Muslim. I have no proof that Lauren Green is Muslim. But I also have no photos of her leaving a house of worship on Sunday morning with a Bible in hand, do I? Very suspicious.

Actually, Obama is an interesting mix, I think he has mostly secular views, but Obama is certainly a Christian. The thing about "being a Christian" is that you are if you say you are. There is no test.
"As a child in Indonesia, Obama studied for two years at one Muslim school and then two years at a Catholic school. In both places he experienced religious indoctrination, but in neither case did the indoctrination take hold: during Quranic studies he made faces and during Catholic prayers he would look around the room. Eventually, Barack Obama abandoned this non-conformism and skepticism to be baptized as an adult in the Trinity United Church of Christ."

Obama tried to clear this up two years ago, January 2008:
Barack Obama is stepping up his effort to correct the misconception that he's a Muslim now that the presidential campaign has hit the Bible Belt.At a rally to kick off a weeklong campaign for the South Carolina primary, Obama tried to set the record straight from an attack circulating widely on the Internet that is designed to play into prejudices against Muslims and fears of terrorism.

"I've been to the same church _ the same Christian church _ for almost 20 years," Obama said, stressing the word Christian and drawing cheers from the faithful in reply. "I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. So if you get some silly e-mail ... send it back to whoever sent it and tell them this is all crazy. Educate." -1/21/2008 msnbc

Fox news is a Muslim. That's what I've heard. You shouldn't spread rumors,  however.  And I don't really know what a Muslim is, but I think that is where they keep the mummies and old pottery. It is troubling.

2 comments:

Ann said...

I personally think this is so obnoxious! Playing with former President Bush and his necon colleagues' Muslim paranoia and the world of terrorism: "Oh they're everywhere, everywhere. Get your guns out ....," a kind of contemporary Chicken Little story.

"Religion" has little to do with Obama or any other political elite. But, religion or anything else, for that matter, will be used to get people all hyped up to gain mass support.

After all, it is a lot easier to think "religion" than to delve into historical issues and contemporary political economy to understand why, in fact, the elitism and oligarchy is still in control in a supposedly democratic USA.

But, can you blame Americans for thinking "religion" as the root of evil? Just look how dismal the American education system is.

Patrick said...

Xeno, try this: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/61545

It's an add-on for Firefox that filters Fox News out of the google news search.