In Obama Opposition, Race and Religion Collide
This morning I was speaking to a friend of mine who expressed dismay at the continued prevalence of the rumors that Barack Obama is a muslim. My friend is from Seattle, but where you live isn’t important–the rumors simply won’t die. You’ve heard them–Obama took his oath of office on a Koran, he painted over the American flag on his plane, he refuses to put his hand over his heart durin the pledge of allegiance, etc. Heck, I started a whole website to show how ridiculous the muslim smears are.
Unfortunately, the rumors have continued to spread. As I explained to my friend, and as Nickolas D. Kristof notes in his editorial on the subject, the American public is conflating religion in race and “unAmericanizin” Obama. Even the most bigoted Americans realize it’s not appropriate to say that you won’t vote for a candidate because they are black, so finding other reasons to be suspicious of Obama is one way to find other reasons not to vote for him that are appropriate. According to the the Pew Research Center, as many as 13% of Americans believe that Obama is a muslim–that’s up from 10% a few months ago. Let’s face it, believing that Obama is muslim is just an easier lie for a lot of people to tell themselves. If for no other reason, it’s important for Obama to win this election so that those 13% find it more and more difficult to claim that Obama is un-American.
I almost forget to mention this from Kristof’s column:
In conservative Christian circles and on Christian radio stations, there are even widespread theories that Mr. Obama just may be the Antichrist. Seriously.
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Hmmmmm…..lying isn’t a very Christian thing to do. It appears these people creating rumors about Obama are using religion as an excuse to do wrong (isn’t that was the Taliban does?)
Also, one of the 10 Commandments is “You shall not lie.”