That dismaying poll about Obama’s religious affiliation

The entire mainstream liberal media have been clucking in shocked dismay for the last week over the finding that 24 percent of the American people (according to Time) or 18 percent of the American people (according to Pew) think that President Obama is a Muslim not a Christian. As the media see it, the poll shows how hopelessly ignorant and bigoted the public are, since of course Obama is a Christian.

But why should people “know” that Obama is a Christian? His only Christian affiliation in his life was with the Trinity United Church in Chicago, where Rev. Jeremiah Wright taught that the black race is the incarnation of good and the white race the incarnation of evil—not exactly an idea associated with any Christianity that most people have heard of. Indeed, the sermon by Wright which, according to Obama’s memoir, “converted” him to Christianity was the one that included the line, “White man’s greed runs a world in need”—again, not exactly a notion associated with the Nicene Creed. Further, since ending his relationship with Wright and leaving Trinity Church in April 2008, Obama has not joined any other Christian church. Nor is Obama—who has derided Christians as bigots who cling to their Bibles and guns and hate everyone who is “different”—known for making comments to friends about his deeply felt belief in Jesus Christ.

He is, however, very well known for his extravagant expressions of affection for and solicitude toward Islam. He has said that the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds in the world.” In his Cairo speech in 2009, he said that he would defend Islam from anti-Islamic “stereotypes” wherever they appear—in other words, he declared himself to be an enforcer of the Islamic law which prohibits any critical statements about Islam. And he has carried out that pledge in conspicuous ways. For example, the U.S. military, of which he is the commander in chief, has completely ignored and covered up the truth that the mass murder by Maj. Nidal Hassan at Fort Hood was a jihad attack on the United States. Meanwhile, his national security and homeland security officials have systematically eliminated any reference to the Islamic nature of Islamic terrorism.

And then there is the tiny little fact that Obama’s father was a Muslim, and therefore when Obama was born he was, according to Islamic law, a Muslim. Then there is the fact that Obama attended a Muslim school for several years when he was a boy in Indonesia, a Muslim country, and living under the guidance of his stepfather, who was also a Muslim. Then there is the fact that numerous relatives of his on his father’s side are Muslims. Then there is the fact that various Muslim leaders in the Muslim world have said that Obama is a Muslim. And—gosh, I almost forgot this one!—Obama’s middle name is Hussein, the name of the Prophet’s grandson. Is it not deeply indicative of Obama’s own identity that when he launched a career in American politics, he didn’t drop his alien-sounding middle name, but kept it?

There are, in short, lots of facts that might lead a reasonable person to assume that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. But the mainstream media either don’t know them, or have relegated them to the circular file labeled “Hatefact.”

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Mark Jaws writes:

Don’t forget the Stephanopolis interview where the Obamessiah talked about his “Moslem faith.”

LA replies:

I forgot about that. But how significant was it? It was a slip of the tongue. Yet, significantly, it wasn’t Obama who caught the slip, but his helpful interviewer George Stephanopoulos:

From the Washington Times, September 7, 2008:

“The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections,” said Mr. Stephanopoulos, who repeatedly interrupted Mr. Obama during the interview.

“I don’t think that when you look at what is being promulgated on Fox News, let’s say, and Republican commentators who are closely allied to these folks,” Mr Obama responded, and Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted: “But John McCain said that’s wrong.”

Mr. Obama noted that when Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin “was forced” to talk about her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, he issued a forceful statement to reporters that the line of inquiry was “off limits.” But he said the McCain campaign tried to tie him to “liberal blogs that support Obama” and are “attacking Governor Palin.”

“Let’s not play games,” he said. “What I was suggesting—you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right that that has not come.”

Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted with, “Christian faith.”

“My Christian faith,” Mr. Obama said quickly. “Well, what I’m saying is that he hasn’t suggested that I’m a Muslim. And I think that his campaign’s upper echelons have not, either. What I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I’m not who I say I am when it comes to my faith—something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time.”

Gintas writes:

Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted with, “Christian faith.”

“My Christian faith,” Mr. Obama said quickly.

Taqiyya.

LA replies:

The funny thing is, the story pushes the idea that Stephanapoulos kept interrupting Obama and giving him a hard time. But here he interrupts him to correct his very damaging slip of the tongue. Since when is it a reporter’s or an interviewer’s job to fix a politician’s error for him? What if Stephanapoulous had not corrected Obama? Would Obama have caught the error himself and corrected it? Maybe, but what if he hadn’t? Stephanapoulous could not permit such a disaster to occur. So he leaped in and fixed the error himself, saving Obama from what could have been a permanent, even crippling, wound.

August 25

Scott in Pennsylvania writes:

In Obama’s speech to Muslims in Cairo, he said, “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed.”

He uses the language of a believer. A sincere non-believer would say, “to the region where it first began,” or some such.

I maintain that Obama will convert to Islam and that he’s waiting for the right time. This period of non-affiliation with any Christian church is like an interim. He’s preparing the American people for some conversion moment, so that they won’t be as surprised as they would be if he were a regular church-goer.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 24, 2010 08:18 AM | Send