I wonder what would happen if they asked this question: "Is Obama a Shia or Sunni Muslim?" Probably just confused stares, but it would interesting.

If you repeat something often enough, you can get a lot of people to start and never stop believing it. I bet it would even work on something like pretending some guy you want to take out has weapons that could be massively destructive.

That is some crazy shit. God, what a country. Thanks, liberal media!

Well, just give it a little while and the ever desperate Hillary is sure to try and find some way to use this muslim thing to aid her stupid compaign.

Something like "Wright would never have been MY pastor, and I'm certainly not going to use the Koran for MY presidential oath of office.

A guy with a Christian pastor problem and he is a muslim? What a crock. Cannot believe that one is still coming up.

One of the things that makes this "Muslim" issue tricky is that, although it is false, Obama can't wax indignant about a "smear" because there's nothing wrong with being a Muslim, hence, there is no "smear," just an innacuracy about what, among decent people, is an innocuous biographical fact. To be sure, it isn't so "innocuous" to some voters, but I'm willing to bet that those voters have already noticed that he is a Negro, and aren't pleased about that fact. I'd like to see some poll break things out and tell us whether the "Muslim" thing actually costs Obama votes or simply overdetermines the votes he had no chance of getting anyway.

Kevin, first of all I have to say I support Obama and his call for a racial dialogue in America. But in fairness to what you just wrote, it should hardly be surprising if a pastor is making anti-American rants from his Pew, Americans would judge that was a Muslim pastor and not a Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish Pastor because Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish Pastors don't say such heinous things.

christ, the level of utter disengagement by these ignorant friggin morons is distressing. as a sign of the stupid, this is what you're up against:

Mrs. Yarnick, for instance, said she would vote for Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, “because he spent all those years in a P.O.W. camp and he doesn’t talk about it,” an indicator of a reserve that she sees as a sign of the character and good manners she admires in her neighbors.

Peter Contacos, 42, the fourth generation of his family to own and operate Coney Island Lunch, a downtown Johnstown business that survived two floods and the loss of thousands of regular customers when Bethlehem Steel eliminated 15,000 jobs in the 1970s and ’80s, will not vote for Senator Barack Obama, “because his name is Barack Hussein Obama — case closed.” Mr. Contacos, an avid hunter who proudly displays pictures of himself with a magnificently maned lion he killed in Botswana, said he considered Mr. Obama “a terrorist.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/us/politics/20penn.html?_r=1&ref;=politics&oref;=slogin

Just goes to show that you can be dumber than a bag of hammers and still vote.

Black nationalists can be kinda Muslim. Like a Farrakhan.

The Wright episode is supposed to paint Obama as a Farrakhan (or a Sharpton). It's the "black" part that matters.

I'll bet that they think that Wright is also a Muslim, and that they can't tell him from Farrakhan.

... it should hardly be surprising if a pastor is making anti-American rants from his Pew, Americans would judge that was a Muslim pastor and not a Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish Pastor because Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish Pastors don't say such heinous things.

Now *that's* some good squishy. Well done.

Have I mentioned "The Marching Morons" by C.M. Kornbluth lately? Great, prophetic SF.

God, Allah, Rama, someone, help us. We are too fucking stupid to help ourselves.

Well, as far as Hillary knows, he isn't a Muslim. That's what he says and she for one believes him.

"Black nationalists can be kinda Muslim. Like a Farrakhan." Point of Information: Farrakhan is a member of the Nation of Islam, formerly known as "Black Muslims."

As for people believing that Obama is Muslim, remember that 25% of our fellow citizens STILL believe that Saddam was directly involved in the 9/11 attacks. Maybe they're the same people. And maybe they'd like to purchase some of my Instant Youth Salve.

Sometimes the best you can do with low information voters is to give them an incentive to stay home on election day.

Some libs still think Jose McCain is a patriotic American.

Give it a rest. The paster is old news.

New News? McCain married to trust-fund zombie!
More? Clinton tortured for 7 years in Hanoi Hilton

*A guy with a Christian pastor problem and he is a muslim? What a crock.*

I thought most muslims have various problems with Christian pastors?

coldhotel: Sometimes the best you can do with low information voters is to give them an incentive to stay home on election day.

Unfortunately, the prospect of a Negro Muslim Terrorist in the White House is probably a pretty powerful incentive to show up at the polls. Especially if he has a funny-sounding name!

Al puts his finger right on the issue, which is that there's a lot of people with the same retarded level of brain activity as George W. Bush.

Basically, George Bush has no interest whatsoever in trying to figure out what's really happening. Instead, he has a bunch of words floating around in his head, like "freedom", "strong", "secure" for things he likes and supports, and words like "evil", "terror", and "mistake" for things he doesn't like. This is why he continually makes ignorant statements over and over like how Pakistan's Musharraf is a "great friend to democracy", or how our economy is "sound and strong", or the attacks in Basra are "a positive development". Bush wants and supports these things, so these words fly out of his mouth, regardless of whether it has any relation to what's going on.

The same thing's going on among his 28% of supporters. "How can they think Obama's a Muslim after the controversy about his Christian church?" Wrong question - these people *aren't* "thinking"! The Christian Church is good. They like the Christian Church. Therefore, since the pastor says mean things they don't like, that *can't* be a real Christian church! And they don't know (or care to know) anything about Muslim beliefs. "Muslim" is just a way of saying "scary different-looking person" - it's a word to describe their fears. And that's why you can't convince them, either. Their fears about Obama aren't going to go away, and therefore as long as "Muslim" is the most insulting word they can use (because they can't use "terrorist" or "n-----r"), then that's what they'll use, regardless of any facts.

I thought most muslims have various problems with Christian pastors?

No, it's like Cubs fans and White Sox fans. White Sox fans bitch incessantly about Cubs fans, and Cubs fans generally don't pay any attention to Sox fans.

OT: The aspens are turning...

Sen. Patrick Leahy is suggesting that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton abandon her White House run.

[...]

"Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to. As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out. But as I have said before, that is a decision that only she can make," Leahy said in the statement.

Back on topic: I dunno that people who still are going with the 'Obama-is-a-Muslim' meme suffer from a lack of exposure to the truth as much as they are unwilling to recognize what's true. They gotta have a reason for not liking Obama, and this fits their prejudices.

I think grape_crush at 3:02 is on to something.
People don't want to admit, even to themselves, that they don't like Obama for the obvious reason (he's a WHAT?) so they'll latch on to something else. I always figured the "young, inexperienced" thing would fill that void but "Muslim" is even better. Oh, it's not true but when did that ever matter in a land where GW Bush is a war hero for posing in a flight suit and John Kerry is a weasel because he volunteered for combat?

Given that this is (most likely) the same group of people who see no contradiction in declaring that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian who was having an affair with Vince Foster, I'm not surprised in the least.

My college-educated, quite intelligent mother-in-law recently passed along a junk email written by someone named Michael Reisig from Mena, Ark that raises the question that Obama may be a Muslim Manchurian candidate. This same email cites as evidence the fact that he attends a church that "teaches radical Afro-centric theology". Never mind that it is Christian theology.

And she was convinced enough to pass this email along to us to make sure we were aware that Obama may be muslim.

College educated, well-to-do Republican. How does this happen?

*

Don't forget, he's communist, too!

We all know Obama is a Muslim. And Hillary is a monster.

You think "Obama is a Muslim with a crazy, anti-American racist christian minister" is off-the-wall, get a load of the "ethnic bomb". Wingnut sites (World Nut Daily, Little Green Boogers) are pushing the story that Obama's church printed an article in its newsletter which claimed that Israel was working on a bomb that would kill only blacks and Arabs!

You truly can't make this shit up! Unless you're a wingnut republican, of course.

Don't many American's still believe Saddam is part of Al-Queda and behind 9/11?

Never underestimate the stupidity of the American People.

Yep, there is a sucker born every minute. And many of them vote.

Judaism, Christianity, Muslim...its all Abrahamic.

I'm not sure how Pew conducts its research but I am sure that medically 10% of any human population is classified as either moron, imbecile, or idiot.

Each with a vote.

MeLoseBrain - Unfortunately the letter that talks about to the Arab/Black ethnic bomb is still up on the Trinity United Church web page.

http://tucc.org/upload/tuccbulletin_june10.pdf

We all know Obama is a Muslim. And Hillary is a monster. Posted by: AJ on March 28, 2008

Well since western religions believe in Abraham Hagee is a Muslim. As for those that still believe in monsters they are children.

And besides that, since many people go to church yet remain ignorant of it, by biblical lore, It was [passed out drunk Noah] Noahs son [Ham]that saw his fathers nakedness that was cursed and supposedly turned dark in color.

So what we have here, religious battlewise, is a family argument.

And ya know what? I dont want any part of that argument and I would thank the Judaeh, Christian and Muslim people to keep me, and American government, out of your age old squabbles.

Do I believe in GOD, sure I do, but he tells me not to get involved with my crazy relatives.

The Democrats are fielding two people for president this year.

One of them has balls, the other is black.

(you know that's a GOP joke because it denigrates both)

Watch out... mcCain might be able.....

Drop out Hillary.

Go Obama!

But you know, 1 in 10 Americans also still think Elvis is alive, so ... yeah ...

Easily 10% of our fellow citizens are barking mad insane.

Cubs fans generally don't pay any attention to Sox fans.

Posted by: shortstop

Having grown up on Chicago's west side (20 years), I can attest to the truth of this statement.

I'm not sure how Pew conducts its research but I am sure that medically 10% of any human population is classified as either moron, imbecile, or idiot.

Easily 10% of our fellow citizens are barking mad insane.

I suspect the figure is higher, and growing higher still.

Have stupid, will travel.

My college-educated, quite intelligent mother-in-law recently passed along a junk email...

Hey, I got that junk email the week before Super Tuesday-subject line was "Obama's Church". Wow, how prophetic... Oops, no pun intended! :)

23% of white Democrats with an unfavorable opinion of Obama think he's a Muslim.

I think if you could map that result *geographically* you would likely find that it correlates very highly to the density of Southern Baptist churches and evangelical Protestants generally. Nearly every white Baptist I know here believes some variant of this. They either think his church in Chicago IS a Muslim church, OR they think his church is apostate because they mix Islam with Christianity, OR, Obama is a "secret" Muslim and pretends to be a Christian, OR would likely convert to Islam if he was in charge and talked to much with the Arabs.

My college-educated, quite intelligent mother-in-law recently passed along a junk email...

Hey, I got that junk email the week before Super Tuesday-subject line was "Obama's Church". Wow, how prophetic... Oops, no pun intended! :)

23% of white Democrats with an unfavorable opinion of Obama think he's a Muslim.

I think if you could map that result *geographically* you would likely find that it correlates very highly to the density of Southern Baptist churches and evangelical Protestants generally. Nearly every white Baptist I know here believes some variant of this. They either think his church in Chicago IS a Muslim church, OR they think his church is apostate because they mix Islam with Christianity, OR, Obama is a "secret" Muslim and pretends to be a Christian, OR would likely convert to Islam if he was in charge and talked to much with the Arabs.

Whoops! Forgot to sign my post. It used to always error out if I forgot...

I had something to say, but I read thripshaw's post and now I have this urge to go watch American Idol. Isn't there something about Idolatry in the Bible?

Two stories dominated CNN last night: the Rev. Wright's racism and Iran's involvement with Iraqi insurgents.

Doc,it correlates very highly to the density of Southern Baptist churches and evangelical Protestants generally.
Been to Pennsylvania lately? Southern Delaware? Same thing.

Al is getting too easy to shoot down: ...because Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish Pastors don't say such heinous things.

Answer: Yeah, they just did them.

Walked into that one, Al.

You'd think that one silver lining of the great Jeremiah Wright controversy is that it would at least put to rest all those rumors that Barack Obama is actually Muslim.

Wait until people find out that Obama's also claiming to have invented the Internet. As if!

This might take the cake. My mother has been getting emails saying not just that Obama is a Muslim but that he is also the Antichrist. You see, the book of Revelations tells us that the Antichrist will (a) come out of the East (well, Hawaii is east of Israel), (b) be a charismatic leader who the people follow, and (c) he will be a MUSLIM! I asked my mom where it says in Revelations that the Antichrist will belong to a faith that did not ocme into existence until the sixth century and she just laughed.

mhr, are you under the impression that Christ, or the ancient Greeks or Egyptians, were white? Do you think that modern U.S. categories "white" and "black" correspond in any way to the ethnicities of ancient people? What the ^$(*^&%# does Jesus's skin color have to do with believing he is Christ?

(This comment brought to you by Purina Troll Chow. Sorry.)

But, Jesus had blue eyes, rm. I've seen the pictures.

There is a simple explanation. You see, like Obana, Rev. Wright is actually a closet Muslim, as is the whole Trinity congregation. And next week we will learn they are actually pagans.

alizonia:

My college-educated, quite intelligent mother-in-law recently passed along a junk email written by someone named Michael Reisig from Mena, Ark that raises the question that Obama may be a Muslim Manchurian candidate. This same email cites as evidence the fact that he attends a church that "teaches radical Afro-centric theology". Never mind that it is Christian theology.

And she was convinced enough to pass this email along to us to make sure we were aware that Obama may be muslim.

College educated, well-to-do Republican. How does this happen?

Your mom-in-law is a partisan hack, disseminating stuff she knows is nonsense in the hopes of convincing the more credulous to vote for McCain so she can get another tax cut?

Just a stab in the dark.