Poll shows that one in five Americans think Obama is a 'Muslim'

[poiuytrewq0987]

AP - “President Obama is a Muslim.” “He’s not an American citizen.” “He wasn’t even born here.”

None of this is true. But to surprising levels, it is believed.

Blame it on the media, or on human nature. All presidents deal with image problems - that they’re too weak or too belligerent, too far left or far right. But Obama also faces questions over documented facts, in part because some people identify more with the rumormongers than the debunkers.

“Trust and distrust - that explains almost all of it,” says Nicholas DiFonzo, professor of psychology at the Rochester Institute of Technology and an expert on rumor and gossip research. “We are in such a highly polarized political environment. Our country is sorting itself into more closely knit, opposing factions each year” - factions, DiFonzo suggests, that in turn become “echo chambers” for factoids that aren’t fact at all.

Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is just 34 percent, down from 48 percent in March of last year.

The White House even felt compelled to respond with a terse knockdown from spokesman Bill Burton: “The president is obviously a Christian. He prays every day.”

http://www.france24.com/en/20100820-...ll-white-house

[Vasconcelos]

rofl

[Óttar]

I personally like that he's not officially the member of any church. I think that should be a requirement for all presidents.

[SwordoftheVistula]

I personally like that he's not officially the member of any church. I think that should be a requirement for all presidents.

He was in that crazy Jeremiah Wright black nationalist church for a long time, so we can assume that is his real religion. BlaHoWa!

[Octothorpe]

Well, some folks might also be more informed than the MSM believes--since Mr. Soetero was Muslim, and Mr. Obama, Sr. was of Muslim descent, the Muslim religion would say Barack Obama was born Muslim (regardless of where he came from or his current faith--if any). Also, between attending a Muslim school in a predominantly Muslim nation, and then being a member of a Black Liberation Theology congregation for twenty or so years, is it any wonder that the average American citizen has questions about what the President actually thinks?

[Curtis24]

He was in that crazy Jeremiah Wright black nationalist church for a long time, so we can assume that is his real religion. BlaHoWa!

I doubt it, he needed Wright's Church in order to organize the Chicago black vote. With African-Americans, political influence is often tightly woven with their churches.

Personally Obama doesn't strike me as particularly religious at all.

[Voitto]

I couldn't say what his religion is for sure, but I get the general impression he's a bigger supporter of Islam than he is of Christianity, which is very undesirable for an American president.

[Austin]

He is a secular opportunist, if you read his stuff he wrote from his early years it is evident he isn't particularly fond of Western-style Christianity or anything for that matter. Then as he gets older his stuff becomes much more moderate but basically yeahhh secular opportunist sounds about right. I think this is actually what Bush and Clinton were as well, if you look at both of them when they were young upstarts neither was religious at all, nor was Reagan for that matter. They all "found" their callings around the time they became interested in elected office.

[Curtis24]

With Bush, I got the impression he genuinely did believe he was some sort of man of God.

[Óttar]

The Muslim religion would say Barack Obama was born Muslim (regardless of where he came from or his current faith--if any).

Well, technically Islam believes everyone is born Muslim (that's why they call converts 'reverts' ) according to Abrahamic monotheist theology that believes Adam was a monotheist and then people started "worshipping idols" later, contrary to actual anthropological fact.