Do you believe the myth that U.S. President Barack Obama is a Muslim?
If you do, you’re not alone. A March survey by the Pew Research Center found that 11 percent of the American adults it polled thought Obama was a Muslim. This is little changed from the 12 percent who expressed the same belief in October during the heat of the White House race.
The most recent survey, conducted from March 9-12, polled just over 1,300 American adults nationwide and asked them “Do you happen to know what Barack Obama’s religion is? Is he Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic or something else?”
White evangelical Protestants — a key component of the Republican Party base — are more likely than anyone else to believe this persistent falsehood. Pew said 19 percent of respondents from this group said they thought Obama was a Muslim.
The belief that he is a Muslim has had wide currency in right-wing circles and the double-digit percentages suggest it is not restricted to an isolated fringe.
For the record, Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, is a Christian and maintains his faith informs much of his outlook and policy.
(Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama smiles during a news conference at the G20 Summit in London, April 2, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed (BRITAIN)
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3 comments so far
this is just a representation of how close minded our society has become. these are the same people who who look to bafoons like Bill O’reily, Sean hannity and Glenn Beck as their source of knowledge for everything. I think president Obama needs to put even more money towards our education so we don’t have this epedemic spreading thru out our society.
- Posted by sidneyno, sidney: mr obama and his sycophantic press need to be more transparent, especially vis-a-vis his birth certificate. mr obama’s evasiveness, islamic upbringing, and circle of friends including his racist pastor (how do you call such rantings christian?!) also lead persons like myself, who have no dealings with right-wing talk radio screed and pseudojournalistic scribble, to doubt virtually everything that comes out of mr obama’s mouth. as for education, i think mr obama has spent enough of my money bailing out his friends, and do not wish to lose more of my cash for a failed educational system. in fine, a little transparency goes a long way
- Posted by jd[...] Percentage Of Americans Who Think Obama Is A Muslim Unchanged (Ed Stoddard/FaithWorld/Reuters; April [...]
- Posted by The Wisdom Of The Godly | AnAtheist.Net