from FaithWorld:
Almost two million vanish from Obama’s estimate of U.S. Muslims
Almost two million people have inexplicably disappeared from the estimates of the U.S. Muslim population that President Barack Obama has given recently. In his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4, he spoke about "nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today." On Sunday, the Karachi daily Dawn published an interview with him where he said "we have five million Muslims."
There was no explanation for the change, but his reason for citing the figure seemed to be the same. Shortly before his Cairo speech, Obama told the French television channel Canal Plus that "one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world." He cited no figure there but mentioned seven million in Cairo three days later.
Many blogs, FaithWorld included, questioned that figure and noted that estimates of the U.S. Muslim population range from 1.8 to 7-8 million. The U.S. Census Bureau cannot ask about religion on a mandatory basis but refers on its website to a Pew Forum study pegging Muslims at 0.6% of the population. The CIA World Factbook uses the same percentage figure. It translates into about 1.8 million.
Speaking to Dawn, Obama lowered his estimate but made his original point again. He said: "We have Muslim Americans who are doing extraordinary things. In fact, their educational attainment and income is generally above the average here in the United States. We have Muslim members of Congress. And, in fact, we have 5 million Muslims, which would make us larger than many other countries that consider themselves Muslim countries."
The downsizing puts the U.S. even lower on the this Wikipedia list of countries according to the size of their Muslim population, from 32nd place (after Kazakhstan and before the current #32 Tajikistan) to 38th (between Chad and Turkmenistan).
In the interview, Obama also spoke a bit about his visit to Pakistan as a student in 1981 that caused some confusion and speculation in the end phase of the 2008 campaign. Dawn's Washington correspondent Anwar Iqbal asked Obama if he planned to visit Pakistan soon and the president responded:
The First Draft: Reviews flood in after Obama’s Cairo speech
He’s been preparing for this moment since long before he came to the White House, so President Barack Obama might wonder how his Cairo speech to the Muslim world went over. He wouldn’t have to wait long — within minutes after he ended his address, the reviews started flooding in.
The Washington Post said Obama did well, but basically, talk’s cheap: “Perhaps today’s words, from the son of a Muslim, will be viewed as a welcome olive branch. But it’s still just a speech. And even stirring words can’t paper over the seemingly intractable differences in the Mideast.”
The New York Post got a bit snarky: “If world peace is attained by complimenting those on the other side into submission, he made some serious progress. Obama really buttered them up in Cairo.”
The Drudge Report noted how long the speech was: the Web site showed a photo of Obama speaking, over the line “6,000 words”.
In Iran, there was a sort of pre-emptive review, issued even before Obama spoke: Iran’s supreme leader said United States was deeply hated in the Middle East, and warned Obama that “beautiful” speeches alone would not improve the U.S. image in the Muslim world.
More reviews are definitely expected to trickle in, since Obama’s speech was a multimedia event. If you missed the live broadcast, you could also see part or all of the speech online at Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. The White House ran the speech live on its website, and the State Department streamed it as part of a live chat – and the chat continued long after the speech ended.
One comment found there sounded like a rave: “Barack Hussein Obama is definitely an ”Elevation” leader that makes one vibrate while listening to him!”
the americans have been isolating iran for decades and put them in lotsof truble ,even they have been engaged in activities that could harm iranian nations and helping irans enemies in the past.how come all of the sudden they try to be friendly with iran by congracualations to iran?this wont work for them. becuse its the fact that they still seeking for their own advntages, and i think today,americans should negotiate with iran over the neclure issue and be prepared to accepet the fact that iran is also entitel to have neclure power.also they should relaize that iran is still far a way from devaloping the wapen.
The First Draft: On The Road Again
Now that Congress is back from its week-long Memorial Day recess, it’s time for the U.S. top brass to hit the road. President Barack Obama heads to the Middle East today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Honduras, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in China and U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke promises a visit to Pakistan this week.
Closer to home, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor starts making the rounds on Capitol Hill in advance of her confirmation hearings. Meantime, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal faces questions at his confirmation hearing today before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. McChrystal’s nominated to be the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
This might be an opportune time for travel. The Ipsos/Reuters poll indicates global consumer confidence is stabilizing, after dropping for 18 months.
Obama’s Mideast trip is in part a fulfillment of a campaign promise to deliver a speech to the Islamic world from a major Muslim capital early in his presidency. He’ll make the speech in Cairo on Thursday, where T-shirt vendors are ready with a version that reads “Obama: New Tutankhamon of the World.” His first stop in the region will be Saudi Arabia, where the discussion is expected to focus on oil prices.
Sometimes it’s not the distance traveled but what you say when you get there. That may be true for Dick Cheney, who last month emerged from his undisclosed location for a high-profile confrontation with Obama — they weren’t in the same room but Cheney started talking moments after Obama finished — over how to handle the threat of terrorism and its aftermath. The former vice president went to the National Press Club last night to offer support for gay marriage, regulated on a state-by-state basis. He has done this before, but doing it now puts him to the left of Obama, who favors civil unions for gay couples.
For more Reuters political stories, click here.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Amr Dalsh (Souvenir shop shows the latest on June 1 in Cairo)
I don’t know why president Obama feels obliged to keep his
campaign promise to address the Muslim people from a Muslim
capitol, so soon. He certainly isn’t in a rush to keep all
his others to his fellow citizens.
