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One in five Americans thinks Obama is Muslim
Survey finds falsehoods about President were on the rise even before the Ground Zero mosque row
Nearly one in five Americans believes, incorrectly, that Barack Obama is a Muslim. That is almost double the number who thought the same thing when Obama first entered the White House just over 18 months ago. It shows that America's first black president is still struggling to challenge some voters' misconceptions.
The national poll, conducted by the Pew Forum, found that 18 per cent of Americans apparently think that the US President is Muslim. That is up from 12 per cent when he ran for the presidency in 2008 and 11 per cent after he was inaugurated in January 2009.
Forty-three per cent of respondents said they were uncertain of Obama's faith - up from 32 per cent in late 2008.
Notably, the survey was carried out in early August - before Obama found himself caught up in the Ground Zero mosque row. Last week the President said that Muslims had the right to set up a mosque and Islamic community centre two blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center, target of the 9/11 al Qaeda terrorist attack, although he later refused to comment on whether they actually should build there.
Obama's religion - he is, in fact, a Christian - has been the subject of internet rumours and tabloid conspiracy tales ever since he began his presidential campaign.
Washington commentators and White House officials are divided over the reason behind the Pew poll's oddball findings. The White House's faith adviser, Joshua DuBois, argued that they were due to "misinformation campaigns" by Obama's opponents.
DuBois told the Washington Post: "While the president has been diligent and personally committed to his own Christian faith, there's certainly folks who are intent on spreading falsehoods about the president and his values and beliefs."
In contrast, the Pew Forum's director, Andrew Kohut, said the results reflected the fact that Obama had "not made religion a part of his public persona". ·
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When a British journalist who was in America reporting on the last presidential election, he was asked by a high school student where he came from, when he replied England, the student said do they speak English there? This is one of the problems with the American people, they are totally ignorant about the rest of the world. Ask them what countries took part in both world wars, and they would reply, well you know what there reply would be. We cant blame them i suppose. They get there history from hollywood.
When I first visited the US in the late fifties, I carried out my own survey of Americans, asking them where England is. A substantial proportion said that England was between France and Germany. Many had no idea at all. You see, the American education system is completey useless. Most Americans think that they invaded Europe alone in the last war and are very surprised to learn that they were not in the majority. The US is afloat on a sea of BS. By the way, Obama is probably the best president they ever had, but then no-one can read a history book, all those big words with two sylables, so they will never find out, will they?
Obama inherited a financial and war related disaster, created by the crackpot Bush and his entourage. I have a great deal of sympathy for Obama, particularly as the more I think about it the more I realise that the President, even though posessing a great deal of individual power, is largely a puppet, whose strings are pulled by the bankers, big business the arms lobby, his enemies within his own party and there is always the dangerous volatility of the permanently sh*t stirring media to contend with. Can't open your mouth without making an error, like when Ross Perot referred to black Americans as 'you people'. He was never allowed to forget this absloutely nothing of a comment. One of the biggest problems that this President faces is the backlash from white Americans against the incessant reminders from the racially obsessed feminist media of his skin colour. We can all see he is not white, just half white and most people don't care but when they do get fed up, Obama gets the blame rather than the self righteous, seemingly anti-white hypocrites of the media.
As an Englishman I think he's a dick head.
Then 1 in 5 Americans are REALLY stupid.
His mother lives in Kenya and was very pleased when H.E. The President of USA received the â??Noble Priceâ??. If he is Muslim, how come he is still in Afghanistan and thinks Iran is Axis od Evil? We had better think hard on this. Either he is or he is not , we can know on the Eid Day when all Muslims celebrate the Eid day after fasting for 30 days. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA
to be a muslim or christain is not important,what is essential is that to believe in shared human values and ethics.