So I was thinking about this the other day. And you know, if Obama is a Muslim, he is an incredibly backslidden one.
You see, to be a true Muslim one has to follow the "Five Pillars of Islam-" Iman (faith), Salah (prayer), Zakah (tithing), Sawm (fasting), and Hajj (pilgrimage).
So I haven't seen Obama doing ritualized fasting like Ramadan, because I'm sure we'd have seen something about how he doesn't eat until the sun goes down. One pillar down. Nor, to my knowledge, has he made a Hajj to Mecca. That's two. We don't see Obama praying five times a day (something else we most assuredly would have heard about, and that would have been passed around the Republican blogosphere and radio). There's three pillars. Nor have I seen Obama pronounce Iman, as he should if he is a Muslim.
So hence, even if Obama ever was or is now a Muslim, he is a severely backslidden one.
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Is this still a popular perception among people you know or are familiar with? I am aware there's some unhealthy percentage of conservatives who think he's a secret Kenyan Muslim sent to destroy us, but I've not actually seen any of these Birther/Muslim conspiracy folks in my online forays in a while. They seem to have changed tactics and started to complain about the way we are supposedly mistreating the Israeli government instead.
Yes, actually. Quite a few people at my church use the Muslim/misusing Israel arguments together, as well as several people on Facebook/the AFA crowd. Quite annoying. But I like my new argument. :P
First, I would just point out that there are many documents that Obama has kept hidden from the public. These are the kind of documents that were released to the public by prior presidents. Personally, I think that he was born in Hawaii, but I do believe that he is a closet Muslim, or at least has major sympathies to Muslims. He grew up in at least one Muslim country, and I am sure that had some affect on his life. That coupled with his radical and Marxist beliefs could be a dangerous combination to liberty and freedom along with America as a whole.
As I demonstrated above, it's kind of hard to be a "closet Muslim." But anyway-
1. don't see how his not releasing documents has to do with the subject. So...he doesn't let you know what classes he went to in college. So...this has bearing upon his religious beliefs...how?
2. Also don't see how his being a Muslim would in any way impact my liberties. Actually, I look at it the other way- people trying to repress a certain religious belief (Islam) will come back to bite us all in the rear. But I digress.
Obama ran his campaign on TRANSPARENCY, and yet he has been of the least transparent presidents ever-if not the least. That is the primary reason it matters to me.
I would rather he admit (if he is a Muslim) that he is a Muslim and he understands where Muslims are coming from in their thinking and can sympathize with them instead of possibly hiding his beliefs. Honesty would be a change for him.
I knew all I had to do was ask the question and I would swiftly get some evidence to the contrary of my theory....
John Adams' administration was a pretty untransparent Presidency (other than the fact that Jefferson was going around his back writing letters and editorials to prominent newspapers). I would not want to get into hyperbolic sentiments and talking points about "transparency" with someone who is versed in history. So far the most secretive things he's done is try to hide his smoking habit and continue to do things like NSLs and state secrets privileges that Bush/Cheney used as well. I'm not impressed that he is making his administration one of opaqueness as a result. Governments do not exist in a perfect world of transparency with full disclosure of their activities to the broader public. On this point I would consider myself disappointed as a civil libertarian in some crucial ways (like continued use of NSLs and illegal wiretapping programs), but hardly surprised.
The problem with this notion that he is somehow a secret Muslim is not that he is somehow not transparent about it. It is, like the Birther conspiracy, something which exists solely because it is impossible to disprove (the goal posts will shift even if some evidence is introduced anyway). It can only exist in a state of perpetual incoherence. Once facts of any kind are introduced, facts like those Liberty points out about his potential duties as a faithful Muslim, it falls apart as idiotic. The principle reason I can find for both sets of "rigorous" theories like these is to find a reason to explain his supposed "un-Americanness". Usually without referencing his race as the principle reason. Whether or not it really is is a separate question which we need not get into. But the point there is, even if he is a Muslim, he's not a very good one so what difference does it make upon his politics and thinking? Probably very little. I'm personally rather alarmed that the mere concept of being capable of sympathizing with other human beings is being decried as dangerous. Pretty sure one of the hallmarks of study post-Holocaust was that the creation of "evil" starts with the removal of empathy for one's fellow human beings. Plus I happen to like winning wars and battles if we must fight them and one rather vital way to do it is to figure out what the other guy really wants or why it is they are really fighting. You don't do that by assuming motivations that may or may not exist. You do that by understanding the actual motivations.
Still, this theory of a threat in particular does not impress upon me a very sophisticated analysis or some dire threat anyway. I don't care what religion he observes privately. He could pray to a lizard or the moon every night for all I cared. It's none of my business. I want to know how he's running the country. His chosen faith is not a very good indicator of how he will do so. We've had plenty of Christian Presidents and politicians. Some of them quite simply sucked, and this would be true regardless of your political persuasion. Likewise, there are plenty of Muslims who have very similar views to American social conservatives about a great many topics, in particular the confluence of religion, religious teachings about morality, and politics. So I don't see what the problem there is either.
I sometimes want to hate the guy too, but I don't need to go making up reasons that don't reflect the realities of the world in order to do so.
One thing I've been wondering about is that among all of the ridiculous lies that were tossed out during Obama's campaign, this one was pretty useless. So what if Obama is a Muslim? Sure, three quarters of America will hate him for it, but it's not anything illegal. I would be proud if we elected a Muslim president. It would show that Americans have finally begun to see past the important qualities of a president--like their wealth, friendliness, and religion.
Typo. I meant "see past the unimportant qualities of a president..."
Good day.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-14-2010/a-farewell-to-arms?xrs=rss_tdsvids
Liberty, I completely agree with you. If Obama is a secret Muslim, then why's he been so devoted to killing Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan? If he's a secret Muslim, then why has his policy regarding Israel-Palestine been especially identical to George W. Bush's? A true Muslim, I would think, would have far, far more compassion on his fellow Muslims.
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