GOP Voters Believe Obama is Muslim

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 12, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

              Throwing the Republican Party for a loop, Democratic Party-backed Public Policy Polling found that 52% of Mississippi’s registered Republicans think President Barack Obama practices the Muslim religion—not the U.S.-based Black Muslim church known as the Nation of Islam.  When Wallace D. Fard Mohammed founded the Detroit-based Nation of Islam in 1930, few imagined that it would by adopted by the African American community as a more appropriate faith than Christianity.  When Elijah Mohammed took over the Church in 1934, he moved the Church to Chicago growing the religion to around 25,000 when he passed the baton to Malcom X [AKA Malcom Little] in 1964, taking the membership to over 100,000 by the time of Malcom X’s death Feb. 25, 1965.  His successor, Louis J. Farrakhan [AKA Louis Eugene Walcott], boosted membership to over 150,000 by the year 2000.

             Obama, whose father Barack Obama Sr. was a Muslim from Kenya, never knew him, only meeting once in 1971, never practicing as a Black Muslim or the Islamic faith of his father.  When his mother Stanley Ann Dunham remarried an Indonesian Lolo Soetoro, she moved the family in 1966 to Jakarta, Indonesian, where Barack attended elementary school between ages 6-10, eventually returning to Honolulu in 1971.  His only long-term religious practice came when he married Michell L. Robinson Oct. 3, 1992, joining the Chicago-based Trinity United Church of Christ, where he practiced only Christianity.  Nowhere in Barack’s adult life was there any hint of involvement with the Muslim religion.   His detractors during his run for president in 2008 made a big deal out of his protracted involvement with Trinity’s Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., known for his occasionally anti-White sermons.

             In the neighboring state of Alabama, only 45% of registered Republicans believe Obama was a Muslim, with only 14% believing he was Christian.  Racial stereotypes and bigotry can’t alone account for the twisted perceptions in the Deep South.  With the white population watching FoxNews and listening attentively to right wing talk radio, it’s easy for less savvy folks to believe big talkers on the airwaves.  It’s no accident that a few years ago during the George W. Bush administration, Republicans polled in the Deep South also believed that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was responsible for Sept. 11.  After going to war March 20, 2003, Bush administration officials repeatedly said “Iraq was the central front in the war on terror.”  If 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudi nationals, it’s alarming that over 60% of Republicans polled thought that Saddam had a direct hand in Sept. 11.

             When Republican real estate mogul Donald Trump considered running for president last spring, he often said that Barack’s birth certificate was fake, catering to Obama haters invalidating his presidency.  No matter how authentic the document and no matter how many birth announcements were present in Honolulu papers near Aug. 4, 1961, Trump won kudos on FoxNews and other right wing talk shows for raising the “birther” issue.  It didn’t matter to those listening that such defamatory remarks were largely fabricated;  The only thing that mattered was discrediting the president.  Allowing any TV network, Fox or otherwise, and the hoards of right wing radio shows to continue spreading pernicious propaganda makes a mockery of responsible broadcast journalism.  Whether a network’s editorial board leans left or right, shows on the public airwaves must show factual accuracy.

             Promoting lies about Obama’s birth or painting him with the same brush as Islamic terrorists is both dangerous and irresponsible.  Whatever one’s educational level in whatever part of the country, the broadcast business has accountability to more than political parties.  Folks in the Deep South should not be buffaloed by clever propagandists blanketing the airwaves.  While we all want free speech, pernicious propaganda must be countered with a host of measures, including laws that protect the public against deliberate lies and distortion.  In the run-up to the Iraq War, the Bush White House, FoxNews and right wing talk shows paraded endless streams of experts touting Saddam’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.  Whether they knew differently or not, the public was duped into believing Saddam would perpetrate the next Sept. 11.  When no WMD were found, the White House backpedaled.

             Disturbing polls, showing that Republicans believe in disproportionately high numbers that Barack is Muslim, reveal dangerous cracks in the country’s propaganda machine.  Without some kind of reality check, pernicious propaganda can turn democracy on its head by deliberately misinforming the public.  Whatever the political leanings of broadcast networks or individual talk shows, the shows must accurately present the facts to the public.  While there’s nothing wrong with being Muslim, there’s something devious about painting Barack as a different faith from the one he’s practiced since marrying Michelle in 1992.  Barack’s GOP detractors must set the record straight whether they believe he’s a Muslim Kenyan or an American Christian.  Presenting false and misleading information can’t be tolerated from the left or right.  Dangerous propagandists must be exposed and held in check.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.       

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