So, Barack Obama’s middle name happens to be Hussein, and this fact has been slowly working its way into general media consciousness for a few months now — most notably when Republican strategist Ed Rogers began pointedly mentioning it on “Hardball.” On December 18, plucky sub-Coulter Debbie Schlussel took this insinuation to its logical conclusion:
…is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father’s heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam?Absolutely the most charitable interpretation of this is that Schlussel believes Obama should, instead of pursuing a career in politics, be parachuted in behind enemy lines to work as some sort of “undercover Muslim.” However, she continues:
Where will his loyalties be?By this logic, one would presume that Schlussel isn’t too happy about Obama being a Senator, never mind holding any higher office. After all, the man’s father was a Muslim at one point in his life, for crying out loud!
Although the comment thread at Schlussel’s original post has continued to thrive, response over the last couple of weeks has not been disproportionate; at any rate, it has not been as disproportionate as I would have liked. Media Matters had a field day, as they tend to do when people say such transcendentally stupid things, and responses on the right ranged from pained to exasperated to really exasperated to really, really exasperated. The angelically beaming Brendan Nyhan points out the comparison with anti-Catholic suspicions of JFK (although really this makes even less sense, as JFK was at least Catholic), following up an interesting earlier post covering some more whimsical sniping about the size of Obama’s ears.
The measure of a presidential campaign is, in large part, how it deals with this sort of thing. (If we ever hear an official statement from the Obama camp regarding the candidate’s ears, then he’s toast.) Schlussel’s slur, at once serious and deeply non-serious, is a gift to a talented politican.
If I were working for Obama, I’d be looking for an excuse to make the “Hussein” non-issue into a signature moment, preferably sometime after the New Year (and after the execution of Saddam is no longer a story). A judiciously crafted public response could turn out to be an enduring image of a candidate calling for tolerance in the face of hysteria; unfortunately, it could also turn out to be an enduring spectacle of an otherwise dignified and serious man shouting at people on the internet. So, to avoid the latter possibility, I’d be looking around for someone other than Ed Rogers to raise the story’s profile in the old media, and I’d be wondering: how long has it been since Tom Tancredo did any bad ethnic humor in public?
Can someone in public life make sure he sees a copy of this Schlussel thing? Hopefully he won’t notice that “Schlussel” is a suspiciously foreign-sounding name.
Let’s face it,we are not fighting a war against Islam and they are not fighting a war against Christianity.
There are extreme elements in both religious traditions who unfortunately control the rhetoric and the spin.
If we continue to oversimplify this issue, we will be lumpoing large numbers of peole into oppossing camps who would not normally be there to begin with.
Tell me, what is the difference between a jihad and a crusade?
The difference is, nobody is fighting a crusade to slaughter the Muslims, though that can’t be said in the reverse. It’s naive beliefs like yours that make this world a very dangerous place.
I second what Victor had to say to Patricia Burns. We may not be fighting a war against Islam, but they damn sure are fighting one against christianity. Who can deny this? Hasn’t everyone heard the comments in Iraq about the “crusaders?” I believe in an extreme case, we may someday have to strike the muslim countries with nuclear weapons to save America. We have no friends there. And you know why, because they are muslims FIRST AND FOREMOST. Saudi Arabia, our friend,(?) still finances terrorism. They still have the schools teaching hate not only for Americans, but ALL westerners. Thats Americans, Brits, french, germans, etc etc etc. So what does all this mean? It means that unless we focus on defeating these people, the time will come when there will be a catastropic event that demands a nuclear strike against them. If they ever use a nuclear weapon against the US, all bets are off. And, in that case , I believe the people will demand terrible revenge against all of the muslim countries. GOD BLESS AMERICA…..
No one likes to mention that Obama is a pretty hard core socialist or that as a child his mother ran off with another an Islamist to Jakarta as “non practicing muslim” when he was six years old. She took Obama with her. A “non practicing muslim living in Jakarta? How odd! They also don’t mention that Obama attended a Jakarta Islamic school until the age of 10. Read his first book. Dreams of my Father for detailed insight. Here are some more insights http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/printindividualProfile.asp?indid=1511
Quote:
Patricia Burns
Jan 16th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
“Let’s face it,we are not fighting a war against Islam and they are not fighting a war against Christianity.
There are extreme elements in both religious traditions who unfortunately control the rhetoric and the spin.
If we continue to oversimplify this issue, we will be lumpoing large numbers of peole into oppossing camps who would not normally be there to begin with.
Tell me, what is the difference between a jihad and a crusade?”
Sigh. What is the difference? The “crusade” (which was hundreds of years ago), was a COUNTER ATTACK against muslims who attacked Europe, and conqered Spain, and attempted to do the same to France. That’s the difference.
There are extreme elements in both christianity and Islam? Yes, but the difference is that the deadly part of Christianity is about 1/1,000 of 1 percent of Christians. The dangerous part of Islam is probably 50% of Islam (most of which would at least support terror in some way, if only hate speech at a minumum). So please, stop trying to “lump” Islam with Christianity. They are two very different relgions and cultures. Political correctness isn’t cool anymore. Try studying history.
Anyway, Obama is finished now. No way he could ever win a general election with this known. Looks like it will be Hillary.
Obama seems like a pretty strong contender at this early stage. With respect to whether christians or muslims are polar equals, what does virtually every muslim country do to muslims who convert to christianity? Pretty sure they execute them…legally
It’s kind of like the commie capitalist debate …Who had fences/walls keeping their people in?
Too bad folks don’t think more objectively these daze.
Multiculturilism is dangerous for the westeren nations, just look at England and France, they rue the day that they decided to allow half of the middle east to pour into their countries. Pepole in the USA know that, and the last thing they want is someone as president with the middle name of “Hussien”!
But let’s look at Obama’s chances from a political standpoint. He can give a good fight in the demacratic primaries because he is black, but it is that very fact that makes him un-electable in the general election. Let’s be honest, not politicaly correct…he will get ruined in the red states because he is a black liberal. Add to that the fact that he was a muslim, and that provides a double whammy that dooms any chance for a victory.
If this guy gets elected, the first thing our family will do is move to a safer country…Maybe New Zealand. It would be too dangerous for us.
This guy sounds slick…and he is. But has anyone ever noticed that he isn’t dead yet by Muslim assassins? If he isn’t dead, and there aren’t a bunch of attempts on his life for claiming to be a Christian, then something is wrong with his claim. My husband and I have read the Koran. Muslims aren’t required to tell the truth to anyone other than fellow Muslims. Once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You can’t go back, because it means death. And as long as other Muslims consider him a Muslim, then he is. If I were him, and I truly did convert to Christianity, the first order of business would be a name change. There are undercover Muslims all over America. We’ve got to be careful with this one.
Look, Blog P.I. has a liberal comment policy.
For those of you with lower-level reading comprehensions, that doesn’t mean “left,” it means tolerant. It means as long as you are a) arguably on-topic, b) non-abusive, and c) non-obscene, I’ll approve your comments.
But tolerance does not preclude judgment. And before this thread gets any more out of hand, it must be said: you people are seriously crazy.
Especially you, Leslie.
I can guarentee you that Hillary’s team will launch a campaign to “expose” the Obama-muslim connection as time goes on. This may doom Obama’s chance for a VP position on Hillary’s ticket. Or if Hillary messes up and loses her lead to Edwards or Biden, then Obama would not be eligible for a spot on their tickets ethier. All of this will probebly happen before New Hampshire, so my prediction is that Hillary wins New Hampshire, but Edwards takes Iowa and then South Carolina. By then, Obama will be reduced to staying in the race to “force issues that he favors onto the front runners”. He will surley get a spot at the convention as well, but I cannot see him as the primary winner or even as a possible VP.
IF OBAMA IS ELECTED IT WILL BE THE THE DEATH OF AMERICA. ONCE A MUSLIM ALWAYS MUSLIM
If this guy gets elected, the first thing our family will do is move to a safer country…Maybe New Zealand. It would be too dangerous for us.
Where is New Zealand and Aus 4 hrs away from the worlds most populous muslim country Indonesia.
Fryng pan and fire. If America falls the whole world falls.
The people here writing against Islam are seriously misinformed. Islam teaches peace and muslims like any other people are peace loving people. The war is not between muslims or christians or americans or any other peoples. It is between the likes of Osama, Bush, and now Obama etc. who are using us the people for their own personal gains. We need to see through their deception, unite as one, and think about making not just America, or Saudi Arabia, or Iraq but the world as a whole a better, peaceful place. What do you say?
Wow, nice to see that most readers on this website are truly backward. I’m an Australian living in Jakarta, inhabited by 95% Muslims. Every single person in this country hates terrorisms, and there are alot of measures to hinder it. Maybe American media didn’t report the fact that radical terror units also attacked a number of places in Jakarta. Maybe if you have a look outside you’d see that radical terror factions are everywhere (southern thailand, maybe?) and that not all terror factions are muslim (tamil tigers in Sri Lanka, (hindu).
also, you might say that terrorism isn’t a group of people, rather its a style of fighting. America casts a suprise attack on unsuspecting baghdad for still unproved justification? I’d say that was fairly terrorising, thus terrorism.
And where do you get these ideas about Islam being some kind of cult? Most muslims observe the religion about as much as the average christian. Which is not much.
Talking about ‘knowing history’, america starts wars (read up on the CIA or its pre-cold war counterpart, the OSS) and then when people retaliate to defend their own soil its either communism (vietnam or korea any one?) or terrorism (Iraq?). Sure america has done good things, like liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, and got rid of Saddam, but it doesn’t justify their current mistakes.
So before you starting being a muslim bashing red neck, and fulfilling the stereotpyes of America I hold, how about you have a little think and a read.
Wake the hell up, bigots.
thats correct once a muslim always one….we dont need a muslim in office when we are fighting against them over there in the war….thats pointless…he has ties to muslim people thats proven….he went to muslim school……he is a freakin muslim……why elect one???? and he doesnt say the pledge or recite it in private, he only does it in public so they wont bash him…..
Hannah, please don’t vote. You are worse than ignorant — you are apparently unaware of your ignorance, and determined to spread it to others.
To recap: Obama is Christian, he is not Muslim, I would add that even if he were that would not make him a bad person, and what does “ties to” Muslims mean? I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t know any Muslims yourself.
I’m also not familiar with your public/private pledge allegation, but I don’t buy it. Do you recite the pledge in private? Don’t you have better things to do with your time?
Lets face it muslium, morman ,christian or jew what does it matter ?? the real problems are education, terrorist, border security and immmigration the united states needs a president that will work on these and other major issues. obama may be a muslium or a christian who cares the facts are he don’t have the experience to do the job as president. (all the others are washington insiders) were going to get more of the same so with that said i believe that either way were in trouble……. unless a candidate comes out of the woodwork in the next few months that has the experience to do the job. perhaps newt will run but no matter what we will have long hard battles before we have a person to get the job done i’m not saying that newt is the only one out there but i can’t think of anyone else not to say he’s perfect either but he seems to be for the people and not the goverment so we can only hope right now i would have to say that romney is my choice but we’ll see in the comming mudslinging months what happens peace to all and joy to many
I believe as an American in all the freedoms afforded to us, but people need to look deep into each person running for any public or state office. These elected officials should have the people and the country’s best interest in mind and the adverage person in America knows nothing about the Quran or the principals behind the muslium beliefs. We as Americans are concidered evil and vile according to the Quran and anyone siding with Isreal are enemies of the Islamic nation…Hey people, if you really want to know and understand a true muslium read the Quran and it will shed light on the Islamic beliefs. We are in seriuos trouble if these are our only choices.