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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The bigotry against Muslims is similar to the bigotry against Catholics and Jews in earlier decades. This bigotry is always driven by the same people... Rightest Christians.
THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION, AND NEVER HAS BEEN!
IT IS A DEMOCRACY!!!
nacazo: "if BHO was "never" a muslim how come he went to koranic school to make funny faces (according to his book)."
That statement is a lie. Obama DID NOT go to a "koranic school," -- "according to his book" (which I have read, evidently unlike you) or otherwise.
According to his book, and elsewhere: As a child Obama attended a public elementary school for 2 years that was predominately Muslim - and it was predominately Muslim because it was in Indonesia, which is a predominately Muslim country. And in that elementary school there was a few hours a week of education in Islam.
Here's more information, including a video of the public elementary school we are talking about:
http://www.obamafactcheck.com/myths/10/326505.shtml
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
nacazo: "In Indonesian schools only declared muslims take the koranic classses in school."
Really. Got a reference for that one?
And why do you believe that Obama has taken "koranic classes"? Got a reference for that one too? According to PolyFact.org:
The great preponderance of substantiated evidence indicates Obama attended a public school that taught a small amount of mainstream Islam.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/237/
nacazo: "So there are Islamic jusrists that would consider "If you divorce a Christian woman and ignore your child from her to the point that the child grows up to be a Christian", the child is still a muslim."
Yes. And your point here is what, exactly?
nacazo: "Ibn-Qasim's opinion not withstanding, I would hate to be a Hawaiian with a muslim father in Saudi Arabia claiming "I'm not a muslim, I'm a christian". Good luck with that one if you don't have the protection of the Secret Service"
And again your point here is what, exactly?
You are aware that Obama has Secret Service protection, and that if elected he'll have Secret Service protection for the rest of his life, right?
Boy there is a lot of effort being put in to fending off false accusations. The best way to diminish the negative is to accentuate the positive. I'm afraid Obama, except for charisma and speech giving, is pretty low in the positive department. This is why all this extra effort has to be invested in Obama as a candidate. Unfortunately, these accusations stem from some element of truth. While Obama is not a practicing Muslim his name reflects an Islamic ethnicity. My maiden name is Garcia. I was born in the U.S., I only speak English, and my married name is anglo. There is no mistaking that I have an hispanic heritage. If people didn't know much about hispanics and I was running for an office, I'd probably have to explain my heritage. Maybe instead of running from his Islamic background he should explain it. The church he went to had a pastor who took the Lord's name in vain. If you're a Christian or any person of faith of any kind, you don't tolerate blasphemy. If you're standing on a stage with people covering their heart because they are showing honor and respect, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it would be appropriate to join in this symbolic jesture. I've seen people who are not catholic attend a mass for whatever reason, and try to cross themselves, out of respect. I've seen immigrants who are not yet citizens put their hand over their heart during the national anthem. I'm surprised at his strong will to not give in to the moment. Just like I'm always amazed when people turn down a piece of cake because they're on a diet. But why not join in? Why not humble yourself to the heritage and history of the flag and our country? We're free not to, which only makes me want to do it all the more. These are legitimate questions. Will he have to combat this when he's in office? He'll never get any thing done.
ginadem: "Boy there is a lot of effort being put in to fending off false accusations..."
Yup - just like there was with Kerry, Gore, Bill Clinton...
ginadem: "Will he have to combat this when he's in office? He'll never get any thing done."
Why do rightwing bullshitters hate America?
"Why do rightwing bullshitters hate America?" is sarcasm.
And the notion that we should not elect someone because rightwing bullshitters will continue spewing their bullshit about him after he is elected to the point that our government will "never get any thing done" is absurd, as it essentially equates to letting rightwing bullshitters control the presidential election.
My dad regularly receives these e-mails from his cousin, an elderly, poor, fundamentalist Christian widow, who is very dependent on her church community, which is the main source of the e-mails she sends out.
She believes these things because she trusts the people who send them to her. These people take care of her needs, and in turn, she trusts them. She can't afford to challenge or question them. My dad shakes his head, but telling her the truth won't help, because she can't risk believing the truth. She needs to swallow the lies in order to maintain her support group.
This is the problem with relying on "faith-based" groups to provide social services.
Look, we're living in parallel universes. It's dark here now and the rain is pouring down, even though it's the summer solstice. Those with a spirit of equanimity just shrug and say "It's good for the grass". Others more easily exasperated, such as myself, are wondering about all this talk of climate change. I got fed up of this relentless carry-on about Obama being a Muslim or not and departed, having written to Nordal about the recently-deceased Nuala O'Faolain. In the US, the sudden death of Tim Russert was big news but, outside the United States, he was unknown. For instance, Russert's obituary in "The Times" (London) was a single column and Nuala's (2lst May) covered a whole page.
On the other hand, (I hope that's not a platitude!), nearly everyone in the developed world is interested in the American election because we all know about the might of the American military-industrial complex. It certainly is interesting to learn that Barack is changing horses mid-stream on a range of issues - from funding to supporting a representative in the Georgia elections in July who made the "monstrous" mistake that Hillary also made in trusting Bush, Cheney and, let's not forget, Colin Powell. Powell came before the UN and tried to cajole the member states into backing the invasion of Iraq. There is huge bitterness in Britain about Tony Blair (former Prime Minister) swallowing the bait and British soldiers being killed in what is perceived world-wide as an American adventure. That is the perception; maybe objective historians will eventually be able to persuade us otherwise.
You know what, NY Shooter, I'm quite glad that I come from what a NYT columnist this week described as an erstwhile "Beer-soaked backwater", using his pique at our rejection of the Lisbon Treaty as a weapon of derision. One of the reasons it was rejected was the voters' objection to the idea of a European army but I'm not going to bore you with all of that. Yeah, we're little but that doesn't stop us from being passionate in our ideas.
I'm off now. Good night and I'll try a bit of Spanish this time, in the hope of impressing, "buena suerte".
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
