I'm not a big fan of Obama. He's a celebrity politician and like any vote-desperate politician, he's been doing a lot of flip-flopping, among others, over Palestinian rights in their occupied land; especially, I found it abhorring to hear in the VP debate that he has been against elections in Palestine, because the outcome of that democratic process wouldn't be approvable by him. So basically, just like good terrorism and bad terrorism, we have good democracy and bad democracy. It all depends on who practices democracy and whether we like the outcome of that democracy. So long for steady unwavering principles.
But I'm just fed up with people oversearching Obama In God we trust, In God we trust Obama and all the other variations in that line. Just google Obama In God we trust and even before hitting the search button, Google gives an estimate of 672,000 search results. As a result of these searches, the report I wrote earlier this year on his campaign at UT has become a hit and it usually shows up in the first page of search results. Well, the title of my blog "In God we trust" followed immediately by the title of that post "Obama at UT" makes Google find it a close match and show it up.
Like any blogger, I'm happy with people landing on my blog. But I hate it when it happens out of ultimate stupidity and bigotry. There have been all sorts of hoaxes about Obama widely circulating since he decided to run for President; with the most famous one being, Obama is secretly a Muslim. This hoax originates from his middle name, Hussein, which he has inherited from his father who was a secular non-practicing Muslim.
Obama has killed himself to make people understand that he IS NOT a Muslim, as if being a Muslim would be the biggest infamy for a candidate. That's another reason I don't like Obama. It's OK to assert your Christian faith if you are a true Christian. However, a true believer in American values (which should supposedly be represented by the US President), must have enough spine to fight bigotry as one of the biggest vice in our world and especially in this country; not just desperately try to save face to save some votes. Not even once, has Obama supplemented his bold vote-saving Christian faith assertions with even some mild statement against anti-Islamic bigotry (that gives rise to such rumors).
It doesn't make much sense to just dodge the attacks as long as you don't tackle the main source of problem where all these attacks come from: stupidity, bigotry, hate mongering and racism. But maybe I'm expecting too much from somebody who ditches his lifelong pastor just to secure a couple of votes (his pastor's comments had been misconstrued out of context BTW). And assuming his pastor's views were reprehensible, did he discover about them just after 20 years, right before election? This made me lose the last bit of respect I had for Obama. Anyway, even assuming Obama was a Muslim and he IS NOT, so what?
Last time I checked, the Article 6 of the US Constitution clearly states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States". And all that rumor-making about allegedly Islamic faith of Obama comes from people who deafen the world with their trumpeting about American freedoms and values. Still, when you run for office in this free country, freedom of religion is meaningless. Even simply being Christian is not enough; you have to be White Anglosaxon Protestant.
And as stupid and as widely-circulated as this number one rumor about Obama, is the hoax that he's going to remove "In God we trust" from our money, from our Government, everywhere. And guess what? It comes from the same people who project Obama to be a Muslim. And they supplement their stupidity with complementary stupid lines like: Obama's gonna replace "In God we trust" with "In Allah we trust".
My threshold for stupidity has been saturated for quite some time, but I still feel dumbfounded by its limitlessness. Allah and God are not two different things. Allah is not the god of Muslims. Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. If you read the Bible in Arabic, you will find Allah all over the Holy Book.
But none of these facts about religion and faith matter. There is another more important fact: Obama is black. And a black should never be the President of White Anglosaxon Protestants. And amid this dwindling economy and War of Terror, there are still people who are concerned why Obama's pastor association isn’t discussed more. Yet, they don't believe the same standards apply to themselves. Read here and here for more. And all this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Schiller:
Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
But I'm just fed up with people oversearching Obama In God we trust, In God we trust Obama and all the other variations in that line. Just google Obama In God we trust and even before hitting the search button, Google gives an estimate of 672,000 search results. As a result of these searches, the report I wrote earlier this year on his campaign at UT has become a hit and it usually shows up in the first page of search results. Well, the title of my blog "In God we trust" followed immediately by the title of that post "Obama at UT" makes Google find it a close match and show it up.
Like any blogger, I'm happy with people landing on my blog. But I hate it when it happens out of ultimate stupidity and bigotry. There have been all sorts of hoaxes about Obama widely circulating since he decided to run for President; with the most famous one being, Obama is secretly a Muslim. This hoax originates from his middle name, Hussein, which he has inherited from his father who was a secular non-practicing Muslim.
Obama has killed himself to make people understand that he IS NOT a Muslim, as if being a Muslim would be the biggest infamy for a candidate. That's another reason I don't like Obama. It's OK to assert your Christian faith if you are a true Christian. However, a true believer in American values (which should supposedly be represented by the US President), must have enough spine to fight bigotry as one of the biggest vice in our world and especially in this country; not just desperately try to save face to save some votes. Not even once, has Obama supplemented his bold vote-saving Christian faith assertions with even some mild statement against anti-Islamic bigotry (that gives rise to such rumors).
It doesn't make much sense to just dodge the attacks as long as you don't tackle the main source of problem where all these attacks come from: stupidity, bigotry, hate mongering and racism. But maybe I'm expecting too much from somebody who ditches his lifelong pastor just to secure a couple of votes (his pastor's comments had been misconstrued out of context BTW). And assuming his pastor's views were reprehensible, did he discover about them just after 20 years, right before election? This made me lose the last bit of respect I had for Obama. Anyway, even assuming Obama was a Muslim and he IS NOT, so what?
Last time I checked, the Article 6 of the US Constitution clearly states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States". And all that rumor-making about allegedly Islamic faith of Obama comes from people who deafen the world with their trumpeting about American freedoms and values. Still, when you run for office in this free country, freedom of religion is meaningless. Even simply being Christian is not enough; you have to be White Anglosaxon Protestant.
And as stupid and as widely-circulated as this number one rumor about Obama, is the hoax that he's going to remove "In God we trust" from our money, from our Government, everywhere. And guess what? It comes from the same people who project Obama to be a Muslim. And they supplement their stupidity with complementary stupid lines like: Obama's gonna replace "In God we trust" with "In Allah we trust".
My threshold for stupidity has been saturated for quite some time, but I still feel dumbfounded by its limitlessness. Allah and God are not two different things. Allah is not the god of Muslims. Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. If you read the Bible in Arabic, you will find Allah all over the Holy Book.
But none of these facts about religion and faith matter. There is another more important fact: Obama is black. And a black should never be the President of White Anglosaxon Protestants. And amid this dwindling economy and War of Terror, there are still people who are concerned why Obama's pastor association isn’t discussed more. Yet, they don't believe the same standards apply to themselves. Read here and here for more. And all this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Schiller:
Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
4 comments:
If he is so CHRISTIAN, why does he keep quoting the Holy Koran? Why not use the primary text of his faith? Oh..wait...he is a Muslim.
Actions speak louder than words.
I am not concerned whether Obama is Christian or not. What I am concerned about is bigotry of people who find it a bad thing for a candidate to be anything other than WASP Republican.
If somebody is giving a speech to a Muslim audience and quotes Quran to relate to his audience, merely using a text other than his primary text of faith makes that person a Muslim, eh? And that makes him ineligible to be the President of WASP people?
Very impressive reasoning indeed!
By that line of reasoning, George Bush too must have been a secret Muslim or maybe not so secret, because he did even much worse than Obama. After 911, Bush actually visited mosques, took off his shoes (as Muslims do when they enter a mosque) and quoted Quran (instead of Bible) in his speeches and much worse, he used those verses of Quran to portray Islam as a religion of peace.
But whom am I kidding. Bush was a WASP Republican and different standards apply to him.
Well said Mehrad - I wish Obama claimed to be a Muslim, that way he would look bad on Muslims who would claim he is Christian instead of the other way around.
He has celebrity, but lacks substance.... that is why I think he will be there only one term.
as for the rumor about in God we trust.... a president cannot change that on his own but would have to pass that through congress, it would be all over the news, I was trying to figure out where a friend of mine got this idea (he posted it as a FB status) Oh yea, and that Obama took the pledge of allegiance out of schools (only a few schools still do this, it has been in decline for years). Sadly the pledge is being taken out of school...but not by the government, but by nutty lawyers who sue of kids having to say it (it should be voluntary) and when the lawsuits are over the schools cancel it all together lest they offend someone.
We have become a nation who is afraid to offend anyone, and that is why Obama does not say anything about how it is wrong to oppose Muslims because he is afraid he will offend someone by saying there is right and wrong in the world.
Political correctness has superseded right and wrong.
Obama being shy about opposing Islamophobia is not political correctness. Quite the opposite, political correctness means defending everybody who lives in this country, regardless of how they look or feel. The problem with Obama is not political correctness, rather lacking spine, cajun (or whatever to that effect).
As I have written in my post, the origin of all these rumors about Obama is his race. Just look at the new wave of birtherist mania and what queen of birthers has said.
The best answer to the first wave of "Obama is a Muslim" was given by Colin Powell: Obama is a Muslim? What if he is?
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