UPDATED US Politics: Obama is a Muslim (This Time They're Serious)

UPDATE 22 August: Reverend Franklin Graham, the son of legendary preacher Billy Graham and a prominent evangelist in his own right, stokes the flames in an interview on CNN: "I think the President's problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name....

"Now it's obvious that the president has renounced the prophet Mohammed, and he has renounced Islam, and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That's what he says he has done. I cannot say that he hasn't. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said....The Islamic world sees the president as one of theirs."

Juan Cole takes apart Graham's claim: "Unlike in Judaism, one is not born a Muslim. Rather, children of Muslim parents who embrace Islam typically recite the confession of faith around puberty and undertake to fulfill the obligations of Islamic law at that time."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKs2b34rjQ[/youtube]

US Politics & Religion: A Way Forward on and beyond the Islamic Cultural Centre (Ezell)

UPDATE 0945 GMT: Chris McGreal of The Guardian profiles Pam Geller, whose blog Atlas Shrugs has been instrumental in promoting the notion of "The Islamization of America" and in converting the proposed Islamic Cultural Center in New York City into a crisis.

UPDATE 0900 GMT: And the Serious Parodies Keep Coming. James Taranto, has been given cover for years by The Wall Street Journal to re-work news into a cudgel against "liberals" --- one of his latest ventures is to endorse the "reporting" of The New York Post, "The developers of the Ground Zero mosque are refusing to flat out reject cash for the project from Holocaust-denying Iranian nuke nut Mahmoud Ahmadinejad".

So rather than consider how we have gotten to the point where CNN would post the large headline at the bottom of the TV screen, "W.H. [White House]: PRES. OBAMA ISN'T MUSLIM", Taranto sees Liberal Conspiracy: "The agenda behind these polls [showing 18% of Americans believe the President is a secret Muslim], and the liberal media's reporting on them, is to portray critics of President Obama as kooks and idiots."

Ever since November 2008, less than three weeks after the birth of EA, we have tracked --- tongue firmly in cheek --- the shocking story that Barack Obama is in fact a Muslim. We first brought you the truth courtesy of our favourite on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia. We were there when Obama outed himself (at least for our fellow "journalists"), "The Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives." We were there for the Obama bow-down to the Saudi king.

We were even there for the revelation --- which, thanks to the liberals who dominate the US media, never appeared --- that Obama was actually Osama.

However, amidst the current whipped-up controversy over the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, perhaps it's time to suggest that this is not a tongue-in-cheek matter. The Washington Times, the second-largest newspaper in the US capital, allowed its staff member Jeffrey Kuhner free rein in Friday's edition. And they did so with the doctored photograph posted above:

President Obama has revealed his true nature. After 20 months in the Oval Office, he still remained a largely unknown figure. A picture is coming into focus now, and it should trouble all Americans. It is widely known that Mr. Obama is a post-national progressive. Yet he is also a cultural Muslim who is promoting an anti-American, pro-Islamic agenda. This is the real meaning of his warm - and completely needless - embrace of the Ground Zero Mosque.

At an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan at the White House, Mr. Obama told Muslim-Americans that he supports the building of an Islamic community center and mosque just two blocks away from where the Twin Towers were destroyed and nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered on Sept. 11, 2001. He later tried to back away from those comments. Mr. Obama said he was defending the right of religious freedom but not the "wisdom" of erecting the mosque.

Nonetheless, Mr. Obama has been clear: In his view, the Ground Zero Mosque should be built. There was no good practical reason even to comment on the issue. He had been silent for weeks as the controversy gathered steam. The overwhelming majority of the American people oppose the mosque - especially the families of the Sept. 11 victims. Politically, it is a loser - for him and his party. Yet he could not keep his mouth shut. Why?

Answer: For Mr. Obama, defending Islam has been a key priority of his presidency. In his famous speech in Cairo, Mr. Obama apologized to the Muslim world for the alleged "sins" and "mistakes" of America - even though no country has done more to liberate Islamic peoples than the United States, including campaigns in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. His aim was to engage the Islamic world on its terms and norms rather than defend America's values and national interests.

Mr. Obama openly bragged about his "Muslim background" and that his family had "followers of Islam." He spoke of his youth in Indonesia, his study of the Koran and the call to Islamic prayer. In short, he discovered his inner Muslim in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the Arab street. The message was: I understand you, and I will usher in a new era of Islamic-American relations.

This Mr. Obama has done with a vengeance. He is the most Muslim-friendly president in the nation's history. He wants the detention center at Guantanamo Bay closed. He demands that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, be tried in civilian court - with the full legal and constitutional protections given to U.S. citizens - several blocks from the World Trade Center site. He has ordered that the words "Muslim extremist," "Islamic terrorist" and "jihad" be cleansed from national security documents. He is openly anti-Israel. And he is prematurely withdrawing combat troops from Iraq, threatening to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Israeli military and intelligence officials concede that the administration - through diplomatic back channels - has told Jerusalem that Washington will not bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. The Jews are on their own in confronting the Holocaust-denying dictator President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Obama's tepid sanctions have failed to curb Iran's relentless march toward acquiring the nuclear bomb. This weekend, the Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr will begin fueling with enriched uranium. Thus, theocratic Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear power. It is only a matter of time before radical Islam also has the bomb.

Mr. Obama has done everything possible to appease the Muslim world - including, now, backing the Ground Zero Mosque....

Read rest of article....

UPDATED New York's Proposed Islamic Cultural Center: The Daily Show's Investigation

UPDATE 22 August: And the comedy and incisive comment keeps on coming. Jon Stewart and his crew have returned to the controversy over the Islamic Cultural Center to take on "guilt by association" claims in "Extremist Makeover --- Homeland Edition". Their conclusion? Using the critics' "logic" and the example of a piece of cardboard and a yellow highlight, you can turn Fox News into Terrorist Command Central.

And, if you stay tuned, you get The Daily Show's take on the contest between "Team Mohammad" and "Team Jesus".



Watch programme.... (US Readers: "Extremist Makeover" and "Team Mohammed v. Team Jesus")

US Politics & Religion: A Way Forward on and beyond the Islamic Cultural Centre (Ezell)
New York's Proposed Islamic Cultural Center: Information & Comment (Olbermann)

Prompted by readers, we're hoping to feature analyses later this week on the controversy over the proposed Islamic Cultural Center on Park Avenue, 2 1/2 blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. I am working through many thoughts and some emotion on this issue, so --- while I reflect --- I turn this issue over to The Daily Show, which has not just one but two commentaries by Jon Stewart and not just one but two reports by Wyatt Cenac.

Watch Programme 1.... (US readers watch via Daily Show for Stewart and Cenac)

Watch Programme 2.... (US Readers watch via Daily Show site)

US Politics & Religion: A Way Forward on and beyond the Islamic Cultural Centre (Ezell)

Darrell Ezell, who recently completed his Ph.D. on US foreign policy and inter-faith dialogue, writes for EA:

Over the summer, protestors listing a series of emotional grievances have attempted to halt the building of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s 13-story complex, The Cordoba House at Park 51, 2 1/2 blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. These grievances include the timing of theCordoba Initiative, coming almost nine years after the attacks of 11 September 2001, the site of the cultural centre, and claims of forced assimilation with Islam and Muslims in Lower Manhattan.

If you are watching this debate from abroad, you may ask: is America really ready to move forward in peacemaking and reconciliation with the religion of Islam? In this case, doing so will require firm public support from Washington and moderate Islamic voices within America.

New York’s Proposed Islamic Cultural Center: Information & Comment (Olbermann)
New York’s Proposed Islamic Cultural Center: The Daily Show’s Investigation

Speaking last Friday at the White House’s annual Iftar dinner to commemorate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Barack Obama cited religious freedom and the need to support moderate conceptions of Islam within America. He affirmed:

As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.  This is America.  And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.  The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.  The writ of the Founders must endure.

Anchoring this argument in the US Establishment Clause in his short address, the President set a new tone in the chaotic debate. The 1st Amendment to the Constitution, crafted by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” To prohibit Muslims from gathering within the public sphere or on private property would be akin to setting the nation back a half-century or more to an era marked by Jim Crow and legal segregation.

However, moving in this unjust direction is being lauded by anti-Islamic organisations such as Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Pam Geller and Robert Spencer’s Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI).  With emotions boiling over throughout America, a sensible conversation as to why exactly the Cordoba House is pertinent to peacemaking is being shrouded by misinformation and xenophobic rhetoric.

Take, for instance, the recent interview with New York gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino, and the director for the Center of Islamic Pluralism, Stephen Schwartz, with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. Neither Paladino nor Schwartz were able to articulate a logical position for their opposition to Park 51. Schwartz admitted the current furour is insensitive to some Muslims, as well as the victims of 9/11. But what he failed to realise is that reconciliation is --- or should be --- a part of America’s post-9/11 healing-process and that the time is always right to explore it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sodnhctSk&feature=related[/youtube]

Currently, a xenophobic strand in American society is making headway by capitalising on an opportunity to promote subtle forms of religious and racial difference, scoring political points with some voters before the autumn elections. FDI and SIOA have begun planning  a joint  protest on 11 September outside Park 51.  Headlining the rally will be conservative blogger, Andrew Brietbart,  former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Dutch  parliamentarian Geert Wilders.

With an anti-Islamic movement gaining ground, led by ambivalence,  cheap shots, and even slander of Muslim audiences,  it is vital that Washington steps out front to present continued, firm public support for moderate Islamic organisations in America which are sincere about preventing the spread of radicalism.

Fareed Zakaria writes, “Ever since 9/11, liberals and conservatives have agreed that the lasting solution to the problem of Islamic terror is to prevail in the battle of ideas and to discredit radical Islam, the ideology that motivates young men to kill and be killed. Victory in the war on terror will be won when a moderate, mainstream version of Islam—one that is compatible with modernity—fully triumphs over the world view of Osama bin Laden.”  To assure that this radical Islam is discredited within a context that does not offend the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, US officials must take seriously inter-religious cooperation and socio-political discourse to engage moderates. Washington should consider the following:

• Establishing a national bi-partisan interfaith commission (comprised of religious and political leadership) to address domestic issues related to religious freedom;


• Allowing this commission to pursue a peacemaking and reconciliation agenda aimed at supporting moderate organizations and voices in America;


• Ensuring that feed-back loops are created to garner community-wide support and trusted relations with moderates; and


• Engaging moderate Muslims from the centre, rather than relying on indirect methods as public diplomacy to reach them.

As Washington considers its next move, its imperative that concerned liberals and progressive conservatives consider the value of applying post-secular approaches to combat both radical Islamic and xenophobic extremism in America. "Post-secular" acknowledges that America has entered an era where widespread religious issues are presenting new challenges to US domestic and foreign relations. The approaches includes interfaith dialogue, sensitivity training, religious-political analysis, and sacred-secular engagement to handle America’s new set of concerns.

New York's Proposed Islamic Cultural Center: Information & Comment (Olbermann)

"Because this is America...and in America when somebody comes for your neighbor and his Bible or his Torah or his atheist manifesto or his Qu'ran, you and I do what our fathers did and our grandmothers and our founders did and speak up." Keith Olbermann on MSNBC:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dXFo0UUACM[/youtube]

New York’s Proposed Islamic Cultural Center: The Daily Show’s Investigation