obama osama

The latest on the "Is Barack Obama a Muslim?" front is a church sign in Jonesville, South Carolina, which reads, "Obama, Osama, Humm, Are they Brothers?" It's unreal, the level of ignorance.



The Associated Press states that, "Pastor Roger Byrd said he just wanted to make people think when he put up a sign reading 'Obama, Osama — humm, are they brothers' in front of the Jonesville Church of God on Thursday." The pastor went on to say that, "His name is so close to Osama I feel he might be Islamic therefore he doesn't recognize Christ." On the news coverage I saw on MSNBC, the pastor was basically saying that since we don't know for sure if Obama is a Muslim or not, he wanted to encourage people in his town to really look into this question.

Luckily for Pastor Byrd, it's an easy question to find the answer to. Numerous news organizations have addressed this issue in depth. By simply typing "is barack obama a muslim" into the Google search, we find responses from CNN, the Washington Post, Forbes and the Times (U.K.), all debunking this idea. These articles were found on the first page of search results listed. On the same first page of results, a response to this issue posted by BarackObama.com can also be found, with a headline that states, "Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, And Is a Committed Christian." The first and second responses listed are from urban legend verification sites, UrbanLegends.com and Snopes.com – both clearly state that this is a myth. Of the 11 responses found on the first page of search results, eight of them make it clear that this is just a myth. The remaining three don't question his current faith, which they believe to be Christian, but the concern is whether Muslims consider him to be an apostate, which is a Muslim who converted to another religion. These last three posts are from news organizations much less known and trusted than the ones that discount this idea.

If Pastor Byrd, his congregation (who unanimously voted in Sunday service to keep the sign up) and the people of Jonestown, SC and the U.S. at large, really want to find an answer to this question, it couldn't be easier to find. Most people propagating this myth already know the truth and don't care, or have no real interest in finding the truth on this issue. It's much easier for them to call him a Muslim and be done with it. And worse, the sign does not only link him to Islam, but to the U.S.'s number one enemy within Islam, Osama bin Laden, thus linking Obama to worst of what Islam is in the eyes of the American public. This speaks to the larger problem here, which is that anyone who is Muslim in this country is consciously or sub-consciously linked to worst of what Islam represents – like linking all Catholics to pedophiles, Mormons to brainwashing and sexual abuse of children (in the form of polygamy), and fundamentalist Christians to domestic terrorism through the bombing of abortion clinics. All these things represent the worst of people, and can be found in all religions.