Washington Post: Obama "Helped Fuel" Rumors That He's A Secret Muslim
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In today's paper, the Washington Post states that Barack Obama has "helped fuel" the false rumors that he is a Muslim, and that his efforts in Turkey to reach out to the Islamic world were a shift from his "tactic" of diverting attention to these matters.
I'd call it hysterical, if it weren't simply more indicative of a lazy attempt at provocation.
During his campaign, Obama consistently played down connections to Islam, rarely mentioning his middle name, Hussein, or his childhood years in an Indonesian state school. The tactic helped fuel false Internet-driven rumors that Obama, a Christian, had once been Muslim. But in his appearance Monday, the president noted the contributions that Muslim Americans have made to the United States, saying that many Americans "have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country."
"I know," Obama said, drawing applause from the lawmakers, "because I am one of them."
I'm not at all sure what this reporter is talking about. "Tactically" speaking, the Obama campaign did not "consistently play down" his connections to Islam, causing "false Internet-driven rumors" to spread. In reality, the false rumors spread, and the campaign "tactically" responded by launching a website called "Fight the Smears" that took on these rumors head on. At the time, the Obama campaign was criticized for not doing more to downplay these matters -- many so-called experts held that the act of disputing the rumors only helped them to take root.
The idea that Obama caused these particular smears to come into being is nonsensical. And I have no idea what is being contended by noting that Obama "rarely mention[ed] his middle name." I must have missed that whole rich American tradition of constantly asserting one's middle name, you know, like John Sidney McCain did, every chance he got.
But, more to the point, I'm having a hard time understanding why the Post wants to treat any of this as an unprincipled flip-flop on Obama's part. Naturally, everything hinges on the strange contention that Obama's campaign tactics caused false internet rumors to exist, but I'm still lost in translation: is the article asserting that because Obama didn't like hearing a bunch of false rumors while he was campaigning, he shouldn't speak about his past intersections with the Muslim world as a means of bridging diplomatic gaps?
The Post is basically suggesting that it would be more consistent, and, indeed preferable, for Obama to spare himself the grief of some internet rumormongering by subordinating the national interest and passing up potential diplomatic gains.
By contrast, the New York Times doesn't seem to find Obama's trip to Turkey nearly as confusing:
"The United States has been enriched by Muslim-Americans," he said. "Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country.
"I know," he said, "because I am one of them."And then he paused. Throughout his speech, he had moved swiftly from passage to passage, but this time, he waited for the interpreter to catch up. After about five seconds, the applause came.
The line was a bold one for Mr. Obama, who has been falsely described as a Muslim. The claim persists on some right-wing Web sites, which may try to interpret his remarks as proof of that view.
But Mr. Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, is calculating that the benefits of demonstrating to the Muslim world that Americans are not antagonistic toward it outweigh the potential political fallout back home. His calculus may also reflect an increased belief that he has enough political capital that he can spend some of it in pursuit of strengthening ties between Muslim nations and the West.
This account more aptly captures the consistency between a guy who - as a candidate - fought back against bigoted rumors, who is now reaching out to persuadable Islamic communities by dispelling the idea that America similarly lumps all Muslims together with shunned extremists on the basis of similar misperceptions and rumor.
If you've been paying attention to the military tactics that are in vogue at the moment, you'd probably recognize this as "counterinsurgency strategy." And if you have a brain in your head, you'd at least recognize that it's not a flip-flop at all.
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First Posted: 5/8/09 Updated: 5/25/11