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"But He's a Muslim!"
It made me think of my own family.
Having coined "O'Bama" for the Irish working-class values that Joe Biden brings to the Democratic ticket, Chris Matthews called his family in Pennsylvania -- where Scranton-born Biden is known as the state's "third senator" in some quarters -- to ask whether now they'd be voting for Obama.
"But he's a Muslim!" That's the reply Matthews told his viewers he got.
The Matthews clan is not alone. Going into the Democratic National Convention, depending on which poll you read, somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent of American voters thought that Obama is a Muslim. A Newsweek poll found that 26 percent thought he was raised as a Muslim (untrue), and 39 percent thought he grew up going to an Islamic school in Indonesia (also untrue).
I'm not shocked by Americans' ability to think untrue things. After all, under the relentless tutelage of the Bush administration and its media enablers, nearly 70 percent of the country thought that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in planning the Sept. 11 attack.
In fact, if you told me that double-digit percentages of voters believe that Jewish workers were warned to stay home on Sept. 11, or that the American landing on the moon was faked, or that every one of the words of the Bible is literally and absolutely true, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. It might make me think about the downsides of universal suffrage, the challenges facing public education, the limitations of "fact-checking" as a corrective to Swiftboating, the coarsening of public discourse, the devolution of news into entertainment, the risks to democracy of Rovian demagoguery -- stuff like that -- but it wouldn't make me question the methodology of the polls.
On the other hand, "But-he's-a-Muslim!" does raise the issue of whether people lie to pollsters when they're embarrassed to say what they really think. This argument -- called "the Bradley effect," after the Election Day disappearance of the lead that Los Angeles' African-American mayor, Tom Bradley, had held until then in the gubernatorial campaign -- says that the percentages that black candidates get in polls should be discounted by the reluctance of no small number of white voters to admit that race is a factor in their choice.
Race, of course, is already an issue in this presidential election, though it has largely been discussed via the proxy issue of ideology -- black ideology, and '60s black ideology in particular. It's way more comfortable to ask whether the Obamas' membership in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church, and whether the thinking in Michelle Obama's senior-year college thesis, "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community," are evidence of their now-concealed belief in black separatism, black power and black liberation theology, than it is to interrogate our nation's melting-pot self-image, or to figure out why our prison population and our intractable economic underclass are overwhelmingly African-American.
The Muslim issue is a way to talk about race without talking about race, and without having to squirm about saying that race is not an issue. To enough voters that it matters for the outcome of this election, Muslims are as other, if not more so, as blacks. A Muslim running for president of the United States may just as well be the Manchurian Candidate, with al-Qaeda, the Palestinians, the Saudis, your-Islamic-bad-guys'-name-here, playing the role of the brainwashing North Koreans nefariously plotting to plant one of their own in the White House.
It's entirely conceivable that the McCain campaign's harping on Obama's alleged "elitism," his popularity in foreign crowds, is their way of hitting low notes meant to resonate with his otherness. They can't very well come out and call him a Muslim or directly question his patriotism in their ads, but when they charge that his foreign policy is a gift to the Iranians, the Russians or the terrorists, they are deploying the same tactic that labeled John Kerry as "French" -- that is, as a national of the weasel country that opposed the pre-emptive war in Iraq.
I don't know whether the family that Chris Matthews comes from, despite their kinship with kitchen-table Catholic Joe Biden, is fastening on "But-he's-a-Muslim!" as a surrogate for their discomfort with his race; in their case, maybe race plays no part at all. But it does make me wonder what my own parents, may they rest in peace, might be thinking about this election.
Though lifelong Democrats, they were not among the Jews who joined arms with the civil rights movement. Though their relatives were killed by Cossacks just because they were Jews, they saw no irony in judging others just because of their religion or their race. Philip Roth, another kid from the Weequahic section of Newark where I grew up, was reviled for telling goyim about some of the values held in our 'hood that our clan thought best kept private, so it will come as no surprise, though it is no less discomfiting to recall, that in the four-family houses on the block where I was raised, the word shvartze was not used merely to name a color.
I wonder how my parents would be dealing today with the dilemma I imagine Obama would pose for them. I suspect that the Muslim thing would be weighing as much in their thinking as the black thing. I suspect that my protestations -- it is factually untrue that Obama is or was a Muslim -- would be met with clucking condescension toward my naivete. For them, in the contest between voting for a Democrat and voting for Obama, I'm pretty sure it would come down to the Is-he-good-for-Israel? thing. And I can't imagine that the secret-Muslim belief I posthumously, perhaps unfairly, impute to them would make it a no-brainer for them to vote, as they always had done before, a straight Democratic ticket.
If this election remains as tight as it is today, its outcome will once again turn on how the undecideds break. (Yes, there is a chance that an unprecedented youth turnout, or an unprecedented black turnout, or an unprecedented formerly-nonvoter turnout, will change that calculation, but that would be, well, unprecedented.) That same Newsweek poll saying four out of 10 voters believe Obama went to a madrassa also said that 85 percent of undecided voters are non-Hispanic whites and that nearly 80 percent of those undecideds do not have a four-year college degree. In other words, demographically, they're like my parents. I would like to think that the free press is equal to taking the "But-he's-a-Muslim!" urban legend off the table for those voters. But if Chris Matthews can't do that for his own parents, I don't yet see how that's going to happen for anyone else.
(This is my column for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.)
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"He is muslim" is just code for "he is black".
Most people are aware that saying "I am racist" is breaking a social taboo. Saying "I can't vote for him because he is black" makes you a racist. It shows you are a narrowminded bigot. Noone wants to be a narrowminded bigot, not even those being narrowminded bigots. (Those being socalled "white supremacists" are excluded from this creed. Those are so non-supreme they don't even get the social taboo. I am now talking about the people knowing they'd be looked down at if admitting racism.)
On the other hand, saying "I can't vote for him because he is muslim" makes you a devoted christian. A stupid one, because you believe in a lie so often negated, but anyway. Being a devoted christian sure sounds more positive than being a narrowminded bigot. And if you add the word "secret" to the "he is a muslim", "he is a secret muslim", you're not even a stupid devoted christian. You're a smart devoted christian able to see through the "betrayal" that O, too, is really a devoted christian. And being a smart devoted christian sure beats being a narrowminded bigot.
So the "he is muslim" rumor survives. But don't let us think that even those spreading it believes in it. It's just so much more convenient pretending one does, than having to admit what the real prejudice is.
American politics are very shallow. While other countries have had women leaders for years, the US is still hung up over it. The same is true for people of different backgrounds.
Let's admit it, America is not at the cutting edge of plurality and tolerance.
Bravo! Beautifully said. At one time or another the Irish, the Jews, the Hispanics, Darfurians - Palestinians -- hey name someone "different", "not like us" and they have been the object of prejudice -- and either ethnically cleansed or robbed of their heritage or their land - turn a race or a class into the "boogie man" and anything goes! Shame on us!!
The hopelessness of it all is that we will never be able to take care of the planet - become stewards of this earth (in other words survive as a species) unless we let go of the "them or us" mentality -- It would seem that politics brings out the worst in everyone -- it's like living in a mean, nasty, dysfunctional alcoholic family everyday --- when will we learn that we can do more together -- this is after all, just one small planet!
What's wrong with being Muslim?
Since the improbable outcomes in the last presidential elections, and the number of vote-changing incidents in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere, I start to wonder if the "Bradley Effect" shouldn't just be attributed to vote stealing.
i just read a comment that obama dad is a atheist and a Muslim,are those things that make you a bad leader or unfit to lead america,is America motto not land of the free,last bastion of hope for the free world,America sucks,if mccain wins this elections,Americans should cover their faces in shame.
You miss the point. The point is that here again, a Black man is proven guilty unless he can prove himself innocent . AND this time it 'ain't poor white people who are doing it. It is an ever-being revealed core of glib of lip, double-tongued, charmingly politically correct racists, and often self-professed followers of Christ, tactically "educated" for perpetual intellectual combat . Their function is to carry out modern rational breakdown of any one who dares to challenge or rearrange rungs on the Aryan-African continuum established and academically rationalized at least 4 centuries ago before the first slave arrived in "The New World." Every generation has developed its maintainers of the "ism." ..divide and conquer...enslave...mis-educated--exterminate cultures...whatever is strategic to the maintenance of the religion of racialism. Today's army of Protectors of the Faith are trained to apply deadly mental machinations-- taking whatever is necessary out of contexts of history, and suppress any chronological, scientific or social facts which would defog the minds of the masses.
I find it amazing that Jewish-Americans, after all the prejudice that has been welded against them, will not accept an African-American as President. Do you not forget from were you came? This also goes for Hispanics. We marched with Chevez for farmer's rights. Jesse Jackson helped them mobilize at one time. Now they say blacks have never done anything for them. They will never vote for a black man.
If the Jewish population cannot vote for Obama, I hope they remember the gas chambers that many of their ancestors parished. I hope they remember how prejudice caused 6 million jews to die. Like you always say "We will never forget". I think you have.
I have received many well-intentioned emails from friends passing on supposedly solid info about Obama being a Muslim, Obama taking the flag off of his campaign plane, Obama going to a Muslim school in Indonesia - the Internet spreads these rumors like wildfire and most people don't bother to check the facts before spreading lies to their whole address book. I finally had to ask my best friend to stop sending me this crap (she used to be a liberal democrat but has become a devotee of Fox News which is really inexplicable to me).
So Dems - spread the TRUTH about the greatness of Obama - NOT the LIES!
There's an old saying that people get the government we deserve. Judging from the last eight years, we must be a stupid, stupid people (overall). Sure, there are some of us that see the lies, understand how they come about, and how they're transmitted. The rest of the populace ... is getting the government they deserve. (Unfortunately, the rest of us are stuck with it too.)
So how did you check the facts, and find your truth? Through your unbiased sources?
I am at a loss as to how to spread "truth." I have received several chain e-mails from "friends" from several different states. I replied twice, asking the mass-mailing list to please use Factcheck.org or snopes because they were passing on false information. Out of a huge mailing list only two people replied--one to thank me for the new information , and a long-time friend who said that accuracy did not matter to him because he knew which man was his candidate. How on earth do we deal with such brainwashing?--I am baffled and troubled!
Very thoughtful blog. I am hopeful that america will take the time to educate themselves about both candidates, (especially since the stakes are so high) but I wouldn't bet on it.
No one wants to say it, but of course the tightness of this race can be explained by race. If BO was everything, and said everything that BO is and says, but he was white, this race wouldn't even be close.
A shame, but I believe it to be true.
The cowards call Obama a Muslin instead of saying what they really mean. They refuse to admit it's RACIAL.They won't say the N word, but they are only to happy to use the M word. Wake up, all democrats must unite against the NEOCONS..........................................................................................
The term "O'Bama" wasn't coined by Matthews after Biden was picked, I've had the St.Patrick's day green O'bama campaign shirt since March.
Dear Mr Kaplan -can we please, , stop using the word " Rovian " ? Karl Rove deserves no rewarding of his behavior . Thank you
why does it matter where he went to grade school? We weren't brainwashed by our grade schools we shouldn't think he was either. I have more of an issue with him going to Harvard .Harvard graduates are notorious for not listening to the opinion of someone without several degrees and placing more importance concept than logistics; they also are fond of using words like 'Rovian' like the Harvard alumnus who wrote this article
its not illegal to be Muslim and still be the President of the United States . The idea that a Muslim cannot be President because of World events is like saying a Lutheran couldn't be president in World War Two .Barack O'bama isn't Muslim but more importantly it doesn't matter! We have separation of church and state .
I have elderly neighbors who believe the swiftboating completely . the woman is convinced she will have to wear a veil in a democratic administration, she is afraid .I am sure there are others like her.I think we see the I'll gotten gains of the neo cons in action -religion in politics ,ignorance of the constitution and a constituency that doesn't understand the fundamentals of the electoral process and we risk Barack O'bamas election because of it.
And what is so wrong with being a Muslim? I don't get it. They are peace-loving people just like the rest of us. And if you think differently, then you've been brainwashed by the government purposely because they want you to believe that. Wake up America.
Boy that's a mouthful !!! And yes, "they are like the rest of us".
Certainly ALL major religions preach love and peace, the only problem is they all, including Judaism and main stream Christendom the most reprehensible, don't know the first thing about how to achieve peace.
Further more, they have and do promote war as a means to support national sovereignty's and improve their own reletive positions in world affairs. (60 minutes show, "In the name of God')
While at one time wars were sanctioned by God in the case of ancient Israel, with the advent of the Christ, "love your enemy and those persecuting you" was the new order of the day. This love was and still is the identifying mark of "true" Christians opposed to the hypocritical Christians.
Main stream Christendom, the most reprehensible and blood stained of religions, has long since turned apostate centuries ago, and throughout history have been sanctioning the killing of fellow man contrary to Christ's teaching, and doing so in the name of Christ.
And so yes, Muslims are like the rest of (most all) of us. And if you think differently, then you've been brainwashed by the bad religion !!!
religion = evil
They can take my word for it Obama is a Christian. I grew up in a Christian Home I know the behaviors and symptoms. He is more Christian than some of these so called Christian the reason why he doesnt seem to be Christian is because he actually FOLLOW the 10 commandments. He doesnt commit adultery, He doesnt lie or steal elections or the taxpayers money. HE behaves in a Christian manner so he doesnt seem like a Christian to these so called Christian who if heaven and hell do exist 90% would find themselve in hell. I bet their number sin would be hypocrisy and self-righteousness. SO thats why Obama doesnt seem like a Christian to them. THey wouldnt know one if they had Christian tatooed across their forehead.
Carol
Amen Carol, and people keep saying they do not know Obama, if they will just listen and think along with him, they will know him, Christian and otherwise, his lifestory is the best of what the American form of government can produce, and too many of us are too stupid to appreciate it.
it's sad that it matters if he is or not though....
Some of the comments about Obama being exposed to the Islamic faith as an inherently bad thing is disturbing--the Islamic faith, in and of itself, is no worse than the entirely of the Christian faith---in both of those religious strains----there are fringe, over the edge, whacked out elements---until the attacks of 9/11--the worst act of domestic terrorism in the US was conducted by a guy who came from "right wing" America in terms of politics and religion but everyone seens to forget that and the guy who bombed the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta and also did abortion clinic bombings that were staged in two stages--the first to bomb the clinics, the second stage to get the emergency responders. He then fled to the mountains in a very conservative/religious part of the country and hid out for years.. He certainly came from and his actions motivated by holding religious right views, and that is not being talked about either. Both men committed acts of terrorism and they were ostensibly "Christians."
So what if Barak Obama was exposed to Islam??---that does not make him have some sort of a soft spot for terrorism any more than the two "Christian"men i mentioned above have anything to do with anyone else who is Christian.
If one still think that Obama had never taught Islam, and beleive in that, then Indonesian probe will say "Kacang Lupa Kulit"; meaning "A nut forget's its shell". Come on Barack, we both grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, You were barry then, and your dad Pak Soetoro send you to school, and you also learned "mengaji" (reading Al Quran). I did the same thing, perhaps many of us not practicing Islam, or necessarily became a Moslem, but the tradition forced us to learn Moslem. I am a Catholic as well since grade 4, but yes I did learn Islam; the different between myself and Barack is that I am Chinese with Christian (Baptis) background, while Pak Soetoro was pure Moslem. So America, yes, he was taught Moslem for fact, but people do change religion and beleive, but they cannot deny it what you were because the fact is there!
Yes, he went to school there. That's cool that you knew him. But ... so? That the leader of the free world has studied one of the most widely practiced religions in the world and been exposed to its culture is not a bad thing, it's a good thing!
I don't think he said he knew Obama personally - just that they grew up in the same town and perhaps had the same experience. This is so frustrating having to wade through this sewer of ignorance and bigotry. Most Protestants in this country don't think twice about sending their children or attending a Catholic school. But this disgusting assault on Islam...it must be so discouraging to American Muslims - particularly those serving overseas on our nation's behalf. I have attended Mosques and have interacted with Muslims in my daily life. The mosque is beautiful and peaceful. I have felt the presence of God there even though I am technically a Christian. Most Christians don't realize that Jesus is in the Koran and is revered. But they are so blind and fearful. So what if his parents chose to expose him to a culture and religion that one billion people in the world practice. So what if he has this knowledge base. This is insane and we look so ugly to the rest of the world.By the way, I also attended Trinity United Church of Christ. If anyone really wants to know the truth: feel free to ask.
Actually, Obama was raised to be a freethinker like his mother. He only got religion while working in Chicago as a community organizer. However, that is just as frightening for the bible thumping crowd.
Obama 's father was Muslim (not even religous from what i read ) but obama was raised christian by his mother and he is a church goer and he does not believe in Islam , i know lots of Jewish Americans are scared of him because he happens to have a muslim father , (or is it his color ?) and many of them are sending the wrong emails to all people in the US .
This is the internet folks. Anyone can write anything, true or not, make any claim without having to back it up. I've invented a cure for Aids, but a big pharmaceutical company bought it from me and refuses to release it because they make more money treating not curing. I also invented a car that runs on hot air, but that was bought from me by GM and they won't release it because they are heavily invested in oil futures. Oh yeah, I also am negotiating with Israel and Iran to end the middle east crisis, but I'm not authorized to release the details yet.
People in Ireland have been making the obvious "O'bama" crack for well over a year. So just for the record, Matthews didn't coin that.
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