NYC Letter: Muslim Nation

Day 135 of CHOPE

ONE NATION, UNDER ALLAH
A Player In The Caliphate. Who Knew?

Imagine our surprise today to discover we live in "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world". We hurried outside to count the minarets, but all that we could find were the same church steeples last seen the day before. (We are writing from Virginia.) But appearances aside, no less an authority than the president himself has announced America is one of the big wheels of Islam.

And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.

Mr. Obama,
previewing his Cairo talking points
June 3, 2009 (Telegraph)

Except, of course, it is not. According to this NationMaster list, on a headcount, America ranks 41st behind the Islamic powerhouses Mali (23), Burkina Faso (29), Kazakhstan (31), Côte d'Ivoire (33), Chad (37), and France (38). The CIA World Factbook has Muslims at 0.6% of the American populace (scil., 1,843,273).* This is the smallest religious affliation shown. It is less than "None" (4%). As a percentage the United States doesn't make the top 50 Muslim nations, where last place is 47% (Kazakhstan).

What is it with this administration and its disdain for real numbers?

Surprise again! The White House is now bragging on Mr. Obama's Muslim roots.

THE EMERGENCE OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S MUSLIM ROOTS

June 2, 2009 (ABC News) - The other day we heard a comment from a White House aide that never would have been uttered during the primaries or general election campaign.

During a conference call in preparation for President Obama's trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said:

The President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.

... The candidate was even offended when referred to by his initials "BHO," because he considered the use of his middle name, "Hussein," an attempt to frighten voters.

With insane rumors suggesting he was some sort of Muslim Manchurian candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his campaign did everything they could to emphasize his Christianity and de-emphasize the fact that his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born Muslim.

The candidate's comment at a Boca Raton, Florida, town hall meeting on May 22, 2008, was typical:

My father was basically agnostic, as far as I can tell, and I didn't know him.

... Back then, the campaign's "Fight the Smears" website addressed the candidate's faith without mentioning his father's religion.

Someone remind us, just why is America making an outreach to a religion? A religion, we would add, whose inherent hatreds, intolerance, inequalities, circumscribed liberties, sanctioned brutalities, and theocratic mission America must eventually oppose -- or bow to? A religion like no other for inciting violence and terror.

CHOPE.

Sometimes a political liability. Sometimes a political plus. Never sincere.

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* If the other numbers on the NationMaster list above are correct then America's ranking would drop to 60th.