Across the Pond Archives

Despite now having pulled in over 1,000,000 regular joe shmoe donors like you and me, drawing in energized voters of all ages, colors, and creeds to his rallies like never before, and getting people up and excited about politics again for the first time since JFK, Obama continues to periodically face baseless right-winged lunatic-fringe accusations from the woefully misinformed. Alright, that’s a bit harsh, but as my wife will tell you (and likely my mother too) I don’t simply accept random statements as fact without some sort of basis to back it up and am often caught asking people to “Cite your source.” It’s no surprise then that the blind acceptance of random email forwards as fact, gets under my skin… especially when the claims are so easily verifiable against any number of media outlets that have published to the web for the last decade or so. But I digress.

As the title of this post indicates, a recent forward has me a bit stirred up so I’ve spent a bit of time, gathering the reputable sources that have already analyzed these claims to a fine level of detail. Hopefully this serves as a bit of a meta-reference for anyone seeking a bit more information on these topics.

On with my reply to the forward…

—
Sent: 28Feb2008 9:56 PM GMT
Subject: Re: What is wrong w/ a muslim president

Ugh… Where to begin…

Let’s start with the Muslim bit itself… forget Obama for a moment. This bit is just simply racist, akin to lets hang all the black people or force all the women into servitude. It’s also just plain inaccurate. There’s been an excellent write up over here if you want to see a bit more of the breakdown. The reviewer begins:
“I recently recieved an email forwarded to me from one of those well-meaning folks who constantly forwards stuff to his friends. It’s so full of misleading half-truths and outright lies it’s hard to know where to begin responding. It reads pretty much like a KKK or Neo-Nazi rant about Jews or Catholics. So let’s tear this apart bit by bit, shall we? read on…“

If you’re not dissuaded by that argument, the even simpler fact is that Obama’s not a Muslim. This has been getting forwarded around for some time by folks who’s only source of news are the forwards bouncing around their email accounts. There’s plenty of real journalism out there that completely covers the topic. For example:

Los Angeles Times: The Rumors About Obama Are “False And Vile.”
“The Los Angeles Times wrote in an editorial, “That the rumors are false and vile is self-evident… As always, the smears play to the ugly undersideof American politics: prejudice and hatred… Presidential candidates of both parties have a duty to denounce not only the smear against Obama but the bigotry that underlies it.” [Los Angeles Times, 12/3/07]

Newsweek: Sliming Obama
“Dueling chain e-mails claim he’s a radical Muslim or a ‘racist’ Christian. Both can’t be right. We find both are false. “Dueling chain e-mails claim he’s a radical Muslim or a ‘racist’ Christian. Both can’t be right. We find both are false. Another e-mail claims that Obama ‘is a Muslim,’ attended a ‘Wahabi’ school in Indonesia, took his Senate oath on the Koran, refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and is part of an Islamic plot to take over the U.S. Each of these statements is false.” [Newsweek, 1/11/08]

There unfortunately have been other false misinformed forwards floating around.

Obama’s been accused of not being patriotic enough because he doesn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel.
Via ABC News and The New York Times
Reporter: “You don’t have the American flag pin on. Is that a fashion statement?”
Obama: “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”

“I’m less concerned with what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart. You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. And you show your patriotism by being true to your values and ideals. And that’s what we have to lead with, our values and ideals.”

Another one that comes up from time to time is that he fails to say the Pledge of Allegiance or that he was sworn in on the Koran. Again both are simply incorrect.

Via the Washington Post
The Washingto Post awarded “The Scoundrel” who put the Obama/Pledge Of Allegiance email Into circulation “Four Pinocchios” on its fact checking scale, which classifies the attack as a “Whopper.” “Anonymous attacks by e-mail are, or at least should be, un-American. This particular one was also wrong on the facts. We award the scoundrel who put the e-mail into circulation four Pinocchios.” [Washington Post, 11/2/07]

Via Snopes (a Rumor debunking site)
Email Claim: “ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.”
Facts: “This statement is completely false. It is a mistaken reference to a different politician, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, not Barack Obama.

There might be a few other nasty forwards out there that I’m missing too but the bottom line is, unless it’s backed up by some real sources, people need to use their brains and actually think things through a bit.