President Obama’s comments on his heritage and on the amount of Muslims in America have caused a stir right blogosphere. Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller’s story. The Muslim country quote in the NYT.
About the roots comment:
Charles Johnson at LGF:
Suddenly, now that it’s politically opportune, Barack Obama is no longer shy about admitting he has Muslim roots.
We had several posts about this at LGF during the campaign, of course. And no, this doesn’t mean he’s a “sekrit Muslim Manchurian candidate,” but it is a revealing look at the political maneuvering Obama did to get elected.
Allah Pundit notes the spread of the story:
You can imagine Tapper writing the headline to his post, thinking, “I know Drudge is going to love this. I know it.” And sure enough. That’s the mark of a smart blogger, folks. Anyone can wring big traffic from a big story. Wringing big traffic from crap is where we separate the men from the boys.
And on the Muslim country business:
Paul Mirengoff: “In what sense can any rational person consider the United States to be a Muslim country?”
We can’t blame TOTUS for this math mistake. What was Obama thinking? Obviously he wanted to impress his Muslim audiences ahead of his arrival, but in an area that in ages past significantly advanced mathematics, this won’t do it. They know the difference between their own population and the number of Muslims in the US and can figure out a simple ranking system.
Wasn’t this guy supposed to be brilliant? So far, he’s the intellectual analog to Chevy Chase’s impersonation of Gerald Ford.
California Yankee at Redstate
On the other side:
Pete Abel at The Moderate Voice:
But in this case — with respect to Obama’s “Muslim country” remark — I think it’s fair to argue that the feigned bluff-calling from the right wing is entirely out of line. In his interview with French TV, the President made what seems to be a sincere effort, flawed or not, to point out to the Muslim world that the U.S. has a large Muslim population and thus a foundation for seeking a better, more productive, more constructive relationship with Muslim populations elsewhere. Seriously: What is the problem with that? Do rightwingers not want to build bridges between the U.S. and Muslim worlds? Would they prefer no effort be made to improve this already strained relationship?
Perhaps we know the answers.
UPDATE: Erin Manning
UPDATE #2: Andy McCarthy at The Corner:
Mind you, the total number of Muslims in the U.S. is a subject of intense debate (CAIR, for example, argues for a figure above 6 million because it wants the Muslim population to be thought greater than the Jewish population). The probability, though, is that there are no more than about 3 million Muslims living in the U.S. (See, e.g., this entry from Wikipedia (collecting varying estimates), and this one from Daniel Pipes in 2001, observing that the credible estimates put the figure back then at somewhere between 1.8 and — an unlikely high of — 2.8 million). This, it should be noted, does not translate into 3 million American Muslims, for many Muslims in the United States are are nationals of other countries (although, I suppose, by Justice Department standards, it would translate into approximately 6 million Muslim voters.)
By contrast, of the approximately 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, there are about 200 million Muslims in Indonesia, 196 million in India, 165 million in Pakistan, 132 million in Bangladesh, 75 million in Egypt, 64 million in Iran, 33 million in Morocco, 32 million in Algeria, 31 million in Afghanistan, 26 million in Iraq, 25 million in Ethiopia, 24 million in Saudi Arabia, 20 million in China, and 15 million in Russia, to name just a few countries. In fact, there are 2 to 3 times as many Muslims in Burkina Faso (approx. 7.5 million) as there are in America. So obviously, one can see why the president would say the United States is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”
UPDATE #3: Jonah Goldberg
Noah Pollak in Commentary
UPDATE #4: Jason Zengerle on Goldberg
UPDATE #5: Melanie Phillips
Alex Massie on Phillips
2 Comments
June 3, 2009 at 1:28 pm
[...] As a one blogger noted: “Obama, your roots are showing!” [...]
June 5, 2009 at 2:58 am
“And how can this be? For Obama is the Kwisatz Haderach!”
Actually what he wants to convince the Muslim world is that he is “Al Mahdi”.
And many are being convinced of just that.