Obama: "my muslim faith"

[chud]

Obama says it was a simple mistake, but anyway it's making the news:

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Sen. Barack Obama's foes seized Sunday upon a brief slip of the tongue, when the Democratic presidential nominee was outlining his Christianity but accidentally said, "my Muslim faith."

The three words -- immediately corrected -- were during an exchange with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week," when he was trying to criticize the quiet smear campaign suggesting he is a Muslim.

But illustrating the difficulty of preventing false rumors about his faith from spreading, anti-Obama groups within one hour of the interview had sliced it out of context and were sending it around via email. They also were blogging about it.

Mr. Obama, who is a Christian and often proudly speaks about how his faith has influenced his public service, said he finds it "deeply offensive" that there are efforts "coming out of the Republican camp to suggest that perhaps I'm not who I say I am when it comes to my faith."

The exchange came after Mr. Obama said that Republicans are attempting to scare voters by suggesting he is not Christian, which McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said was "cynical."

Asked about it on ABC, Mr. Obama said, "These guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand."

"The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections," said Mr. Stephanopoulos, who repeatedly interrupted Mr. Obama during the interview.

"I don't think that when you look at what is being promulgated on Fox News, let's say, and Republican commentators who are closely allied to these folks," Mr Obama responded, and Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted: "But John McCain said that's wrong."

Mr. Obama noted that when Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin "was forced" to talk about her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, he issued a forceful statement to reporters that the line of inquiry was "off limits." But he said the McCain campaign tried to tie him to "liberal blogs that support Obama" and are "attacking Governor Palin."

"Let's not play games," he said. "What I was suggesting -- you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you're absolutely right that that has not come."

Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted with, "Christian faith."

"My Christian faith," Mr. Obama said quickly. "Well, what I'm saying is that he hasn't suggested that I'm a Muslim. And I think that his campaign's upper echelons have not, either. What I think is fair to say is that, coming out of the Republican camp, there have been efforts to suggest that perhaps I'm not who I say I am when it comes to my faith -- something which I find deeply offensive, and that has been going on for a pretty long time."

Asked to comment on the accidental misstatement illustrating the difficulty of the issue, Obama spokesman Bill Burton offered this comment: "I'm not surprised that the only outlet doing this story is The Washington Times."

[chud]

Btw, I believe Obama when he says that it was a mistake, but I find it rather ironic that he would accidentally fuel this fire after trying so hard to put it out.

[Doc Stier]

I believe Obama when he says that it was a mistake, but I find it rather ironic that he would accidentally fuel this fire after trying so hard to put it out.

Agreed. And by the way, I'm a Pacifist....and I'll beat the crap out of the first guy who says I'm not!

Doc

[C-Hopkins]

It should not matter.

Being Muslim of itself is not wrong, and anyone who insinuates Obama is a "bad" person If he were Muslim is a biggot- whether out of ignorance, or on purpose.

It's like the Japanese Internment Camps during WW2-

Just because you are Japanese, doesn't mean you're an enemy.

Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Hispanic, Christian, Daoist, Martian, Whatever.

[klonk]

I'm not going to hold someone to account for a slip of the tongue. Whose tongue does not slip sometimes?

[edededed]

Yeah - strange that even today, being a Christian is a definite requirement to be even considered as a presidential candidate.

[chud]

Yeah - strange that even today, being a Christian is a definite requirement to be even considered as a presidential candidate.

Actually I'm not sure I would consider Obama a Christian, at least if his beliefs are based on some of the hateful things I've heard the Rev. Wright say.

[edededed]

There are true Christians (I met one once - if I could see auras, I would probably be blinded by just looking at her), deluded Christians (most of the rabble - they believe that they will go to Heaven, but they don't really follow the Bible), and then there are insurance Christians (they don't really believe, but they try, as they are still afraid of Hell).

As a presidential candidate, irrelevant to one's own actual spiritual beliefs, one has to at least make a show of going to church, talking about one's "faith" and how it affects one's life, and declaring one's Christianity.

I don't know if Obama, or anyone else, is a true Christian or not - but it shouldn't be relevant, anyway. (The early presidents weren't Christians, either.)

This is a country where even Catholics get flack. (Catholics are the "original church" of Christianity, after all - sort of like what Chen style is to Yang )

[zenshiite]

It should not matter.

Being Muslim of itself is not wrong, and anyone who insinuates Obama is a "bad" person If he were Muslim is a biggot- whether out of ignorance, or on purpose.

It's like the Japanese Internment Camps during WW2-

Just because you are Japanese, doesn't mean you're an enemy.

Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Hispanic, Christian, Daoist, Martian, Whatever.

What bothers me is that Obama's own vehement disputations about those Muslim rumors actually come off like he's saying being a Muslim means being "bad."

As a Muslim, I find that offensive.

[meeks]

being religious doesn't make someone a better person, and it definitely doesn't make them an honest one. It's a shame people are so wrapped up in what faith a candidate hides behind rather than what they could potentially do for the country.

[MikeC]

It should not matter.

Being Muslim of itself is not wrong, and anyone who insinuates Obama is a "bad" person If he were Muslim is a biggot- whether out of ignorance, or on purpose.

It's like the Japanese Internment Camps during WW2-

Just because you are Japanese, doesn't mean you're an enemy.

Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Hispanic, Christian, Daoist, Martian, Whatever.

What bothers me is that Obama's own vehement disputations about those Muslim rumors actually come off like he's saying being a Muslim means being "bad."

As a Muslim, I find that offensive.

It's like the Clinton blowjob thing. It's not so much that he did it, but that he lied about it.

Mike

[C-Hopkins]

LOL.

[Michael]

The skeletons in Obama's closet are so numerous they haven't even all met each other yet. They're like, "Hey, you, yeah you. Do you have the right closet?"
LOL

[Darthwing Teorist]

What bothers me is that Obama's own vehement disputations about those Muslim rumors actually come off like he's saying being a Muslim means being "bad."

As a Muslim, I find that offensive.

Well, it's because a lot of people in the US believe that Muslim = evil. We have a few right here on this board - I do remember some discussions we had a few years ago where it was "muslim this" or "muslim that", "they attacked us", "9/11", "all your oil are belong to us" etc. Now, they seem that they forgot all about that.

[klonk]

Zenshiite, I think Obama's insistence on the point is that he has gone to great lengths to explain that he is a Christian, and this is important to how he has packaged himself; if he appears to be a Moslem, it looks like what he said before is false advertising. I don't think Obama has negative feelings about Moslems.