Obama: The Muslim?

Salaam-Alaikum, fellow citizen. Surely, by now you have received a strange email or seen a segment on Fox News criticizing Barack Obama for being a closet Muslim. According to these people, he is not your typical run-of-the-mill Muslim, but a radical one with secret plans of jihad for all the American swine who are dumb enough to vote for him come November. Then again, to some, that is your typical Muslim; and with a name like Barack Hussein Obama he must be a terrorist in politician's clothing.

Alright, let us return from Lalaland, for that is the only place where basic reasoning and common sense can be suspended in order to believe such a nonsensical thing. The fact that a major news network, with millions of viewers, is perpetuating such asinine rumors--the kind started up by some hillbilly with a Jesus fish on the back of his truck, right next to his Terrorist Hunting permit--is quite sickening. Then again, that is Fox News' base: uneducated hypocritical bigots. It is that segment of American society, which has been holding us back for some time now. All one has to do is wave a cross, be seen attending church, and mention Jesus and his greatness in a speech as a means of locking up their votes, which number in the tens-of-millions.

However, Obama has said numerous times that he is a practicing Christian, but once news broke that he went to an all-black church with an out-spoken minister, Obama's religious ties once again worked against him rather than for him. Of course, it was the media who was behind this religious undoing. The clip of Rev. Wright, which played for weeks, was taken so far out of context that it baffles me as to why the other news networks decided to play it on a continuous loop.

It has gotten to the point where the major news channels are on the same level as The Daily Show, cutting and editing video in order to manipulate it for their own ulterior reasons. The Daily Show, however, admits to this, but they are a comedy show with the sole purpose of entertaining rather than informing. They are not a credible journalistic entity, which has responsibilities to the American people. Oddly enough, in this time period, it is fitting that a comedy show is far more credible than any of the news channels. And if you think editing a video to take it out context isn't that grave of an offense, then you are underestimating the value of context. A determined video editor could make Hitler look like a saint while making Martin Luther King look like Hitler.

The media's irresponsibility has worsened as ratings have become more important than the truth, and the recent passing of Tim Russert will only make the truth more unattainable. The most troubling thing about the media's perpetuation of juicy rumors is what it says about our society. As Fox and other harebrained networks run segments on Obama secretly being a Muslim, it subtly hints to the American public that Muslims are bad people, out for our blood. What we must realize is that the radical Muslims are only a small portion of the Islamic population, and that this country was founded on the idea of spiritual independence not a spiritual dictatorship.

We must stop being ignorant to our own ignorance. By allowing the news channels to spread idiocy and bigotry simply because it gets ratings, we are in essence, allowing our minds to be polluted with garbage. To be narrow-minded in a world where nothing is certain is cognitive suicide, so let's stop killing ourselves and each other, please. Come on, I asked nicely.