"Obama is an evil Moooslim"
We have been tracking the “Obama is a Mooslim” myth for quite some time now, so much so that those who conducted this study could have easily used our posts and articles as a sufficient reference for their research. It is still quite obvious that the saga about Obama being a Muslim will continue for a long time.
New Study Sorts Through Obama-Muslim Myth
A new academic study finds that Americans who believed during the 2008 campaign that Barack Obama was a Muslim generally held tight to that misconception, despite efforts by the media, fact-checking Web sites and his own campaign to debunk the myth.
The number of people who incorrectly identified Mr. Obama as a Muslim held steady, at about 20 percent, between September and November 2008, according to an article in the coming issue of The Journal of Media and Religion.
During that time, many news outlets confronted the rumor, and Mr. Obama tried to set the record straight — that he is Christian — in a highly publicized interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“The efforts of journalists to correct this misperception seem to have had no effect for some people,” said the study’s author, Barry Hollander, a journalism professor at the University of Georgia. “There was this core group of people who were convinced for whatever reason that Obama was lying.”
Mr. Hollander analyzed the responses of 2,409 participants in the National Election Study survey. Asked the same questions over three months, the percentage of people who identified Mr. Obama as Muslim was 20.2 percent in September and 19.7 percent in November.
But some respondents did change their minds. Ten percent of those who believed Mr. Obama was Christian in September shifted that opinion by November. Likewise, 40 percent of those who believed he was Muslim in September gave a different answer by November.
Respondents who were younger, less educated, less politically interested, politically conservative and interpreted the Bible literally were more likely to be among those who shifted from answering that Mr. Obama was Christian to answering that he was a Muslim.
The study reinforces a common finding among psychologists: that memory and knowledge are selective, and that people often reject information that contradicts their beliefs. That’s not a partisan issue, Mr. Hollander said.
For instance, he said, Democrats were quick to believe untrue rumors aboutGeorge W. Bush’s service during the Vietnam War.
“It shows that many people want to believe the worst about a candidate or a politician that they don’t like,” he said. “Negative information is just more memorable. That’s why everyone hates negative advertising, but everyone does it.”
March 15th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
“It shows that many people want to believe the worst about a candidate or a politician that they don’t like”
What a characterization! Being a Muslim is the worst and “negative advertising”.
March 15th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
So 20% of americans believe the presedent is a muslim and he still won? I am impreresed .
What were the untrue and true romours about Mr Bush not going to Vietnam?
March 15th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
People who promote the idea that President Obama is a Muslim, as an ACCUSATION against him, just show how unfamiliar they are with our founding principles in the USA. There are two points that are absolutely clear in the Constitution: (1) There can be no establishment of religion – this is strictly a matter of liberty and individual conscience; and (2) No religious tests may be applied to anyone as a requirement for public office. It doesn’t matter whether he is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostic or Atheist. None of that either qualifies or disqualifies him or anyone else from any public office in the USA. So long as he can honestly pledge to uphold and defend the Constitution of the US, his religious persuasion simply DOESN’T MATTER!
“It shows that many people want to believe the worst about a candidate or a politician that they don’t like.” If that statement was intended to be applied to some people’s stubborn adherence to the idea that Mr. Obama is a Muslim, it would be a slander against Islam. Why would believing he’s a Muslim be ‘believing the WORST’ about him? What a thing to say! I am not a Muslim (at least not technically and officially) but I have come to have great respect for Islam; and I feel offended by such a statement. Certainly ‘official’ Muslims would find that offensive. But I know that true Muslims will respond with kindness and charity to the ignorance of such anti-Islamic sentiments, knowing that that is the character of Allah (to be merciful and gracious) – and they will wish to emulate their Lord.
So far as I am concerned, Mr. Obama is clearly a Christian (of a ‘liberal’ persuasion); but if he were Muslim my feelings about him would not change in the least. In fact, I might be DELIGHTED that just as a non-white person was able to be elected President, so a person who is not of the Christian religion (even in a loose sense) could be elected President.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Sir David,
It was a close race, the electoral vote really didn’t reflect the popular vote but the American people have to be credited for electing him even with the false rumors. The 20% as you’re aware is the loony fringe consisting also of a lot of Evangelicals.
About Bush, I think it is referring to him dodging the draft, I ll have to check.
March 15th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
This has the controversy of Bush’s military service: “George W. Bush military service controversy” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy
March 15th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I believe the rumors about Bush dealt with a possible forgery of memos by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. These memos purported to show that Bush received preferential treatment. Since his commitment to actual service was so poor, and at one point might have shown him to be legally AWOL, he should have been sent to Vietnam as other men with equally-bad records had been.
It IS true that Bush’s service record was spotty at best. That is no rumor. It is proven fact that he skipped drills on a regular basis, was dropped from flight school because he wouldn’t take a proper physical (he admits to extensive cocaine use at the time), and simply didn’t have even a semi-reasonable record of follow-through on his duties. It IS also true that other people who did similarly were sent to Vietnam during that period, but there is no RECORD that Bush was deliberately kept from this because of his political connections.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I think the perceived insult to Islam was unintended. What I read into the statement is that, among those believing Obama to be Muslim, being Muslim is seen as a bad thing. I don’t believe the researcher thought this way.
As for the idea that he is Muslim, or any of the other kooky theories advanced about him, it’s seen here in the UK, at least among the circles I move in, as simply laughable that anyone could be insane enough to give any credence to the reports in any way. Having said that, I don’t believe Joe Public is any smarter here than in the USA, although we may be a little more aware of the world around us.