Tapper's 'Muslim nation' "Fact Check", and My Response

From the Fact Check Desk: President Obama and Muslims in America

June 04, 2009 1:05 PM

A bizarre and inaccurate meme is circulating among conservatives that President Obama referred to the U.S. as a "Muslim nation."

It's not even remotely true...

In an interview with France's Canal Plus TV on June 1, President Obama said that "if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."

His point, it seems clear, is that numerically there are enough Muslims in the U.S. to make it one of the biggest "Muslim nations" in the world if -- hypothetically -- one were only counting Muslims.

(That happens to be a fairly debatable claim, but we'll get to that in a second.. One fact check at a time.)

On April 6 in Turkey, President Obama said "one of the great strengths of the United States is -- although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

So it's crystal clear. The president does not think the U.S. is a Muslim nation, and he never said that it was.

[snip]

My response:

Mr. Tapper:

Your parsing here is a little disengenuous. The line prior to the one quoted here was that the West needed to learn more about Islam because, afterall, when you count the numbers of Muslims in America, we're one of the biggest Muslim nations on the planet. Period.

Besides everything else that is wrong with that statement, he really really thinks we're the bad guys in this deal. On the same day he stated (as reported by AP) "You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of the Muslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."

There's a line that's been going around for a few years that states, "Everything I needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11." I say, everything I needed to know about Islam I learned when Saudi police prevented young girls leaving a burning school because their heads weren't covered. They burned to death.

Maybe you took a little flack when Drudge ran with your "Muslim roots" stories and you're trying to maintain good graces with the WH, but come on... it was a ridiculous statement that is beneath your reporting caliber to excuse.

From the Fact Check Desk: President Obama and Muslims in America - Political Punch