Obama's a Muslim? Are you guys on crack? Seriously?

Okay. A few things. #1, primarily... is does it really matter what faith Obama swore by, even if he was Islamic? I mean, really? Why can't we bitch about his hair cut, or the color of his suit ffs. They matter just as much.

Secondly, www.factcheck.org is a great place to look into politically motivated mis-statements and misrepresentations. Use it religiously.

Also, this post got to be a hellova lot longer than I was planning on it to be. So… uh… enjoy? Lol! I promise, it’s enlightening and (hopefully!) interesting!

Don't get me wrong: I love conspiracy theories. I mean, I'm all about the whole "Trig is NOT REALLY Sarah Palin's son." (Adopted? multiple trigs? Really Bristol's son? Lol?) However, there are some things that I should point out in this video that makes me want to beat my head against a brick wall.

At 0:58 to 1:04, Obama states "His Muslim Faith"

Full debunking on this portion of the video can be found at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslimfaith.asp

(George S. is questioning Obama about the attacks of a personal nature that is occurring within the campaign infighting- and Obama agrees that McCain has not talked about his supposed "Muslim Faith" other than to eventually state that attacks on his personal beliefs were off limits.

Moving on.

Muslim call to Prayer is “the prettiest sound on earth”
Why don’t you listen to it and tell me what you think?


To put it in perspective, the Call to Prayer has inspired many artists, including the very Celtic Loreena McKennitt. In her song "Full Circle," she compares the Call to Prayer with a monastary in Quebec (http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/lm/lorecd55.html)

The insinuations of Obama's 'intimate familiarity' with the Religion of Islam and his ability to speak the language obviously meaning that he IS Islamic is, to put it bluntly, ridiculous. Since the Middle East is one of our greatest politically sensitive areas of the world (on par, if not surpassing, North Korea and Russia of 50 years ago), it would make extreme sense to do research into what makes these nations tick, and their religion is a driving force of their government... just like Christianity is a driving force of ours.

To be able to meet with and negotiate intelligently and advantageously with a foreign country, one must first know how they work, to be able to have a common understanding to base negotiations off of. Not doing so would be like walking into China looking for a job and having no grasp of the Chinese language. Or immigrant workers coming to America and having no grasp of English (which we're totally pissed off about, to put such a thing in perspective.)

So is showing respect and complimenting someone. (Moving on to the next segment of this video) If someone insulted you, and then asked for a favor, would you grant it? According to the human psyche and the behavior pattern, probably not. Unless there was something to be gained from it by you. That's just how the human race, in general works. And our nation has been insulting and demanding for a very long time. For a full study of the affects and origins of revenge, visit http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/06/revenge.aspx. There is also an extensive article on Negotiations, their different approaches, and how they work with each other at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation#Approaches_to_negotiation.

Obama's historical praise in this next segment is something called Persuasion. Instead of Hate Mongering, Obama is trying to cool everyone down, to remind us that Islam is not some backwater, hate-mongering, 3rd world religion, or at least it didn't start that way. He's trying to teach Tolerance to the American People... Understanding, Forgiveness, Peace. Core Christian values, I might add! To do so, he brings in a sample of the things that Islam has given the world, including part of our writing system that I do not believe he mentioned. (Our numbers 1-9 came from the Arabic writing system, where our alphabet and left-to-right reading originated in the Greco-Roman era.

The "He took his oath of office using the same holy Quran" comment- was cut off. The full quote reads: "And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library." ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html for full transcript of speech). I have yet to hear anyone accuse Thomas Jefferson as being Islamic.
Not that it would really matter if he was.

The comment "The Enduring Faith of over a Billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few" rings so true. After all, as a comparison, think of Christianity. What atrocities has Christianity as a religion caused? The Crusades, for one. (7 in all) The removal of Jews who refused Christian Baptism from Europe. The Spanish Inquisition. The Salem Witch Hunts. The Protestants vs. Catholics in Northern Ireland. (IRA there is well known for guerrilla tactics for religious difference, which still continues today- although like Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam, this revolution is based primarily on political lines, but with a strong taste of religious revolt) For a full list, see http://www.centralcal.com/crist1.htm

"And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." This is what I would call a preventative measure. If those stereotypes were allowed to flourish, think what would happen! Another Crusade, except in the 21st century? Think of how long it took to remove even the legal stereotypes that formed of African Americans? As little as 50 years ago, there was still a massive "cold civil war" going on right here in America! Is it not better to nip that particular issue at the bud? Or what about Jewish persecution? How many centuries did it take to finally dispel the idea that those of Jewish faith and descent are somehow sub-human? And honestly, both are still not completely eradicated. "Jew" is still used as an insult for a particularly miserly person. And I don’t even want to say the “N” word. How horrible is that?

"We are no longer a Christian Nation." Legally, we never were. The first amendment (Think Bill of Rights) states clearly, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights) How *Can* we be a Christian nation? Certainly there were Christian precepts, wisdom, and viewpoints used in writing both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (and the Declaration of Independence states just that.) But just because it has a Christian foundation, does not make it 'Christian'. Any more than basing a writing on the precepts of the Bible makes that writing "Protestant" versus "Catholic." So many religions hold many of the values that are at the Core of Christianity, that if you look across the globe and through the cultures and religions... the major differences are in the details. Not the core. For a compare/contrast of major points in Cristianity and Islam, visit http://www.religioustolerance.org/comp_isl_chr.htm

Obama Bows before a Muslim King.

Okay, this one can have 2 sides. I'm with Obama on this one- "When in Rome, do as Romans do." To further that saying... "When you want something, be prepared to kiss the giver's ass." According to the Muslim faith, "Regarding a non-Muslim, Muslims should wait for the non-Muslim to greet them, and then reply: "Wa Alaikum." The Prophet said : "Do not greet the Jews and Christians until they greet you."

Now, if Obama had waited for the king to greet him first, or even not obviously done it, there would be as much or more doubt and suspicion that he was a Muslim than there is now... now it's just outrage that he seems to show deep respect (or some would say, subservience) to a foreign power. There is no ritual of bowing in Islamic faith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowing). But the clip also states that he had just visited England and had not bowed to the Queen. My guess is he had just gotten his ass reamed for not doing so, as he also bowed to the Japanese royalty later on, as well. And totally overstepped what was required in bowing. There is a fine art to Bowing, as demonstrated by Japanese culture in particular (and to some extent, European). The depth of the bow, posture, etc. show your level of respect. Someone who is not intimately familiar with the fine art of bowing (since in America, bowing is unheard of) would be at a loss to the appropriate depth, posture, and frequency appropriate to foreign entities.

Dressed as a Muslim...
Actually, the picture being held by Barak's older brother (who we already know lives in Kenya) appears to be kenyan style garb called Dashiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiki). This is cultural style garb, and not necessarily religious based. After all, graduation robes look an awful lot like Choir or religious robes, do they not? But they're not. The origin of both actually date as far back as Ancient Greece. ( http://www.academicapparel.com/choir/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress). The question here: is the cultural dress inspired by the religious dress, or is religious dress inspired by cultural dress? Kenya has a 66% Christian, and 26% Indigenous religious makeup. Islam doesn't even make the charts (http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_coun1.htm). In comparison, the United States has a 1% Islamic religious makeup.

Obama visits a Mosque.
This is ridiculous. If you were in Athens, would you not visit the Parthenon? But here is one telling item, at least to me: I did not see Obama bow or do otherwise to indicate anything other than great reverence to a beautiful, historic piece of architecture. He also visited a historic Church-turned-mosque-turned museum. ( http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c2e3700ab4e271bc32827b0fccfe560b.421)

Obama sides with Islam...
1.) The American Pin issue: there are a few ways to look at this. Take the Mormon faith for example, do not use Crosses in their faith. Are they Christian? Certainly. Their faith is based on The Holy Bible with one addition: the Book of Mormon, which is used as an addition to those texts. One reason for this was given by my in-laws (who are both Mormon): The symbol gets in the way of what it was made to represent. Eventually, people come to worship the symbol more than what it represents. The official LDS response, though, is that they choose not to use that particular symbol because their view of what is the greatest importance of the life of Christ. Not his death… but his resurrection. (http://lds.about.com/od/apologetics/a/accusations.htm) Obama clearly states that he chooses not to wear that symbol because of what it has come to represent… which is far more than pride in a country. It has come to represent a fervor that borders on the religious of unthinking mob mentality. I think we can all agree that there are mob-minded, blind, unthinking idiots in this country. I know I’ve been one of them myself. I believe the biggest part of where most people disagree is who we think they are. Of course, having my opinions shoved down my throat with cold, hard facts a time or two (dozen) has made me far more interested in researching statements… and no longer being part of the mob mentality.
2.) “America is not and never will be at war with Islam.” This, is 100% true. We are at war with a (comparatively) small group of people. They’re called “Terrorists.” We are a land of freedoms of all sorts, from speech to religion. America is only interested in catching, punishing, and ending the threats of the guilty parties, and only the guilty parties that have hurt us. Not the innocents. If we pick one unique factor that these terrorist attacks from 2001 had in common and use that to generalize and stereotype and decide who we are at war with, then we will be punishing innocents who had absolutely no part of this. To use one word to describe who we are at war with… it must be a word that describes WHAT we are at war with. The answers to that is Terrorists. Murderers. Torturers. Killers. Not a religion who’s primary precepts include aid to the needy! (To read more about Islam as a whole, and it’s primary misconceptions created from such stereotypes, visit http://islam.about.com/od/commonmisconceptions/tp/myths.htm )

Welcome

When perusing some blogs recently, I discovered that there is a great deal of ignorance, prejudice, and differing viewpoints out there. Politically, religiously, even morally, there is a myriad of examples of the differences and strife when those two viewpoints meet that stretch around this beautiful planet.

After seeing a post I heartily disagreed with, and and creating a (*cough*) lengthy rebuttal, I quickly discovered that Blogspot has around a 4000 character limit. To which I did what any young-to-middle aged, experienced report writer would do.

I imprinted my keyboard on my forehead with an Epic Headdesk.

I then decided, like any good little nerd, to create my own blog and express the dissenting evidence to many posts that I disagree with, even if it's only myself that ever glances at it.

Here at The Mask and the Mirror, I would like to take time in debunking or confirming accusatory claims and conspiracy theories against anyone, be they friend or foe. As long as there is proof one way or the other out there.

Here is my pledge to you. I will ALWAYS cite my sources, and give you all the chance to see where it is that I gather my information and the entirety of what that information says. I will then allow you free reign to openly debate, disagree, and/or provide alternative sources of information that you feel i should examine.

Simply please, be respectful! Abusive comments will be deleted!