ara

And one wonders about this administration's fascination with the peaceful religion.

buffalo Loc: Texas

I do not wonder about the mullah in chief's affiliation with Islam. He is a mooslime by upbringing.

http://www.danielpipes.org/11952/obama-muslim-childhood

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

As much as many would like to believe otherwise:

Contrary to common rumor, however, neither Jarrett nor her parents are Iranian, nor (as far as we can tell) are any of them Muslim. Jarrett's parents, James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman, were both American-born U.S. citizens from Washington, D.C. and Chicago, respectively; the couple merely lived in Iran for about six years in the late 1950s and early 1960s while James served as chair of pathology at Nemazee Hospital in Shiraz as part of a program that sent American physicians to work in developing countries.

Valerie was born in Shiraz during the Bowmans' sojourn in Iran; she returned to the U.S. with her parents in 1962 (when she was five years old), whereupon she attended prep school in Massachusetts, graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and earned a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981 before returning to Chicago to begin her working career. We've found no evidence Valerie Jarrett is (or ever was) Muslim, her only apparent connection to that religion being the incidental one that she temporarily lived in a predominantly Muslim country with her American parents for the first few years of her life.

The quote to attributed "Valerie Jarrett, Stanford University, 1977" about her "seek[ing] to help change America to be a more Islamic country" is an unfounded one that has no source other than recent repetition (primarily on right-wing web sites and blogs). It's also an anachronism, as "Valerie Jarrett" didn't exist in 1977: she was born Valerie Bowman and didn't take the latter surname until she married William Jarrett in 1983.

Moreover, the wording of the meme in its commonly reproduced form is too stilted to be believable as the utterance of a fluent English speaker (e.g., "I am an Iranian by birth and of [sic] my Islamic faith"). Finally, no news article or document associated with Stanford University records Jarrett as having made this statement back in 1977; and if there were any credible evidence Jarrett had ever said anything remotely like this, it would have been a well-covered news story since shortly after the 2008 presidential election and not a obscure meme that didn't pop up until several years later.

ara

Perhaps this is a fabrication, kinda like obamo's birth certificate?

PeterS

Do you think the truth matters Slate? These guys have been making "it" up so long that they still wouldn't know truth if it smacked them in the face and kicked them in the ass. The thing is Obama is almost done. Character assassination on his administration is irrelevant. Of course knowing our "truth" telling friends they will somehow try to paint Hillary as an Islamic loving Methodist all because she once shook hands with Jarrett. Ya think? No doubt!!

PeterS

How did the year book committee get a hold of Jarretts photograph when she was older? Did they not have a current one so the time traveled to the future to get one? I would welcome you but we have enough filth on this board we really don't need anymore...

PeterS

Look at the photograph. I looks like it was made yesterday. They were too lazy to even get the correct photograph. Typical lazy conservative...

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

The fabrication being discussed is within your opening post.

With all the truthful criticism that can be made of President Obama and his administration, why must posters come up with easily debunked nonsense These efforts only make any future comments/posts by them likely less believable. Those who debunk falsehoods are only defending truth, not individuals, parties or administrations.

moldyoldy

Do you really believe this, or do you hope your fellow wing nuts are too stupid to notice?

PeterS

The logic is to throw so much shit against the wall that you can't tell the truth from a lie. And as they say: repeat something enough and it becomes the truth. This is the mantra conservatives use to replace actual thought. That takes too much work and is to be avoided at all cost...

bylm1-Bernie

I think you are mistaken, Pete. The logic you describe has been the Alinski strategy and has been practiced by the left, including Obama and his crooks, for many years. Typical leftist tactic is to deny what you're doing by accusing the other side of doing it. Some things never change.

J Anthony Loc: Connecticut

There's no denying that today the deflection-tactic is used by both "sides" in nearly any situation.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

Steve700

Certainly you know that Obama was brought up in Indonesia as a Muslim and that is father was a Muslim and in Islamic theology that makes him a Muslim. Why would you presume that he switched his religion ??? Because he went to Jeremiah Wright's black liberation theology church that has the same anti-American propaganda as the Moslems? That was for political expediency. And you say "Easily Debunked Nonsense" ????? DEBUNK THIS:
(who but a Muslim would say or believe such PURE BULSHIT ??? -- &-- And who but a traitor or would continue to support him after knowing this & the myriad of ways that Obama has been assisting & supporting Islamic terrorists & radicals)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAffMSWSzY (9 3/4 Minutes) Obama Admits He is a Muslim Numerous Times

20 Quotes By Barack Obama praising Islam and Mohammed: Look how the praises Islam & -- slanders Christianity(List Below)

#1 “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”

#2 “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer”

#3 “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

#4 “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

#5 “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”

#6 “Islam has always been part of America”

#7 “we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities”

#8 “These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”

#9 “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

#10 “I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”

#11 “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.”

#12 “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed”

#13 “In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.”

#14 “Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

#15 “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality”

#16 “The Holy Koran tells us, ‘O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’”

#17 “I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

#18 “We’ve seen those results in generations of Muslim immigrants – farmers and factory workers, helping to lay the railroads and build our cities, the Muslim innovators who helped build some of our highest skyscrapers and who helped unlock the secrets of our universe.”

#19 “That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.” (Why & since when is defending any religion. The job of the US president ???)

#20 “I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.” (Yeah, America's first war shortly after the founding of the country was with the Islamic Barbary Pirates.)


Now, let’s compare those quotes to what he has said about Christianity:

1. “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation”

2. “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”

3. “Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?”

4. “Even those who claim the Bible’s inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages – the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ’s divinity – are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.”

5. “The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics.”

6. From Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: “I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.”

7. Obama’s response when asked what his definition of sin is: “Being out of alignment with my values.”

8. “If all it took was someone proclaiming I believe Jesus Christ and that he died for my sins, and that was all there was to it, people wouldn’t have to keep coming to church, would they.”

9. “This is something that I’m sure I’d have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and prostelytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell.”

10. “I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That’s just not part of my religious makeup.”

11. “I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing.”

12. “I’ve said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know … I do not believe she went to hell.”

13. “Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths.”

14. On his support for civil unions for gay couples: “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount.”

15. “You got into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

16. “In our household, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology”

17. “On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.”

18. “We have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own”

19. “All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra— (applause) — as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer. (Applause.)”

20. “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”

Some people think that Obama is a closet Muslim. Some think he simply espouses theological universalism, or the idea that all religions have truth in them and somehow all end up in the same place when it comes to eternity.

The problem is that truth, by its very nature, is exclusive. All religions make exclusive claims – that’s not something that’s unique to Christianity. As Tim Keller put it, “All claims are exclusive. The Gospel is an exclusive truth but it’s the most inclusive exclusive truth in the world.”

Obama’s idea of pluralism is an interesting one. He praises Islam for being so “tolerant” and criticizes Christianity for not being accommodating enough to Muslims. He also says that we must not “slander the prophet of Islam.” Yet there is no mention of violent, oppressive shariah law, nor is there any mention of the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of Muslims.

Obama lauds Islam’s great history yet goes after conservative Christians who want to practice their faith in the public square. Whether it’s Hobby Lobby or Catholic organizations and charities being discriminated against by Obamacare, Obama has shown little tolerance for those groups when it comes to their free exercise of religion. This isn’t true pluralism, it’s pluralism on his terms, and it’s disgusting and hypocritical.

Kevyn

Just more idiot bullshit, they spread it because it works. As an example look at Buffalo, he is too clueless to piss without getting his feet wet and bought this fabrication hook line and sinker. Reassured in his warped perception of the world he will spread the lie to his pals who are likely as foolish and misinformed as he is and they to will buy in. It is no wonder a crooked carnival barker like Trump sucks them in, as long as you have no scruples and appeal to their xenophobia, hate and vanity these morons can be fleeced like sheep.