A prominent religious studies scholar has an idea why “he’s a Mooslim” has become such a frequent smear that wingnuts have used against President Obama. To Reza Aslan of the University of California, Riverside, they don’t think Obama actually practices Islam–they’re just using that smear as a way to say he’s an “other,” and not someone who’s like us.
Aslan stopped by Larry King’s show on Ora TV to take part in a discussion on the divide between progressive-leaning Christians and conservative-leaning Christians in America. Also on hand were progressive Christian pastor Jay Bakker and Kate Logan, producer of the gut-wrenching documentary “Kidnapped for Christ.” Raw Story got a clip.
A Twitter user asked why Islam was so “generalized” in the West as opposed to Christianity. Aslan suggested that for a significant sector of conservatives, “Islam” has become a code word for “whatever is foreign and exotic, whatever is fearful, whatever is strange and unfamiliar.”
He then mentioned the “huge, huge percentage” of Republicans who think Obama is a Muslim. He was referring to a 2010 Pew Research poll that found 34 percent of self-identified conservative Republicans think Obama is a Muslim. Aslan noticed something very interesting in the internals–those who don’t like Obama’s policies are more likely to think he’s a Muslim. Most of those who call Obama a Muslim don’t really think he practices Islam. Rather, Aslan says, it’s because they think “Islam means different, it means ‘other,’ it means ‘not us.'”
This proves something I have long suspected as the root cause for the ugly smears and bigotry that have been directed against this president. A significant sector of conservatives doesn’t consider any Democratic president to be legitimate, regardless of color. Need proof? I cut my teeth politically during the Bill Clinton years, and even now I’m still dumbfounded at the level of hate directed at him. And with Hillary Clinton all but certain to run, some winger elements are already moving from Obama hate to Clinton hate. These people don’t want to come out and say that they don’t accept a Democrat in the White House as legitimate, so they have to come up with other ways to express their hate. The fact that they’re keeping up this urban myth years after it was comprehensively debunked only proves it.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
