I was going to title this "1 in 5 Americans are idiots" But that seemed a bit redundant. I mean no one should really be surprised by this, 1 in 5 is 18%, which is close to that magic number of conservatives in America who will still vote conservative no mater what. For me the big thinger here, as always, is the humor of some of the comments:By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer – 51 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Americans increasingly are convinced — incorrectly — that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.
Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.
The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don't know his religion, an increase from the 34 percent who said that in early 2009.
The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center there, though he's also said he won't take a position on whether they should actually build it.
In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday — after Obama's comments about the mosque — 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn't know or didn't respond.
In addition, 61 percent opposed building the Muslim center near the Trade Center site and 26 percent said they favor it.
The Pew poll found that about three in 10 of Obama's fiercest political rivals, Republicans and conservatives, say he is a Muslim. That is up significantly from last year and far higher than the share of Democrats and liberals who say so. But even among his supporters, the number saying he is a Christian has fallen since 2009, with just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats saying he is Christian.
Among independents, 18 percent say Obama is Muslim — up from 10 percent last year.
Pew analysts attribute the findings to attacks by his opponents and Obama's limited attendance at religious services, particularly in contrast with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose worship was more public.
Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research Center's director, said the confusion partly reflects "the intensification of negative views about Obama among his critics." Alan Cooperman, the Pew Forum's associate director for research, said that with the public hearing little about Obama's religion, "maybe there's more possibility for other people to make suggestions that the president is this or he's really that or he's really a Muslim."
Obama is the Christian son of a Kenyan Muslim father and a Kansas mother. From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in predominantly Muslim Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. His full name, Barack Hussein Obama, sounds Muslim to many.
White House officials did not provide on-the-record comments on the survey, but they prompted Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston to call The Associated Press.
Caldwell, who said he has known Obama for years, said the president is a Christian who prays every day. He said he was not sure where the public confusion about the president's religion came from, but he called false media reports about it "a 24-hour noise box committed to presenting the president in a false light."
Six in 10 of those saying Obama is a Muslim said they got the information from the media, with the largest portion — 16 percent — saying it was on television. Eleven percent said they learned it from Obama's behavior and words.
Despite the confusion about Obama's religion, there is noteworthy support for how he uses it to make decisions. Nearly half, or 48 percent, said he relies on his religion the right amount when making policy choices, 21 percent said he uses it too little and 11 percent too much.
At the same time, the poll provides broad indications that the public feels religion is playing a diminished role in politics today, with fewer people than in 2008 saying the Democratic and Republican parties are friendly toward religion.
With elections for control of Congress just over two months away, the poll contains optimistic news for Republicans. Half of white non-Hispanic Catholics, plus three in 10 unaffiliated with a religion and a third of Jews support the GOP — all an increase since 2008.
The survey also found:
_The Democratic Party is seen as friendly to religion by 26 percent, while 43 percent say the same about the GOP. That's a 9 percentage point drop for Republicans since 2008, and 12 points lower for Democrats.
_Fifty-two percent say churches should stay away from politics, a reversal of the slim majorities that supported churches' political involvement from 1996 to 2006.
The poll, overseen by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, involved landline and cell phone interviews with 3,003 randomly chosen adults. It was conducted July 21-Aug. 5 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Its all a big conspiracy! And the evil Liberal Media are in on it! Vote Republican or the country is DOOMED!The biggest problem to this article is the media is trying to tell us American’s what we see and hear is wrong and if they tell us that Our Biggest American Mistake Around (obama) is Christian when we do not believe a word they say. In this country the courts and lawyers are now working with the Department of Justice to lie and cover for criminal acts and illegal people this is done to help keep democratic in control who are set to destroy this country. The November election is going to provide a pivot point as to whether this country survives or not.
Anyone who can still recite Muslim "morning prayers" in a perfect Arab Dialect, yet cannot recall 20 years of sermons he supposedly listened to from his Anti-American (and former Muslim) preacher in a "Christian church" - does raise questions.
I would like to hear Obama, the famous long-time Christian, recite the Lord's Prayer or the Doxology (prayers every Christian has recited repeatedly) without a teleprompter one day without warning or a chance to prepare ahead of time. All we'd get is a grand excuse not to say it or a mouth full of gibberish.
He rushes to defend the building of a mosque in NYC - with 13 floors (an extremely unlucky number in Islamic society - with historical roots) - in a Capitalist Business section of New York - where there are FEW Muslims -- in a city where there exists already 100 mosques - where educated Muslims say they do not need or support the building of this mosque - and is supported to be built in this specific location only by radical liberals, people who hate Christianity and Judaism, extremists sympathetic to Islamic terrorists, and those who are anti-American.
Prove me wrong.
RAR! I SPEAK IN CAPSLOCK!!!Lets SEE, He announces this country is not Christian, to date has not taken part in the national prayer day, courts all the muslim leaders, has a muslim name WHICH HE TRIED TO OMIT WHEN HE SWORE IN, and now to add insult to everything, supports the building of a muslim celebration of American murders by muslim terrorists. IF IT LOOKS LIKE A TRAITOR, TALKS LIKE A TRAITOR.....GEE, MAYBE ITS A TRAITOR. OH AND LETS NOT FORGET HE WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE PRESIDENT THAT STOOD BY WHILE IRAN GOT ITS NUCLEAR WEAPON THAT THEY VOWED TO USE AGAINST ISRAEL. HES A FREAKING MUSLIM AND WE SEE IT. NO HIDING IT.
or
Evidently just being a Muslim means you are a traitor to America!
), spends most of his time cheering on Republican positions, questioned whether Obama was a Muslim on this very day, then actually said that he's a moderate who's "in the middle."
