When it first came out that Barack Obama had a pastor who said batshit insane things, Obama supporters found at least some consolation: conservatives couldn’t possibly say he was a “secret Muslim” anymore. Reverend Wright is undoubtedly a Christian pastor of a Christian congregation. Obama’s decades long membership in that congregation clearly shows which religion he belongs to, no?
Apparently not. Lisa Schiffren, perhaps the Cornerite least troubled by posting complete horseshit, does her best today to resuscitate the “secret Muslim” smear. What exactly is the proof that Obama really is the Jihadist Candidate? Was it a secret memo outlining his plans to institute sharia and surrender to al Qaeda immediately upon entering office? Perhaps an intercepted communique between Obama and Hezbollah? Was he planting bombs in a neighborhood school while chanting Koran verses in Arabic?
Well, no. He was listed as Muslim on some Indonesian school forms. And, as Daniel Pipes puts it:
In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936–1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Only Muslim children are named “Hussein”.
As if religion were some sort of gene to be inherited, and not a choice one makes.
No, it seems the cranks won’t let this one die. “Obama is a Muslim” just hits all the right racist, xenophobic, and fundamentalist notes, and the right simply can’t bear to part with such a perfect smear. They’ll even defy the truth in front of their faces to keep it alive.
After noting that there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim, which I’m sure she feels makes up for her brazen lying, Schiffren closes with hilarious proof that she lives in a wholly impenetrable right-wing bubble:
We don’t know if he is, but we know Daniel Pipes is no crank.
To steal a line from Orac: the stupid, it burns.