Barack Obama, apparently. He told a French television reporter that the United States is "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world." (Link here.)To be fair to Obama, he was probably trying to talk about numbers, not values or cultures. But in that, he's flat out wrong. (Facts here.)
But I don't really care (at least not enough to post) that Obama's either lying or mistaken about population numbers. Lies from this politician are expected and mistakes the norm. What I care about is a president claiming that our country is Muslim in any way.
If anything, America would be a Christian nation, based on our founding and populace . . . but it isn't. It isn't Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, or any other religion either. It is a nation where church and state are separate.
Shouldn't it be completely foreign for any American of note to describe our country as a Muslim nation? Wouldn't such a verbal stumble - if it was one - be followed by an immediate correction?
America is a secular state. We have a large population of religious people, many of whom are Muslim. Why didn't the president say something like that instead?
1 comment:
What I've always found interesting when talking about religious freedom and the founding of our country is that when they were thinking freedom of religion, they were all Christians, and were thinking of the differences between the many Christian beliefs and practices. For a couple hundred years, Americans did their very best to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The foundations of this country were laid down by Christians - not athiests, not agnostics, not Jews, nor Hindus, nor Budists, nor Muslims.
I'm all for freedom of worship - pick your religion. I'm not going to force my beliefs on anyone, but don't try to take away my Christianity.
Islam is a fine religion, but the U.S. is not an Muslim country.
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