News Flash: Number of Morons Who Think Obama's a Muslim Unchanged!

Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 10:03 AM on April 2, 2009.

This is getting a bit of attention around the leftisphere. Jonathan Stein:

We all know that there are some people who are so entrenched in their political views, and get their news from such incredibly partisan sources, than they can never be convinced to change their minds on anything. And yet, I'm stunned by this. Pew:

More than two months into Barack Obama's presidency, as many people incorrectly identify him as a Muslim as did so during the 2008 campaign. When asked about Obama's religious beliefs, 11% say he is a Muslim. In October, 12% said Obama is a Muslim, which was unchanged from earlier in the campaign.

In the current survey, 35% say they do not know Obama's religion, either because they do not know enough about him (22%), or because they have heard different things about his religion (13%); another 6% refused to answer.

As was the case last fall, white evangelical Protestants (19%) and Republicans (17%) are among the most likely to view Obama as a Muslim. Fewer than half in each group -- 38% of white evangelicals and 46% of Republicans -- correctly identify Obama as a Christian.

Jonathan's stunned, but I'm not sure why anyone who lives in this country can be surprised that there's a relatively constant number of brain-dead, semi-literate, deeply Islamophobic troglodytes out there.

What's more, if you look at this from a slightly different perspective, you could argue that the Obama team did an excellent job of shooting down the rumors that the president is a crypto-Muslim ...

Contrast the 11 percent who believe Obama's a Muslim with some other beliefs that a number of Americans hold.

From The Moonie Times:

Half of all Americans believe they are protected by guardian angels, one-fifth say they've heard God speak to them, one-quarter say they have witnessed miraculous healings, 16 percent say they've received one and 8 percent say they pray in tongues, according to a survey released Thursday by Baylor University.

55 percent of Americans believe they have a personal guardian angel following them around, keeping them out of trouble. One in ten think Obama's a Muslim. A little perspective.

Tagged as: obama, morons

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.