Ignorant or Lying

We report, you decide:

rantings of an insane idiot

The author of the above post, also posted the response (typos are preserved):

mikey, on September 21st, 2009 at 4:02 pm Said:

President Obama fromhis book Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’

It took less than 2 minutes to find out the source of the quote (a right wing email that’s been making the rounds). Here’s what FactCheck.org has to say:

A second false quote has Obama saying he would “stand with the Muslims,” words that don’t appear in his book. What he actually said is that he would stand with American immigrants from Pakistan or Arab countries should they be faced with something like the forced detention of Japanese-American families in World War II:

Misleading e-mail: From Audacity of Hope: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

Actual quote from “The Audacity of Hope” [pg. 261]: Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

Obama did not say he would side with “the Muslims,” which could easily be read as meaning he would side with the world’s Muslim population even if it meant working outside the best interests of the United States. He said he would side with “them,” referring back to his mention of immigrant communities and specifically to “Arab and Pakistani Americans.” Furthermore, he was speaking of an “ugly direction” like the mass internment of Japanese Americans.

This false quote goes hand in hand with the equally false rumor that Obama is a Muslim.

It’s pretty clear the quote is taken out of context and has nothing much to do with Israel. Obama was clearly speaking of something like a mass internment of Muslims like that of Japanese Americans during WWII. Are we to assume the author of the post/comment was intellectually incurious about the alleged Obama quote because it fit his world view, or is he willfully spreading a lie?

Check out snopes.com for more information.

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