New Poll Shows Obama Ratings Down As Mosque Controversy Lingers

A new poll released Monday showed that the ongoing debate regarding Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s proposed mosque and cultural center two blocks from New York City’s Ground Zero is skewing the public’s opinion of President Barack Obama and how he has handled the situation.

Nine years after the September 11 attacks, public sentiment towards Islam remains relatively low with only 38 percent of voters having favorable opinions of Islam, the poll found. Fifty percent of voters, however, perceive mainstream Islam as a peaceful religion, rather than an ideology which encourages violence to non-Muslims.

Although the Quinnipiac University National Poll found that 70 percent of Americans believe that the Muslim group has the right to continue with building the Mosque, 63 percent of voters say it’s wrong to do so.

Controversy over the Mosque’s construction stirred up radical opposition among some Americans. Florida Pastor Terry Jones threatened to assemble a Quran burning rally during this weekend’s 9/11 anniversary, ultimately canceling it after receiving warnings from the White House and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

The controversy has taken its toll on the public’s perception of President Barack Obama and how he has handled the mosque situation in New York. After publicly defending the mosque’s construction in last week’s press conference, the new poll shows American voters disapprove 44-31 percent of the way Obama is handling the situation.

“The proposed mosque near Ground Zero are taking a toll on President Barack Obama’s standing with American voters,” assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Peter Brown said. “The fact that so many Americans think the President does not share their values might worry the White House.”

Obama: Koran Burning Is ‘Contrary To Our Values’

President Barack Obama weighed in Thursday on a Florida pastor’s proposal to burn copies of the Koran this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“If he’s listening, I hope [Pastor Terry Jones] understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans,” Obama said during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that aired this morning. “I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform,” the president added.

Obama certainly is not the first major political leader to comment on the controversy, yet he may have had good reason to show up late to this particular party. His remarks during an Iftar dinner at the White House last month supporting the rights of a group seeking to build a mosque just blocks from Ground Zero sparked a national debate on the issue that has still not ended.

This time around, however, Obama had plenty of precedent. Earlier this week his top general in Afghanistan, David Petraeus, a man who doesn’t normally interject himself into political matters, rebuked the church’s proposal, saying it would endanger the lives of U.S. troops fighting abroad. The president echoed Petraeus’ sentiment during this morning’s interview, saying, “this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaida. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Jones, who heads up the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has drawn worldwide scorn since he announced his proposed stunt back in July. Despite that, the Christian pastor has defended his church’s idea to burn hundreds of copies of the Muslim holy book by arguing that it is constitutional as well as an appropriate response to the 9/11 attacks, in which Islamic terrorists hijacked and crashed four U.S. airplanes, killing 3,000 Americans.

The death threats Jones alleges he has received are disputable, but the global ire he has drawn is not. Several top U.S. leaders have openly condemned the church, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called the plan “regrettable,” to Attorney General Eric Holder, who called the idea “idiotic.” An editorial that ran recently in Dublin’s Irish Times equated the proposal to Nazi book burning.

A Facebook page created by the church to promote the event currently has over 13,000 ‘fans,’ yet it is unclear how many of them actually support the the idea. Locally, the church has been confronted over its plan by government and businesses alike. The fire department in Gainesville, a small college town in the north central part of the state, refused to grant the church a burning permit, stating the open burning of books is a fire hazard and is not allowed. Meanwhile, the bank where Dove has a mortgage loan has demanded that the church immediately repay its balance.

OPINION: Wow! Newsweek and Globe Tabloid Agree: Obama Really Is a Muslim (*Critics Say)

So President Obama might just as well be one. A Muslim, that is. Why not? What’s the worst that can happen politically? Armageddon in November for Democrats? That’s already bubbling up nicely. Not getting elected in 2012? Who thinks that’s going to happen as things stand?

Newsweek’s black, red and white front page this week screamed “The making of a terrorist-coddling warmongering Wall Street-loving socialistic Godless Muslim President* (then in tiny print), who isn’t actually any of these things by Jonathan Alter.”

The Globe’s front page was the more tame: “Shocking Proof: Obama IS a Muslim! Revealed! His stunning confession to top government official, why he wants mosque at 9/11 site”. Inside, the lead was “Obama’s (then in red) Muslim Cover-Up! President is backing mosque at 9-11 site because he REALLY is follower of Islam - (then in tiny print) critics say.”

OK then. This is where we are. A respected news magazine and a (sometimes accurate) tabloid both decide to slime the President in the same week with the innuendo du jour - the horror of
being one of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims, and to sell copies, of course.

Newsweek confines itself to slime on the cover. Jonathan Alter’s article is intelligent, informative and something the West Wing should read. Newsweek also contains the poll showing that 52% of Republicans think it’s “definitely true” or “probably true” that Obama “sympathizes with the goals of fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world”. Overall, 24% of respondents think Obama is a Muslim (he’s not, but he might as well be.) That’s up from 13% in June 2008. Worse for the President, 59% of Republicans believe the President favors “the interests of Muslims over other groups of Americans”.

The Globe goes to town with an “exclusive Special Report”. The smear is supported by a statement by Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who told Nile TV that President Obama told him in private that he’s a Muslim, sympathetic towards the Muslim agenda, and in time he would show the Muslim world how to deal with Israel. I guess President Obama is showing the Muslim world this week that the way to deal with Israel is through peace talks. (Here’s how the anti Islam blogs are playing it - warning, it’s gross.) The Globe also quotes a “D.C. insider”, “critics” and “a source”. Of course, nobody would go on the record.

Given that Politifact recently debunked the Obama as a Muslim myth, given that the President has personally testified to his Christian faith in his books and in April at an Easter prayer breakfast at the White House (funny thing for a Muslim to hold), given that he regularly consults with Christian spiritual advisors by phone, given all this - the fact is that none of it is taking hold with the American public.

So President Obama might as well be a Muslim.

One alternative is to be the Anti-Christ, which 24% of Republicans and 6% of Democrats think might just be the case. Yes, according to an online Harris poll taken in early March this year, over a quarter of those questioned think the President’s the Anti-Christ. Which Democrats, I wonder?
Obama could try being an atheist, but believing in no God is arguably more unpopular than believing in a “Muslim” God. This is a religious country. Anyway, why play into the hands of publicity hound Ann Coulter and her latest rant?

Perhaps the best reason for the President to just - well - be a Muslim is national security. Newsweek interviewed a Taliban operative called Zabihullah. He said “The more mosques you stop, the more Jihadis we will get”. “It’s providing us with more recruits, donations and popular support.”

A real Muslim president would wade further into the mosque mess than the hit and run support of President Obama. He would persuade Americans of the rightness of his beliefs, and explain the national security ramifications to them. At the same time, he would reach out to the Muslim world as a brother and as an American and explain how many Americans feel. Why didn’t the President do any of those things? Ah - maybe it would bust his “cover”.

All of which brings us back to the claim on the front of Newsweek and The Globe that Obama really is a Muslim - a secret Muslim. It’s a claim advanced on extreme websites like these, and it’s working. A full quarter of Americans think he’s a Muslim, and they don’t mean it in the warm and fuzzy “religion of peace” way. Obama’s denied it, he hasn’t made a pilgrimage to Mecca, he hasn’t fasted during Ramadan and nobody’s reported him praying five times a day all over the White House in corners. People must think he’s a liar.

But wait. If Obama was a Muslim he could, under some circumstances, practice Taqiyya, and deny his faith. He could live a secret life. A bit risky theologically, but what’s the leader of the free world to do? Tell the truth?

Who’s listening to the truth?

Mosque Opponent Calls "Kenny The Carpenter" A Plant

A New York Mosque opponent appears to have accused “Kenny the carpenter,” a dark-skinned man confronted by demonstrators at a rally Sunday, of being an agent provocateur.

The initial exchange between the dark-skinned man and the crowd was captured on camera and the footage has since gained considerable momentum on the blogosphere. The video shows a man, identified only as a carptenter named Kenny by the videographer, making his way through the rally’s crowd as demonstrators chant “no mosque here.” After a mosque opponent approaches Kenny personally, a shouting-match erupts between he and other attendants.

In a video posted by Talk Radio News, a speaker tells the rally shortly after the incident that the exchange was intended to egg the crowd on.

“We had someone up here looking to cause trouble. Someone in here trying to make us all look like racists,” the speaker shouted. “We don’t have to prove s*** to anybody. This is our country.” 

The footage from Talk Radio News features a different angle of the incident than the video that gained popularity Sunday. The original is here. The Talk Radio News version is here.

This is not the first time Conservative activists have accused individuals of being plants. During the tea party rallies amid the health care reform debate, a trend emerged wherein organizers dismissed attendants with racist signs as left-wingers intent on embarrassing the movement.

Justin Duckham and Benny Martinez contributed to this report.

Ground Zero Mosque Opposition Signals A Troubling Trend, Says Activist

The head of a major Muslim advocacy group claims that the heated opposition to the construction of an Islamic community center near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is just one sign of mounting anti-Muslim sentiment across the U.S.

“There is a growing pattern of opposing Mosques … all over America,” Mahdi Bray, the Executive Director for the Muslim American Society, said during a press conference Tuesday at the National Press Club.

Bray said that construction of mosques are being challenged in other parts of New York as well as Tennessee, Wisconsin, Alabama, Florida and California. Brady also noted that there has been in increase in vandalism among Islamic religious centers, and pointed to a botched pipe bomb that went off in a Florida mosque this May.

Brandishing a pocket-copy of the Constitution, Bray decried opponents for encroaching on the Muslim community’s religious freedoms. 

Bray was joined by a collection of inter-faith leaders, including representatives from the Jewish and Catholic faiths.