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Obama in Saudi Arabia
Speaking with France's Canal Plus TV ahead of his Mid East tour, which will include stops in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, President Barack Obama tried to explain to the interviewer how he was going to "remake relations between the United States and the countries of the Muslim world."
Not long into the interview, however, he went off track a bit when he claimed:
What I want to do is to create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what's happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.
The assertion that the United States is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world is baffling, considering the US is estimated to have roughly six million Muslims.
As Toby Harnden of UK's Telegraph points out, having six million Muslims would still put America behind Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Nigeria, China, Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Tanzania, Syria, Malaysia, Niger, Senegal, Ghana, Tunisia, Somalia, Guinea, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso and Tajikistan in number of Muslims, which would make the US the 34th largest Muslim country in the world.
Comments
Well, we are in the top 20%. I'm not sure I'd agree that it makes us "one of the largest" - but it's not THAT far fetched.
Wow, first he strongly asserts that we are NOT a Christian Nation, now he alludes to us being a Muslim Nation.
Obama's true colors are starting to emerge.
The left so wanted an "intelligent" president, but statements like this point to either ignorance or worse, a deliberate religious anti-Christian stance. James S statement is very valid.
We're less than 1% muslim. Many of those are minority inmates, recently converted. Check Wikipedia 'list of muslim majority countries' and you'll see that we fall somewhere around #40, if you just count heads.
Wiki puts America #38 on the list of Muzzie nations.
This fraud in the WH if so full of Shiite his eyes are brown!
We are the third largest populated country in the world. About 1-2% of our population are Muslim for different back ground. Some of those have recently come to American to take advantage of our freedoms. While others have chosen to worship God through the Koran. According to UN Data US ranks 41st in muslin pop. You would not say the 41st country Peru is one of the largest country in the world with the population 29,000,000 less then ten percent on the US. Is china one of the largest Christian nations with 70 million. this standard it is because there is only 17 countries with a larger total populations. Back to the main point is that our President who said before we are not a Christian or Jewish nation even though 85%-90% id themselves as Christian and our laws and government were created by Christians and with the inspiration of Christian values is now one of the largest Muslim countries.
I am not surprised.
Am I dreaming? We are not founded on Judeo/Christian ethics, but we are now one of the larger Muslim nations? This guy is a loose cannon. When will we all wake up?
Clearly, MikeNH needs to take an Introduction to Statistical Methods class to get a basic understanding of percentages per capita. Or try and not use wikipedia for research.
It's interesting to see that these acclimations of a Muslim past are allowed to come out now...after Obama deliberately threw these assertions down during his campaign.
First it's taking over America's companies, next it's releasing terrorists on U.S. soil. Then it'll be returing the wealth back to its rightful owners.
But were going to have to settle with being a Muslim nation for now...it's not like anyone is refuting this bile of vomit that comes from the mouth of the messiah.
There are 160 countries with less Muslims than the United States. This clearly makes us one of the larger countries in terms of total Muslim population.
Stop hyperventilating, wingnuts. It's embarrassing.
A--hole in chief
LOL @ people thinking America is a Christian nation. The forefathers were non religious, slave owning adulterers. Now excuse me as I go to the store to buy liquor and porno.
the thing is..whether you agree with Obama's approach or not I must say..americans should start seeing how what he is doing will force the middle east to cooperate and be able to relate more with the US and the west then ever before.. we dont want a world with terror either..but in US policies before that (during Bush admin for example..) there were implications/generalizations that we are the terrorists..every arab..every muslim..and that kind of lead to us feeling disrespected and not wanting to cooperate.. so now instead of thinking (oh well.. serves them well..they are killing our people in palestine and Iraq too) we d think hey these people are extending a hand to us..genuinely..so we better be on theor side cause we are both fighting the same war..
John: How ignorant are you? Have you read any of our founding documents? Obviously, you have not because if you had you would clearly see that our founders had a strong Christian religious conviction. And Bill, do yourself a favor and turn off NPR. Trust me, there are other places to hear news. Maybe you should be bit concerned, like the rest of us "wingnuts". In Turkey we weren't a Christian nation, and now we are one of the largest muslim nations. I'd say we really need to start paying attention to what is going on.
John, you clearly got your education from leftist educators, not from reading original quotes and documents. I'd like to escape in an alcoholic haze from this Marxist takeover, but that isn't what I owe my country.
Ahmed, you are aware, I'm sure, of the persecution of non-Muslims in Muslim nations. There goes your credibility.
I dont understand what you are trying to say? I was talking about how the speech obama made today in Cairo is good progress in terms of us being able to relate more with the west..what is uncredible about that? its very unfortunate you speak like that..
and i never said that the muslim world is all perfect there is the good and the bad, just like in anywhere else in the world... so i dont see what you were pointing at really..it doesnt make any sense
Ahmed, when will Muslims stop seeing Christians and Jews as infidels? Will the hand of friendship from infidels make a big difference to the Muslim world?
oh my god.. you see that was the same point i was making earlier..you just said "when will Muslims stop seeing Christians and Jews as infidels" again that is generalizing..saying that the actions that you saw from terrorists mean that all muslims are like that..if i thought like that i wouldnt have my closest friend and brother to be a christian! listen that was what your president was saying in his speech..that he understands that true islam is a peacefull religion, that we are a peacefull people and that he knows that the actions of extremists who have weird believes dont represent muslims... and that is why i m telling you when this approach is taken it shows respect and understanding..
so now i know that just like we have extremist that dont represent islam and the peacefull people from africa and the east..that in the west you have the same thing and i wont let this ruin for me what Obama's words meant..so you can say what you want about what u think muslims think and believe..
the hole point is we are all one human, one people, one world and more importantly we all belongs to one GOD. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD.
agree with you mo 100% hope more people consider this before deciding to just attack..
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