Much as I enjoy TCB's contributions overall, his post here is a bigger piece of incendiary fluff than the article it addresses.

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It's an article about how Obama's staff is emphasizing his Muslim roots in advance of his Middle East trip, whereas they were de-emphasizing them during the campaign. Newsworthy? Meh. Factual? Yep.

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Oh, and by the way, Tapper did not point out anything. He regurgitated a quote from a conference call and then tried to report that Obama's true, long-hidden Muslim alter ego is now emerging. Which is Drudge-worthy crap.

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So Barack's got Muslims in his family tree. Exactly how is this news?

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Christianity: we just don't understand enough!

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By the way, I've frequently argued that liberals need to understand fundamentalist Christians better. I don't argue that liberals need to understand Christians as a group better because, believe it or not, many liberals are Christians, and many Christians are liberal. But fundamentalism of all stripes is dangerous, and needs to be better understood to combat the negativity it seems to attract.

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"I am waiting for some liberal to make a plea for understanding Christianity better)"

Me too! That Christian that murdered the late-term abortion doctor could easily be considered a "jihadist". Baptist colleges in Oklahoma could be considered "madrassas". The Army chaplains urging soldiers to pass out Bibles translated into in Pashto in Afghanistan could be considered "clerics" of Dawa (the Islamic term for proselytizing). You see, Muslims and Christians have a lot in common :0

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Secondly, apostasy is impossible until an ADULT (defined as a person who has gone through puberty) embraces Islam THEN renounces it. Islam defines children as being mentally incapable of embracing the faith as independent, thinking adults. Before that you're just following the rituals.

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Your Ishmael friend is right in one sense -- like being born in some hardcore Baptist crap hole in Arkansas and how you would face considerable community pressure to be Baptist and go to church and yaddah yaddah. But at the same time, it's not exactly like being born Jewish or Chinese. Islam is an evangelical faith and requires a conversion. Yes, in one way Muslims believe EVERYONE is a Muslim (that's why they call it "reversion" not "conversion" when someone converts), but there is still the requirement to embrace the faith as an adult (post-pubescent person). As far as Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is concerned: apostacy cannot happen until AFTER that "reversion" (nee "conversion") takes place.

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Particularly with a population that can't read the texts themselves or understands the differences between the Qu'ran and the Hadith (which basically no one aside from Sharia scholars does).

Huh? What is your evidence for this claim? Muslims are perfectly aware of the difference between the texts; this knowledge is not restricted to the ulama. Also, literacy rates vary greatly throughout the Middle East and the larger Muslim world, and it makes very little sense to draw conclusions from them.

@gawkimo:

Jajajabad?

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I think this is closer to what my friend was talking about. His complaint was that he could never--in the eyes of Islam--convert out of that religion. Thing is, like most Ismailis (who are led by the Aga Khan and discriminated against virtually everywhere in the Muslim world), my friend's family isn't particularly religious (his dad called the Muezzin calls 'mental terrorism').

There was definitely the sense from the surrounding Sunnis that they weren't Muslims at all (Sunnis will tell you that the Ismaili sect is dedicated to worship of women's sex organs; my buddy assured me that, much to his sorrow, this was not true).

Anyway, my friend especially resented the fact that a) he wasn't considered a Muslim and, according to some famous fatwas could be murdered on the spot as an infidel by a 'true believer,' but b) Islam didn't allow him the freedom of conscience to say, 'thanks but no thanks.'

The Baptists, on the other hand, were only too glad to see the back of my ass.

Do we know each other? Don't know. I was living in the world's oldest continuously inhabited city (not Aleppo) from 2000 to late 2003. I've read some things from you that indicate that you were in the nearby.

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I've met a lot of "Muslims" who are in a similar predicament as your friend -- immense family and community pressure to maintain a public face as a Muslim. And if you're born into a austere Muslim family it's assumed you are a Muslim, but, again, couldn't be an apostate until adulthood (and subsequent embracing then rejecting Islam).

In Shariah, there are four capital crimes: adultery (not to be confused with pre-marital sex and which required four witnesses to the act of penetration); apostacy (embracing then rejecting Islam as an adult of sound mind, ie not deemed mentally ill because unlike Texas, Muslims don't execute the mentally handicapped); rape and murder.

It's virtually unheard of for a modern Shariah court to put to death adulterers and apostates. The UAE recently sentenced two adulterers to two months in prison, for example.

Honor killing (what we call domestic abuse when non-Muslims kill their wives or daughters out of jealous rage or harmed pride) and independent acts of murder in the name of Islam by hillbilly jihadists is a different issue.

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Actually, though, I thought he was just another AD iteration. Isn't he?

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@The Cajun Boy: I think you should be applauded for your restraint in not banning BonMorte. You are a champion of free speech. I hope by not being critical of you that I haven't sealed my fate.

I actually hearted a bunch of you today.

Now, for my comments on the article. When I get an e-mail proclaiming some sort of non-sense like that "Starbucks hates the troops," I usually reply to the sender that I will give him or her three days to print a retraction or I will blow them in to everyone on the mailing list as a propagandist. I do this so that I don't make people feel stupid for actually doing something stupid.

When I would get the Obama/Muslim or Obama was born in Canada e-mails during the election, I would not allow the three day grace period. I have always said that I think that Obama is a good, honest and intelligent man. I just don't agree with most of his ideology. Once in a while I get surprised, but for the most part I think he is a straight down the party line liberal. Anyway, I wanted to set the record straight with the other recipients before the lie metastasized in their voting conscience. I actually don't have a problem with the Muslim religion, although like most religions, they seem to have had some bad players giving them a real PR problem.

This Tapper story is one of the reasons that I believe that journalism is in trouble. "Sensationalistic Misleading Headlines" are just one of the four horseman that will eventually destroy the industry. Inaccuracy is another. To be honest, I don't really have four just off the top of my head, but yeah, Tapper's story was journalistic douchebaggery at it's finest.

@MissNormaDesmond: I'm not an intellectual because my mane is French and sort of a pun. I'm an intellectual AND my name is French and sort of a pun. Actually, I'm not an intellectual and I haven't a clue as to what your AD reference is all about.

I just noticed the hour that most of these posts were listed. I was dead asleep. It's like a bunch of unwelcome booty calls.

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