• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Spencer: Obama Throws A Billion Muslims Under the Bus

Jul 16, 2008 7:04 am By Robert Spencer

In Human Events today I discuss the allegedly “tasteless and offensive” New Yorker cover, which we are supposed to believe is worse than any other political cartoon ever drawn all the way back to the Coffin Handbill. While not backing off from his strong implication that being accused of being a Muslim is a “smear,” Obama is already tacking in the other direction, claiming bizarrely that the cartoon insulted Muslims, and so maybe he isn’t as canny as I thought, and we will see more “outreach” from his camp.

In a cartoon on the cover of the latest issue of the New Yorker, a turbaned Barack Obama fist-bumps his wife Michelle, who sports an AK-47. They are standing in the Oval Office, where a portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs on the wall and an American flag burns in the fireplace.

David Remnick, the New Yorker’s editor, explained that they had only intended to lampoon “right-wing” attacks on Obama: “Our cover…combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are. The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall — all of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to the absurd. And that’s the spirit of this cover.”

Obama spokesman Bill Burton, however, was not amused. “The New Yorker may think,” he fumed, “as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

To see a political cartoon being denounced these days should make everyone uneasy. There are indeed plenty of political cartoons that are truly tasteless and offensive, but today international Islamic organizations are making concerted efforts to compel Western countries to limit free speech in the wake of the Danish cartoons of Muhammad that were published in late 2005.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference, declared recently that “confronting the Danish cartoons and the Dutch film “˜Fitna,– which showed Muslims acting on violent passages in the Qur’an, “we sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed.” He said that Western countries had “started to look seriously into the question of freedom of expression from the perspective of its inherent responsibility, which should not be overlooked.” In other words, they were moving to restrict freedom of speech. Whether or not Ihsanoglu’s confidence that the West will soon outlaw criticism of Islam such as is implied by the Danish cartoons is warranted, it would have been wiser for the Obama camp to have laughed off this New Yorker cartoon.

What’s more, one would think Obama’s camp would have welcomed “a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create.” Does Bill Burton think that this is how the New Yorker, of all publications, actually views Obama? That seems beyond the realm of possibility. So the only thing that reasonably explains his dudgeon over what is nothing more than a funny satirical cartoon is that he is afraid that a good number of Americans actually view Obama this way.

This is in line with the Obama camp’s general defensiveness over the issue of Obama’s Muslim ties. Obama has been going to some lengths to make sure nobody thinks he’s a Muslim. Nor has he been making any particular effort to add, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” — in fact, his denial of the claim that he ever practiced Islam is included on his “Fight the Smears” website, implying that to say that someone is a Muslim is to smear him.

And then there was the incident in the primary season where a couple of women wearing Muslim head scarves were shuffled out of camera range.

Muslim groups have noticed, and are unhappy. Junaid M. Afeef, director of public and government Affairs at the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, wrote last week in the Wall Street Journal: “Many Muslim voters love Barack Obama. They love him even if he doesn’t seem to love them back.” Afeef complains that Obama “vociferously denies being a Muslim as if it were a slur.”

In the same vein, Altaf Ali, executive director of the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (an organization that the Justice Department has designated an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case), noted that Obama had visited churches and synagogues, but no mosques — and called upon him to correct this omission. “Since 9/11,” complained Ali, “our community has been portrayed as inherently evil, and what Obama is doing is adding to the negative stereotype. His message is about change, and he has to appeal to every minority group.”

Still, it is unlikely that Muslim voters are going to throw in their lot in any significant numbers with McCain, and so Obama’s keeping them at arm’s length is evidence of his canny political calculation. He seems to be tacitly aware that people are suspicious of the violent and supremacist elements of Islam, although he has never spoken about them. Apparently he is altogether willing to throw a billion Muslims under the bus along with so many of his former friends and associates — at least until after the election.

Meanwhile, of much greater concern is the likelihood that a naïve and overconfident President Obama makes good on his promise to sit down and chat with the likes of Iran’s Ahmadinejad, and ends up becoming the latest national leader to learn the perils of appeasement. That prospect is more tasteless and offensive than any political cartoon.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Graham Bryant on Biden vows to surrender to Iran, then negotiate
  • gravenimage on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Lion heart on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • Graham Bryant on Canadian Mental Health Association studies Muslim women’s mental health due to ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate crimes’
  • Sabri S. on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.