That's the argument of a piece at HuffPo, by Bruce Feiler, "Obama a Muslim! Lincoln a Catholic! FDR a Jew! Why Americans Don't Like Their President's God":
In 1860, in the midst of tensions surrounding the Civil War, it was widely believed in the United States that Abraham Lincoln was Catholic. Coming on the heels of decades of anti-Catholic sentiment, the rumors seem to have had two roots: The first was the ambiguous nature of Lincoln's upbringing in Illinois, where Jesuits were very active, leading to the notion that Lincoln had been baptized a Catholic; the other was that Lincoln represented a prominent critic of the Church. The rumors were widely repeated by Lincoln's political opponents.
In 1940, in the midst of tensions surrounding World War II as well as economic hardship from the Great Depression, it was widely believed in the United States that Franklin Roosevelt was Jewish. Coming on the heels of decades of anti-Jewish sentiment, the rumors seem to have had several roots: The first was the ambiguous origins of Roosevelt's earliest American ancestors, who came from Holland in the 17th century; the second was the abundance of Jewish appointees to Roosevelt's administrations in New York and Washington. The rumors were widely repeated by Roosevelt's political opponents.
In 2010, in the midst of tensions surrounding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as economic hardship from the Great Recession, it is widely believed in the United States that Barack Obama is Muslim. Coming on the heels of decades of anti-Muslim sentiment, the rumors seem to have had several roots: The first is the ambiguous nature of Obama's upbringing, in which his father was a Muslim and he spent formative time as a child in a Muslim country; the second is Obama's vocal outreach to the Muslim world and his support of the rights of Muslim Americans. The rumors have been widely repeated by Obama's political opponents.
It's got a nice repetitive symmetry to it, and no doubt a bit of truth, but then there's this key graph:
The entire debate about the "Ground Zero mosque" and the even-wider campaign against Islam in general that's been waged across the United States this summer misses a larger point: These kinds of campaigns have been waged in the United States since our founding. It's the nature of how we conflate political frustration, economic anxiety, and concern about the changing fabric of our identity. In a country where our national character has been tied up with God since our founding, it's hardly surprising that we tar our political opponents with worshiping a different god than we do. After all, a politician who subscribes to our religious values would never have gotten us into this mess, now would he?
Three points:
(1) Despite the internal pattern of US history being similar, the significance in world affairs is drastically different. The mobilization of anti-Islamic attitudes in the US is exactly what al Qaeda and its allies want. There is no comparable parallel to this in the past examples.
(2) The nature of our fact-free corporate mass media makes the destructive disinformation potential much more damaging than in the past examples cited.
(3) While part of the suggested logic makes perfect sociological sense:
After all, a politician who subscribes to our religious values would never have gotten us into this mess, now would he?
There's just one teeny-weensy little problem: Neither Lincoln, nor Roosevelt, nor Obama got us into the mess. Obama may be particularly inept with his messaging on the subject, but the same wasn't true of Lincoln or FDR, and lots of folks thought he was Muslim even before he took office, when it was perfectly clear that the shit had already hit the fan.
This is not to say that this explanation is totally wrong--just that it's incomplete, failing to fully account for all the dimensions of reality distortion involved. And when you combine the unnaccounted-for distortions with Obama's abysmal messaging, and the uniquely dangerous world historical situation this puts us into, then I think that Feiler's optimistic conclusion:
But as reliably as Americans have adopted these views, they've also moved past them.... And odds are the pattern will repeat itself with Muslims in the twenty-first century.
Is not something we can comfortably rely on.
Things are a lot more dire than that, I'm afraid. And this sort of "don't worry, it's nothing new" narrative may be exactly the wrong message to be sending right now. Fact it, it took a great deal of struggle, and a good deal of luck to get us through those past bouts of collective madness. Knowing we've seen this before should be a warning signal to take this much more seriously than we have so far.
p.s. Check out shergald's quick hit, "Fallout of Hate Is Spreading Across America from 9/11 Site"
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