The Christian Science Monitor has an article that reviews the results of a Pew Research Center poll on the U.S. perception of the religion of President Obama and 18% said that they thought he was a Muslim, compared to 12% who thought he was Muslim back in March 2008 (there was a 7% point jump from March 2009 [11%] to August 2009 [18%]). The respondents were also asked why they thought he was Muslim. Quoting the article:
|Pew asked about that, as well. Of those who believe Obama to be |Muslim, 60 percent said they learned that from the media. As to |which media, 16 percent said TV, 6 percent said newspapers, and |3 percent said magazines. | |One percent said they learned about Obama being Islamic from his |book. Those people must have been skimming. .... | |Interestingly, 10 percent of those with this mistaken impression said |that they learned about Obama’s religion from his own behaviors or |his own words. The poll was taken prior to Obama’s statements |supporting construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0819/Why-do-1-in-5-Americans-think-President-Obama-is-a-Muslim The Pew Research Center Report can be obtained here: http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/645.pdf I guess we have a new urban legend to debunk in class. As the Report makes clear, certains groups seem to hold the mistaken belief to a greater degree than other groups, so the percentage of students in your class who believe that President Obama is a Muslim will depend upon the composition of the student population. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4298 or send a blank email to leave-4298-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
