Obamateurism of the Day

Not long ago, we noted in this feature the ridiculous mathematics of Barack Obama in both his assessment of the number of Muslims in America and where that would put the US in a ranking of Muslim nations.  Reuters reports that Obama is at it again, in an interview with Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper — but Obama apparently killed off two million Muslim Americans since his speech in Cairo:

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Almost two million people have inexplicably disappeared from the estimates of the U.S. Muslim population that President Barack Obama has given recently. In his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4, he spoke about “nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today.” On Sunday, the Karachi daily Dawn published an interview with him where he said “we have five million Muslims.”

There was no explanation for the change, but his reason for citing the figure seemed to be the same. Shortly before his Cairo speech, Obama told the French television channel Canal Plus that “one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” He cited no figure there but mentioned seven million in Cairo three days later.

Many blogs, FaithWorld included, questioned that figure and noted that estimates of the U.S. Muslim population range from 1.8 to 7-8 million. The U.S. Census Bureau cannot ask about religion on a mandatory basis but refers on its website to a Pew Forum study pegging Muslims at 0.6% of the population. The CIA World Factbook uses the same percentage figure. It translates into about 1.8 million.

Speaking to Dawn, Obama lowered his estimate but made his original point again. He said: “We have Muslim Americans who are doing extraordinary things. In fact, their educational attainment and income is generally above the average here in the United States. We have Muslim members of Congress. And, in fact, we have 5 million Muslims, which would make us larger than many other countries that consider themselves Muslim countries.”

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And, as Reuters also points out, making 2 million Muslims disappear puts us even farther down the list of Muslim nations than before.  We dropped from 32nd place to 38th place, either of which would mean that Obama can’t do math — which would explain his economic policies.  Unfortunately, most of his audience both here and abroad don’t have that problem.  If he’s looking to impress people in the Middle East, he might want to consider using a calculator and doing a little research before trotting out this demonstrably laughable claim.

Thanks to HA reader Ora for the tip.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!

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David Strom 12:30 PM | April 23, 2024
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