Barack Obama and the Muslim call to prayer

Obama '07: Muslim Call to Prayer is One of "Prettiest Sounds on Earth"
August 19, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ken in Livonia, Michigan, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Yeah, thanks for taking my call, Rush.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: I wanted to comment that when we take a look at the facts, I think it should be very clear that President Obama does have a warm -- a point in his heart for Islam. You know, he has a very warm place in his heart for Islam. Now, he was raised in an Islamic school as a child. He has reached his hand out in friendship to all the Islamic countries, including Iran.

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: Yet he's been very cold, very unfriendly to Israel. He's been unfriendly to our European allies. He is supporting of this mosque at Ground Zero, even though the imam has said he supports Hezbollah and this imam has said he's a supporter of Sharia law. I think that when we take a look like I said at all the facts involved, he might not be a quote "Muslim", as far as total practicer, but, yes: I think absolutely he does have a very warm place in his heart for Islam.

RUSH: So?

CALLER: Well...

RUSH: What's wrong with that? What's wrong with having a warm place in your heart for Islam?

CALLER: Well, it's not that it's a bad thing if that's what he wants to be. But I think that it's something that he is trying to deny. You know, like I said, he's shown that he's not very friendly, as far as like to Christians.

RUSH: Right. They're bitter clingers.

CALLER: Yeah. You won't participate in any kind of Christian events that are going on in Washington such as the Prayer Breakfast.

RUSH: Right, or the Boy Scouts.

CALLER: Or the Boy Scouts. But he has participated multiple times with Islamic holidays, like with that dinner that they just had for Ramadan.

RUSH: Yeah, the iftar dinner. But, but, but, but! The media would be quick to point out: Bush hosted those, too.

CALLER: Well, one thing that I think that needs to be pointed out, too, though. You bring up the question, "What's wrong if he is a Muslim?" Well, the one thing that does bother me -- and this is something that needs to be pointed out. Most Muslims, if they are practicing the faith, do believe in implementing Sharia law. This is a basis of their faith. And as we know, Sharia law, Hannity has been dealing with a lot of this on his program, is in direct conflict with the Constitution. So...

RUSH: Yes, profoundly so.

CALLER: So if we do have a president that is in opposition, as far as his beliefs, to the Constitution, that's a problem.

RUSH: Well, now, wait. Wait a minute. Let's take... 'Cause you're right, but let's take that out of the realm of Islam for a moment. Obama does have major problems with the US Constitution, but I don't want to assign a belief in Sharia law to that. Obama's problem with the Constitution is that he doesn't think it says enough about what government can do. To Obama, the Constitution is too limiting to government. He doesn't like the Bill of Rights. He thinks there needs to be a second Bill of Rights that specifies what the government can do to people -- or for people, in his view. So that also is a fact. It is also a fact, Obama famously told the New York Time... Now, I'm just reporting what I saw in "the paper of record." He told the New York Times that the call to prayer, the Muslim call to prayer was "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth." (interruption)

I... He told the New York Times that the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth." It was in an interview with Nicholas Kristof published in the New York Times. "Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer," this is a quote from Nicholas Kristof, "reciting them with a first-rate [Arabic] accent." Now, the first lines of this call to prayer, the Adhan, when translated (and this is in the New York Times. It's a Nicholas Kristof piece) is: "Allah is supreme, Allah is supreme, Allah is supreme, Allah is supreme. I witness that there is no god but Allah." That's the Muslim call to prayer, and Obama told Nicholas Kristof... He recited it and said that it was "one of the prettiest sounds on earth."

March the 6th, 2007. Nicholas D. Kristof. (interruption) What? What, Snerdley? (interruption) It is what it is. Nicholas... (interruption) I just read to you from the piece. Nicholas Kristof, March 6th, 2007. I just read verbatim from the piece. (interruption) He did! He says the Muslim call to prayer... Here's the quote. I'll tell you again. "Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as 'one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.'" That is an exact excerpt. (interruption) The Alabama slam? What's the Alabama slam?

That's Nicholas Kristof. Obama didn't say that. This is Kristof, the writer, in parentheses saying "it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks," because they're Christian, because they're -- yeah, because they're southern Christians. They are the bitter clingers and so forth. Look, folks, don't believe me. We'll link to it. We'll put the link right at RushLimbaugh.com now. We'll put it up there and you can read it yourself. Koko is on it, even as we speak. Let me take a brief time-out. (interruption) What are you still will you go incredulous at in there? You don't remember this? (interruption) No. He said it in 2007. He... (interruption) He was Senator Barack Obama when he said... (interruption)

Yes, the guy who's president now, but he said it in 2007 in March, when Kristof wrote the piece. You could arguably say that this was even before the intense presidential campaign had begun. Now, we were getting media puff pieces on Obama all over the place during that time from the Washington Post. You know, this is when Hillary was starting to say, "Waaaaaaait a minute! Wait a minute. This is mine. This is mine. Who is this Obama guy you're writing about?" and then, of course, Sharpton, he was not pleased that this was going on. Obama was being talked about as something we've never seen before.

It's about the time Biden was talking about "Finally we have a clean, articulate black guy in our party." So... (interruption) Harry Reid says he's got a Negro dialect, exactly right, Harry Reid said he's got a perfect "Negro dialect" when he wants to use it. Nicholas Kristof said he has a "first-rate" Arabic accent when reciting the Muslim call to prayer. Now, we're only mentioning this, folks, because there's a Pew poll out today that more and more Americans think Obama is a Muslim and fewer and fewer think he's a Christian, and the media is wondering why. And the New York Times has a piece (summarized), "Well, there's gotta be utter confusion out there! Why do they think this? They must be hearing it on TV." No! They read it in the New York Times.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, once again I want to remind you, the prettiest sound in the world, quote, is from the New York Times, not a blog, it is from the dead tree version in a Nicholas Kristof column March 6th, 2007. Now, what's typical is the quote, this quote is from Kristof's long interview with Obama, which the New York Times article says is on his blog. But guess what? It's been disappeared. The Obama interview with Kristof can't be found on the New York Times website any longer. That's how the Journolistas protect their masters. But Obama said it. "Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as 'one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.'"

Now, let's also go back to 2005 to June 23rd, a portion of Obama's speech to the United Church of Christ's 50th anniversary General Synod in Hartford, Connecticut, June 23rd, 2007. Look at me. Listen to this. This is Obama. "Somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too eager to exploit what divides us. At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design."

So the Muslim call to prayer, one of the prettiest sounds in the world. He goes to speak, United Church of Christ, 50th anniversary General Synod in Hartford and says the Christian right has hijacked Christianity. So Pew is out there doing a poll on -- I still say that a major point here is that the poll is even being done. What does it say about where our country is headed? What does it say about where we've arrived? What does it say that we're taking a poll on who the president is and what he believes. This is not good. Yeah, we're laughing at it and we're doing what we usually do to try have some fun with it, but at the end of the day it's really not all that funny. When has Obama ever criticized any Muslim extremists? I'm sure it's happened. I just can't remember. I'm sure it's happened. See, but right-wing Christians -- this is my point that I made earlier -- it's perfectly fine to attack them. It's perfectly okay to attack the Christian right. It's perfectly okay to say they are dividing us. But you can't say anything negative about Muslims, and you can't say anything negative about their mosque, and you can't say anything about their extremists. No, no, no. Even people on our side dial it back, "We don't want to say anything, be very careful, don't want to talk too much about this mosque." Yeah, they told us that yesterday, don't talk about that too much.

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