Obama reads book by Muslim author

This appeared on my facebook page, posted by someone from my high school back in LA (lower Alabama):

Photo caption: This photo should stun and sadden all Americans! The Book is is nolding is called The Post-American World...Written by a Muslim, for those who don't know post means the world after American as we now know it!!!!!! Please share the hell out of this!!!!

I don’t know for sure if the author of The Post-American World, Indian-born Fareed Zakaria, is a Muslim or not, but I do know that he’s now a naturalized US citizen with a Ph. D. from Harvard. This was my facebook reply:

It looks like Obama is carrying the first edition of the "The Post American World", making it some time in 2011 or before when the "2.0" edition came out.

I read this book about 6 months ago based on a recommendation from a friend. It is a powerful book and I am thrilled that Barack Obama was reading it too. This is a book that every American who is interested in a bright future for the country should read. It is about the rise of economies in China and India with an analysis of what are their strengths and inherent limitations. It emphasizes what is unique and valuable about America and what we need to do to stay great. Mr. Zakaria has a PhD from Harvard and is a naturalized US Citizen. He’s a huge booster of his adopted country.

Before people go criticizing others, they should know the facts.

I didn’t connect before now that Zakaria is the same fellow who wrote an article that I commented on last March.

Read more:

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24 Responses to Obama reads book by Muslim author

  1. JPotter says:

    The first sentence of the book:

    “This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.”

    D’oh. Can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

    Mr. Zakaria is a well-known commentator … well-known to those bless with more than one, faux channel.

    I also highly recommend:

    The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

  2. donna says:

    fareed has one of the BEST shows on tv – he always has the most interesting and intelligent guests AKA not the usual retreads

    today’s show: What history might tell us about the presidential election

    Fareed assembles a global panel of thinkers to tackle the issue, including: From Singapore, Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. From Paris, Dominique Moisi, one of France’s great public intellectuals and writers. In Tel Aviv, Ari Shavit is a senior correspondent at Haaretz. And here in New York, GPS hears from Rula Jebreal, who has been a writer and journalist in both Israel and Italy.

    AND MORE: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/

    his latest time column is entitled “Breaking the Deadlock” – Taming a dysfunctional political system will be the next President’s first priority

    Read more: http://search.time.com/results.html?Ntt=fareed&N=0&Nty=1&p=0&cmd=tags#ixzz2BIvkkIJY

  3. ObiWanCannoli says:

    Fareed Zakaria is an Indian Muslim. He has written many books, columns and hosted documentaries on CNN. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Zakaria showed a photo of candidate Obama holding his book “The Post American World” on his weekly CNN show, GPS. I am positive the photo you have on this article is the same photo from 2008. No doubt birthers are grasping at straws.

    http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/obamas-reading-material/

  4. El Diablo Negro says:

    @ Donna, fify

    fareed has one of the BEST shows on tv – he always has the most interesting and intelligent guests AKA not the usual retards.

  5. LW says:

    That pic is from either before the 2008 election, or not long after, I’m pretty sure.

  6. 2008, before the election.

    LW: That pic is from either before the 2008 election, or not long after,

  7. Thanks. I’m never home on Sunday morning, so I didn’t know about the show. I’ll start recording it.

    donna: fareed has one of the BEST shows on tv – he always has the most interesting and intelligent guests AKA not the usual retreads

  8. Rickey says:

    Someone who is a slight acquaintance posted the same slur on Facebook, claiming that the book celebrates the rise if Islam and the decline of the U.S.A.

    Of course, the people who spread this around have never read the book – or even read about the book – so they have no idea (and probably don’t care) what it is really about.

    I sense a growing panic by Romney supporters, because the frequency of slurs aimed at Obama is increasing.

  9. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:

    Birthers are just upset that he is holding a book!

  10. Rickey: I sense a growing panic by Romney supporters, because the frequency of slurs aimed at Obama is increasing.

    I noticed it too.

    Ryan says Obama compromises Judeo-Christian values
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/05/us-usa-campaign-ryan-idUSBRE8A404O20121105

    In a telephone call with evangelical voters Sunday night, U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told potential voters that President Barack Obama’s path for the United States compromises Judeo-Christian values.

    Whenever I hear “Judeo-Christian,” I want to reach for my Uzi.

  11. ObiWanCannoli: Fareed Zakaria is an Indian Muslim.

    He is an Indian Ismaili Muslim. They follow the Agha Khan.

  12. red-diaper baby 1942 says:

    We sometimes hear that birtherism will recede or disappear in the President’s second term, since it’s no longer an issue to defeat him for re-election. What I think will happen is that this torrent of pathological rage, having failed to defeat him will grow even worse and more virulent.
    I know that anyone who goes into politics has to have a think skin, but I still wonder: how can anyone function effectively with this constant stream of invective and rage directed at him? My admiration for President Obama is all the greater for the way he’s kept his cool under this.

  13. red-diaper baby 1942: What I think will happen is that this torrent of pathological rage, having failed to defeat him will grow even worse and more virulent.

    I agree 100%.

    Orly Taitz, that shonde and momser, is determined to incite a lone wolf. I am concerned about worse than OK City.

  14. Bob says:

    Does Orly know that Haaretz endorsed Obama?

  15. The Magic M says:

    red-diaper baby 1942: since it’s no longer an issue to defeat him for re-election

    Birtherism has always been about nullifying the fact that you had a black President, not just about getting “the other guy” elected.

    red-diaper baby 1942: how can anyone function effectively with this constant stream of invective and rage directed at him?

    Don’t forget birtherism is pretty much a non-issue for the President, just like Flat Earth is to actual scientists.
    And the higher someone stands in the political ranks, the more he is isolated from the stuff that happens near the bottom of the barrel. Do you really think Obama googles himself and then reads what the wingnuts think about him?

  16. Pastor Charmley says:

    This was circulating in 2008 before the election then, so it’s no surprise that it has surfaced again now. I should add of course that the fact someone is reading a book must never be taken to mean that the person in question agrees with it. A truly well-read and informed person will read books that he or she does not agree with, after all, so the picture fails on another level as well.

    So much confusion, so little thought.

  17. One need look no farther than my copy of “Where’s the Birth Certificate?”

    Pastor Charmley: I should add of course that the fact someone is reading a book must never be taken to mean that the person in question agrees with it.

  18. JPotter says:

    Bob:
    Does Orly know that Haaretz endorsed Obama?

    In my limited experience with rightwing, pro-settler, fundamentalist nuts, they declare that no real Jews read Haaretz. It doesn’t confirm their crazy, so it’s rejected. Nuttiness seems to work the same, everywhere.

  19. As Pastor Charmley correctly noted, many people read and watch material simply to have their own opinions reflected back at them. They work on the assumption that if you read a book, you automatically agree with all of its contents. That is the same conformist attitude that generates echo chambers. People living in echo chambers are learning nothing, all they are hearing is the sound of their own opinions filtered through somebody else.

  20. Woodrowfan says:

    what worries me is how many people live in that echo chamber…

  21. I’m not one of them. While I consider myself progressive, I avoid progressive news sources as a rule — unless there’s a special topic to look up. I have Maureen Dowd’s book “Bushworld” which is sort of a smear against George Bush. I viscerally dislike Bush, but I found that book not objective, and I quit reading after a couple of chapters.

    Graham Shevlin: As Pastor Charmley correctly noted, many people read and watch material simply to have their own opinions reflected back at them.

  22. J.D. Reed says:

    Pastor Charmley: This was circulating in 2008 before the election then, so it’s no surprise that it has surfaced again now. I should add of course that the fact someone is reading a book must never be taken to mean that the person in question agrees with it. A truly well-read and informed person will read books that he or she does not agree with, after all, so the picture fails on another level as well.So much confusion, so little thought.

    Exactly. See Aristotle’s observation that it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without adopting it.

  23. Bob: Does Orly know that Haaretz endorsed Obama?

    JPotter: In my limited experience with rightwing, pro-settler, fundamentalist nuts, they declare that no real Jews read Haaretz. It doesn’t confirm their crazy, so it’s rejected. Nuttiness seems to work the same, everywhere.

    I regularly had Settlers scream at me, “You’re not Jewish.” My favorite was, “Reconstructionist? That’s not a religion; that’s for stupid liberals.”

    Or evangelicals: “The West Bank was promised to you.”
    “Show me the deed.”
    “It’s in the bible.”
    “I didn’t get an offer letter in the mail. When will it arrive?”
    “Are you a communist?”
    “Jewish people have been mistreated in Arab countries. Does that justify mistreating Arabs in Israel?”
    “Up to a point.” (The woman saying this was an American evangelical.)

  24. Bran Mak Morn says:

    Yes, this came out before the first election. Of course, there is this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbVi8P5ucXs

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