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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"But the idea that Obama is a Muslim is factual".- Politifact
Intended typo?
Hank Williams Jr. says Barack Obama is a Muslim
Country singer Hank Williams Jr., who prides himself on being politically incorrect, took a moment during a Sept. 2, 2012, concert in Fort Worth to hammer misgivings about President Barack Obama.
As reported by critic Thor Christensen, who reviewed Williams performance at the Stockyards Music Festival for the Dallas Morning News, Williams said to a less-than-unanimous cheer: "Weve got a Muslim for a president who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates fishing, hates farming, loves gays, and we hate him!"
Most everything in the singers statement shakes out as matters of opinion, which cant be fact-checked. PolitiFact also did not wade in after Williams compared Obama golfing with House Speaker John Boehner to Adolf Hitler playing with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister. (After Williams made that October 2011 analogy, he no longer sang the theme song for ESPNs "Monday Night Football."
But the idea that Obama is a Muslim is factual.
Such claims also have been gauged before -- and found lacking in evidence.
As PolitiFact noted in an Aug. 26, 2010, story, the presidents memoirs and independent biographies indicate that Obama was not raised in a particular faith, but he became a Christian when he was in his 20s while working as a community organizer in Chicago.
Still, Obama had a Muslim grandfather, Hussein Onyango of Kenya, and his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetero, was Muslim, as biographer Davis Maraniss has written. Also, as a boy Obama was instructed in Islam at a school in Jakarta. Later, Maraniss writes, many of Obamas college friends were Muslim.
In a July 27, 2012, opinion article in The Washington Post, Maraniss said: "None of this adds up to Obama being Muslim, except in the minds of conspiratorialists."
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2012/sep/04/hank-williams-jr/hank-williams-jr-says-barack-obama-muslim/
BainsBane
(53,074 posts)It is not deliberate.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)ErikJ
(6,335 posts)TeamPooka
(24,262 posts)yellowcanine
(35,701 posts)Light63
(233 posts)I used to watch Monday Night Football and always looking forward to see Hank Williams Jr. perform before the game, but after knowing that he is such a racist, I completely stopped watching MNF. It's so sad to know that there still are so many racists in our country, even when we are in the 21st century!
madmom
(9,681 posts)cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)The word factual does not mean true, it means pertaining to facts.
"Obama is a Muslim" is a factual claim because it is a claim of a fact, and thus can be fact-checked and found to be true or false. (Unlike an opinion. You cannot really fact check "Obama is ugly."
I wouldn't phrase it that way some some will surely mis-read it, but I understand it.
The bigger problem is saying "idea" rather than "claim."
Best would be "The claim that Obama is a Muslim is a claim of fact."
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)And the sentence is poorly worded.
cali
(114,904 posts)Factual means rooted in fact, containing facts.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)Last edited Wed Oct 24, 2012, 05:42 PM - Edit history (2)
The primary definition is pertaining to fact.
It is generally misused, like a lot of words.
Politifact certainly could have phrased it better to aoomadate how a lot of people are bound to read it, but what is appalling here is that where the meaning is very clear in context, people insist on taking it out of context so they can have a recreational outrage party.
Noah fit all the animals on his ark is a factual claim, but not a fact.
Noah was the best of the Biblical patriarchs is not a factual claim.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)that the fact-based ("factual" ones, such as whether he is a Muslim, can be ... and that this one is factually incorrect.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)This is how I would word it.
"But the idea that Obama is a Muslim is a claim that can be fact checked yes or no".
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)is it followed by the explanation that Obama is not, in fact, a Muslim?
Seems like people just enjoy getting bent out of shape.
Aristus
(66,468 posts)He's a lot like W: Coasting along on the name of a much more gifted and talented father...
Initech
(100,107 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)TeamPooka
(24,262 posts)"It's not so much a typo as an inelegant phrasing. The contrast was between something that was an "opinion" (and thus not checkable by us) and a "factual" issue (which we can check). I have forwarded this to the editor and expect he will tweak the wording to make that clear.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention...."
On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 3:26 PM, <politifacta@gmail.com> wrote:
"But the idea that Obama is a Muslim is factual."
This sentence is in your article debunking the fact that Obama is not a Muslim.
Is this a typo or are you intentionally creating a quotable item for those who claim it is true to use?
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2012/sep/04/hank-williams-jr/hank-williams-jr-says-barack-obama-muslim/
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Now I wonder if they'll follow through. I could easily imagine lots of Cons taking that sentence out of context for their debating arguments.
MatthewStLouis
(904 posts)Ever since the pro-stupidity losers started wearing Bocephus t-shirts I've found him repugnant.
(sorry to people who may like his "music"
Interesting factoid:
"Bocephus is a nickname which was given to country singer Hank Williams Jr. He was given the nickname by his father who started calling him Bocephus because he thought that Hank looked like a ventriloquist with the same name." Source: ask.com