Victoria Jackson Wonders: Is President Obama A Muslim, Or A Jihadist?

Victoria Jackson, formerly of Saturday Night Live and currently of Tea Partyesque conspiracy theories and post-election tearfests, believes she has evidence that President Obama is not only a Muslim, but a jihadist. She’s compiled a blog post full of conspiracy theories, debunked video footage, irrelevancies, and odd definitions that all lead her to one conclusion: the president is a Muslim jihadist out to destroy the country.

Jackson opens with a question: is Obama a Muslim, or a jihadist? Jumping directly in with the assumption that the POTUS must be at least one of these things, she carries on, with her purpose apparently to prove, first, that Obama is indeed a Muslim, and second, that there is no difference between being a Muslim and being a jihadist — and third, that Obama must, thus, be a jihadist.

To achieve her first step, Victoria Jackson compiles a number of cases in which Obama showed even the most minimal of tolerance for Muslim existence, along with the well-known video in which Obama himself says he is a Muslim. She skips over the very relevant fact that this video has long been debunked, and is in fact, according to Snopes, “compendium of intercut, out-of-context statements taken from various interviews with Barack Obama,” and which lends a false appearance of Obama ‘admitting’ to being a Muslim.

It’s not the first time Victoria Jackson has offered debunked ‘facts’ in her anti-Obama crusade: among other things, she also spread the story that Obama would visit a mosque for July 4, a tale originating from satire site National Report.

For her second point, Ms. Jackson proceeds with definitions:

“Muslim”

“1. A believer in or adherent of Islam.”
“2. A member of the Nation of Islam; a Black Muslim.”
“[Arabic muslim, one who surrenders, active participle of ‘aslama, to surrender; see Islam.]”

“Jihadist”

“1. A Muslim who advocates or participates in a jihad (among Muslims, a war or struggle against unbelievers; can be violent or non-violent, as in stealth jihad or civilization jihad.”

“Christian”

“1. A person who believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ”

As to this, Obama has spoken of his Christian faith repeatedly, and there was even a bit of a scandal during his first election because of things said by the pastor of the (Christian) church he attended.

Ms. Jackson’s third point, aside from how it relates to President Obama, is perhaps the most offensive: she makes the effort to demonstrate that anyone who is a Muslim must support jihad, and be a jihadist. Note that while Jackson’s definition admits that a jihad may not be violent, the meaning of the word is somewhat disputed and widely understood to have a “military meaning.”

To make this point, she brings up a statement from Obama about “submitting to God’s will,” claiming that “[t]o ‘submit’ is the very definition of Islam; Islam means ‘submission,'” Jackson implies that this statement proves Obama’s Muslim faith — despite the fact that “submitting to God’s will” is a phrase frequently heard in Christian beliefs, as well.

She also references a statement in which former Muslim Brotherhood member Walid Shoebat suggests Obama could be a Muslim jihadist practicing Muruna, which, Shoebat says, is a rule under which a devout Muslim can disobey Sharia and lie in order to fool Westerners and nonbelievers. Shoebat believes that Obama is either practicing Muruna, or is an apostate — because, he believes, by being born to a Muslim father, President Obama was automatically Muslim. Thus, if he is not Muslim now, he must have left the religion, despite never choosing to join it, and having been raised as a Christian.

Through this twisted logic, Shoebat believes that Obama is either an ex-Muslim — an apostate — or a secret Muslim, and Victoria Jackson jumps on this statement to prove her point: clearly Obama is indeed a secret, lying Muslim, bound on destroying the United States.

Closing, she maintains, “Can you be a Muslim and not support Jihad? Isn’t the point of the whole thing a world-wide Caliphate?!”

Note that Victoria Jackson never actually makes any of her three points. Jackson fails to prove that Obama is a Muslim, using a fake video. She fails to prove that Muslim and Jihadist are the same thing, merely defining a variety of terms, and bringing forth the conclusion as though it has been demonstrated. Finally, Victoria Jackson fails to prove that Obama is a Jihadist. The odd and unsupported claims are garnering a lot of attention across social media, but they remain unsupported and unsupportable.

[Photo Credit: shalf]