In a U.S. election campaign where presidential candidates from both major parties have talked openly about their Christian faith, some non-Christians feel shut out or turned off.
Listen, this is a majority Christian nation and anyone wanting to get elected is naturally going to talk as closely as possible to that majority. This country is still over 75% Christian, so it is a logical presumption that citizens whose religion represents only a few percentage points would not be a focus of a politician's efforts!
But not being a focus does not equate to oppression or their rights being squelched, it must be pointed out.
And here we go with the tsk tsking:
"Non-Christians are concerned that they will be excluded from the process," said Ahmed Rehab, a spokesman with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Naturally, Reuters gives the perpetual whiners in CAIR the upfront chance to let Europe know how disappointed they are that America is so hateful. Where, though, is the American Buddhist organization that is constantly "concerned" that Americans will "exclude" them from the process? Nowhere to be seen. No, it turns out that the "some non-Christians" end up being mostly just CAIR to so many in the MSM.
First of all, we can use the "some" convention to substantiate any claim. I could write a story that says "some" people don't believe the Earth is round and be 100% accurate in the claim. But that won't mean that my "some" is a significant number of people, nor that it makes the claim that the Earth is flat correct -- or even that it might be correct.
Secondly, we should all remember that CAIR has been outed as having less than 2,000 members nationwide. As the Washington Times reported last year, "The number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to fewer than 1,700 in 2006. As a result, the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues dropped from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35."
Estimates of the Muslim population of the US ranges between 2 and 4 million. This being the case, why do we continually pay such undue attention to a group that doesn't even represent a significant number of its own people?
Then Reuters gives us the secularist's canard that only recently has religion been a factor in the race for the White House.
In recent decades, part of the American political drama has been scripted by the "religious right" -- mostly white evangelical Protestants united by strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage who have been a key base of support for the Republican Party.
"In recent decades, part of the American political drama has been scripted by the 'religious right'"? Actually, religion has always been an important factor in elections. Thomas Jefferson was railed against as the atheist candidate and, if you'll recall, he was only our third president! The only reason the "religious right" has had a higher profile in the last few decades is because the left has completely abandoned normal, American religious principle forcing religious Americans to get more involved in politics. Before that, religion was a normal, important aspect of the American political decision making process.
For Reuters to act as if the "religious right" is altogether a new phenomenon is ridiculous, but fits in nicely with the secular left's attempts to make it seem as if religion is somehow "new" and un-American in connection with the American political scene.
And here is more Reuters scaremongering on behalf of CAIR:
A false rumor that has circulated on the Internet about Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is that he is Muslim who has lied about his religion. The rumor appears to illustrate the importance some voters attach to a candidate being Christian.
Give me a break, will you? The only reason anyone is alarmed about Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim background is because of a little thing we like to call the Islamofascist attacks on 9/11/01! If Islamists had not attacked us that terrible day, Obama's Muslim background would be of passing interest and little else. The fear of Obama's Muslim past reflects our suspicion of a self avowed enemy, one that has killed thousands of Americans, not a hate of anything non-Christian!
No, it looks to me like this Reuters piece is all just an opportunity to scold Christian Americans that they are too religious, too intolerant, too mean-spirited and too evil. Good thing Islam is given a pass, though, eh?
