Obama Says New Yorker Insulted Muslim Americans

By now you have probably seen the New Yorker magazine's satirical cover depicting Obama and his wife as flag-burning, fist-bumping radicals. You know, the cartoon which depicts Obama in traditional Muslim clothing -- sandals, robe and turban -- his wife, Michelle, with an assault rifle slung over one shoulder and dressed in camouflage and combat boots and her hair in an Afro, while an American flag burns in a fireplace and a portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs above the mantel.

Obama says the cartoon doesn't bother him but that it was an insult to Muslim Americans:

"You know, there are wonderful Muslim Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things," the presidential candidate told CNN's Larry King. "And for this to be used as sort of an insult, or to raise suspicions about me, I think is unfortunate. And it's not what America's all about."

According to the associated Press article, "Obama blamed himself for not being forceful enough in challenging some of the rumors about him, including that he is Muslim."

For once I agree with Obama. He has only himself to blame for the lingering perception that he is Muslim. As I have said before, Obama must confront his Muslim issue head on.

The caricature of Mrs. Obama would have far less punch had Obama dissociated himself from Bill Ayers, along with his wife Bernardine Dohrn. Ayers was a 1960s leader of the American terrorist group the Weathermen, a Communist-driven splinter faction of Students for a Democratic Society. Ayers is said to have summed up the Whethermen's ideology as follows: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents."

According to Wkipedia, the Weathermen, conducted a series of bombings against the US government throughout the early 1970s, bombing several federal buildings. Dohrn is a principal signatory on the group's "Declaration of a State of War" (1970) that formally declared war on the U.S. Government, and completed the group's transformation from political advocacy to violent action. Dohrn also co-wrote and published the subversive manifesto Prairie Fire (1974), and participated in the covertly-filmed Underground (1976).

Image Credit: Associated Press via the Baltimore Sun.