This Internet meme presents an excerpt from this speech President Obama gave at the UN on September 25, 2012, combined with a photograph from that same event. There's nothing here to disbelieve. The President did in fact say, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."
So why am I writing about it here?
Because that statement is only part of this paragraph:
Because that statement is only part of this paragraph:
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied."
So why the choice to create such a meme with the word, Unbelievable!!! superimposed at the bottom? And why today, when the speech was given more than six months ago?
I found it on a very active Facebook page called Prepare to Take America Back. Judging from the comments posted in response to it, I can only surmise the purpose behind its creation was to stir up hatred of Muslims - and the President - just after the Christian Holy Week, while religious observance is at a peak.
One enlightened person commented as follows:
-- which I thought was particularly Christ-like.
There are plenty of similar responses there if you care to learn more about these citizens who are planning to "take America back".
To be fair I must point out that this meme does not seem to originate with this group but rather was created by The Minority Report.
Ironically, Prepare to Take America Back specifically invites those who are visiting its page to "Take advantage of the articles and research we do and pass the information on."
Since it required less than a minute of online searching for me to find the full transcript of the President's speech, I can only conclude that Prepare to Take America Back did no research at all before passing this inflammatory meme on.
I am sure it was an honest mistake. To think they were intentionally circulating the President's remarks out of context and presenting them in an inflammatory way . . .
well, that would be Unbelievable, wouldn't it?
Thank you for your research. There's so much political nonsense being tossed around that it's nice to see someone pull back the context on these memes. I like how concise your posts are and hope you continue writing in some form!
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