Acrostics As Hidden Messages

The Real Debt Ceiling

The rollout of ObamaCare and the subsequent government shutdown have engaged the attention of millions of Americans. Unfortunately, both issues are inconsequential compared to what will likely be another battle over raising the debt ceiling. Even more unfortunately, most Americans have little grasp of the economic issues that have brought us to the precipice for the second time in two years.

Most Americans do know the nation is $16.7 trillion in debt, but far fewer understand the implications of such debt. In fact, precious few Americans even know which nation underwrites more of our debt than any other. The overwhelming majority believes it is either China or Japan. The overwhelming majority couldn’t be more wrong. The largest underwriter of U.S. debt is the United States of America, courtesy of the Federal Reserve.

The Fed’s Keynesian-economics-on-steroids buying spree is called “Quantitative Easing” (QE). It consists of spending $85 billion per month, with no end in sight. Of that total, $40 billion is spenton mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion on longer-term Treasury securities.

Where does the Fed get the money to buy these securities? It “prints” money to buy them. To put this in household terms, the Fed is essentially paying down one credit card—by charging it to another credit card. During the Obama administration, QE, along with Congress spending additional revenue we don’t really have, has increased the national debt by an additional $6 trillion. QE has also debased the currency, since creating more currency makes each piece of currency worth less—on the way to becoming worthless.

The Fed has coupled this idea with a Zero Rate Interest Policy (ZIRP), thoroughly convinced that both agendas will “stimulate” the economy, because borrowing money is cheap, and the new money has to go somewhere. That “somewhere” has been the stock market, which has been pushed to record highs as a result. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his fellow Keynesians believe that pumping up the market will result in a “trickle down” effect, as those Americans who feel wealthy with regard to their stock portfolios will spend money and create new jobs. The Fed has pursued QE in one form or another for five years.

During those same five years, the official unemployment rate has never dipped below 7.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That number is a fraud because it fails to acknowledge that we have lowest workforce participation rate in 35 years, and BLS doesn’t count the people who have given up looking for work as unemployed. If the workforce participation rate were the same as it was just before the financial crisis hit in 2008, the unemployment rate would be approximately 11.3 percent.

Furthermore, despite the nation being in a so-called recovery since 2009, we have record numbers of Americans receiving food stamps, record numbers collectingdisability checks, and a record number of Americans living in poverty. Americans’ annual household income has also declined by 4.4 percent during the recovery, which is worse than the 1.8 decline that occurred during the recession.

Fed’s QE approach is nothing less than disastrous

As for inflation, the Fed claims it is under control. Americans might argue otherwise, considering the reality that food and fuel prices have gone up substantially under this administration. Yet many of those same Americans are unaware of the reality that food and fuel prices are not included when the government calculates the inflation rate. While not counting the price of fuel might have some validity, since many Americans use public transportation, every American has developed a habit of eating to sustain themselves.

In short, the Fed’s QE approach is nothing less than disastrous.

And despite everything you hear from this president, his administration, and the rest of the Democratic Party that purports to care for “ordinary Americans,” aka the middle class, it’s precisely the middle class that is being squeezed. ZIRP is a so-called “one-percenter’s” dream, because it pumps up the banks and Wall Street, even as the middle class that prefers not to invest its hard-earned money in the stock market can’t get decent return on savings anywhere else. On the other end of the spectrum, the aforementioned dependency class is also getting taken care of, due to the reality that the statist party is more than willing to countenance increasing numbers of Americans on the government dole in return for their loyalty.

This dual accommodation of both the financial and entitlement communities has engendered a monstrous amount of national debt, fueled by the record-setting, trillion dollar-plus annual deficits needed to pay for it. And despite the Fed’s money printing prowess, even they can’t pony up the kind of revenue necessary to underwrite the entire effort.

Thus we tax, and we do borrow from other nations.

On the tax side of the equation, those who pay them have done yeoman’s work. For the first 11 months of FY2013, the federal government received a record-setting $2.47 trillion in revenues. Yet they spent all of it, plus an additional $755 billion during the same period. Thus, on the borrowing side of the equation, we are constantly adding to our national debt, and have again “maxed out” our spending limit, reaching the so-called debt ceiling.

Yet even as we constantly bump up against a new debt ceiling, we continue paying interest on the debt we’ve already accumulated. In 2012, the interest on that debttotaled $360 billion. Like the minimum payment on a household credit card, that massive amount of spending does nothing more than maintain the debt at its present levels. Nothing is being paid down.

For the nation in the short term, the media-driven hysteria about the notion that America would default on paying its debt if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, is pernicious nonsense. Currently, interest payments are running about 7 percent of revenue. The worst case scenario is that the Treasury Department would be forced to prioritize where the rest of the money would be spent. Undoubtedly this would ignite a huge fight, as Congress and the administration would be forced to decide which government programs are truly important, and which, to use the jargon-du-jour, are “non-essential.”

Such a fight would be extremely unpleasant, but the nation would survive. Furthermore, neither party has said they are willing to default on our debt, but Republicans want concessions aimed at bringing the debt under control.

Why Republicans want those concessions brings us back to the Federal Reserve and their ZIRP. What the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t know is that we’re paying a record low interest rate of 2.4 percent just to maintain the status quo. The average interest rate the Treasury paid on U.S. debt over the last 20 years is 5.7 percent. Americans might tolerate paying 7 percent of every dollar collected just for interest, but what about 10 percent, or 20 percent—or more? Not for more Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, military, or any other government program. Just interest. Just to maintain. How many American families could sustain themselves if 20 percent of their income or more did nothing but keep their credit card debt right where it is now?

And 20 percent may be an optimistic number. CNBC’s Peter J. Tanous explains that just our public debt—as opposed to the money the government owes itself because the politicians have raided the Social Security “lockbox,” for example—will be $16.6 trillion in seven years, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. At an average interest rate of 5.7 percent, the interest payment will be about $930 billion. In 2012, the IRS collected $1.1 trillion in personal income taxes. Based on that figure,debt service would consume 85 cents of every dollar Americans pay in personal income taxes.

Tanous notes something else as well. “Some economists will also suggest that interest rates may go much higher than 5.7 percent largely as a result of the massive QE exercise of printing money at an unprecedented rate,” he warns.

What then? It is not inconceivable that America could be headed for a real debt ceiling, described by National Review’s Kevin Williams as one where immutable reality boils down to “a more or less identical partial shutdown of the government plus suspending most or all Social Security payments indefinitely, eliminating federal health-care benefits, and/or defaulting on our bonds and enduring the subsequent economic chaos” (italic in the original).

An American politician vividly expressed the consequences of continually raising our borrowing limit and accumulating more debt as a result:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure,” he said. “It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. ... Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

That politician was Barack Obama in 2006.

Barack Obama in 2013? “Raising the debt ceiling, which has been done over a hundred times, does not increase our debt; it does not somehow promote profligacy.” Except that it does. Every time we have raised the debt ceiling, our debt level has increased.

Thus, “insane” Republicans are demanding concessions for raising the current debt ceiling. Those concessions include a one year delay of the new and massively expensive (more than triple its original cost estimate) healthcare bill, a blueprint for tax reform, medical malpractice reform, approval of the Keystone pipeline, and an increase in offshore drilling for energy. The president’s Twitter response is telling. “I won’t negotiate on anything when it comes to the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”

Due to unprecedented levels of government spending by both parties—nothing more, nothing less—the full faith and credit of the United States of America is hanging by a thread. Either we stop engaging in that insanity or we are finished as a nation. Politicians lie. Math does not.

Credit to Canadian Free Press

Israel and Saudi Arabia are coordinating policies to counter US détente with Iran

Associates of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday, Oct. 2, leaked word to the media that high-ranking Gulf emirate officials had recently visited Israel, signaling a further widening in the rift between Israel and President Barack Obama over his outreach to Tehran. These visits were in line with the ongoing exchanges Israel was holding with Saudi and Gulf representatives to align their actions for offsetting any potential American easing-up on Iran’s nuclear program.

DEBKAfile reports that this is the first time Israel official sources have publicly aired diplomatic contacts of this kind in the region. They also reveal that Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates have agreed to synchronize their lobbying efforts in the US Congress to vote down the Obama administration’s moves on Iran.

DEBKAfile reported earlier Wednesday:

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with President Barack Obama at the White House Monday, Sept. 30, Secretary of State John Kerry carried a message requesting moderation in the speech he was to deliver next day to the United Nations.

On the other hand, at least two European diplomats, German and French, made the opposite request: they asked for a hard-hitting Israeli peroration for setting boundaries - not so much for Iran’s nuclear program as for attempt to slow down President Obama’s dash for détente with Tehran.
It is feared in European capitals that the US is running too fast and too far in his bid for reconciliation with the Islamic Republic, to the detriment by association of their own standing I the Persian Gulf.

They are moreover miffed by the way Washington used Europe as a tool in the long nuclear negotiations between the Six World Powers with Iran and is now dumping them in favor of direct dealings with Iranian leaders.
Netanyahu decided not to accede to either request. Instead he laid out his credo: Iran must discontinue nuclear development and dismantle its program or face up to the risk of a lone Israeli military attack.

The look on the face of US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, sitting at the US delegation’s table in the UN hall, showed he had realized that the prime minister’s words were not just addressed to Tehran; they were an unforeseen broadside against the Obama administration’s Iranian strategy.
The dissonance between Jerusalem and Washington on Iran and its nuclear aspirations, played down after the Obama-Netanyahu meeting at the White House, emerged at full blast in the UN speech. The consequences are likely to be reflected in American media, as they were at the low point in relations in 2010, when administration officials day by day planted negative assessments of Israel’s military inadequacies for damaging Iran’s nuclear facilities.

After the UN speech, the Israeli Home Defense Minister Gilead Erdan tried to pour oil on troubled waters by commenting that the prime minister’s speech had strengthened Obama’s hand against Tehran. However, Netanyahu had a different object. It was to paint Washington’s new partner in détente in the blackest colors, even though he knows there is no chance of swaying the US President from his pursuit of Tehran and the sanctions, which he believes to be the only effective deterrent for giving the Iranians pause, will soon start unraveling.

Binyamin Netanyahu now faces the uphill job of repairing his own credibility. For five years has had declared again and again that Israel’s military option is on track in certain circumstances, but has never lived up to the threat. He has followed a path of almost total military passivity.

President Obama knows that Israel’s military capacity is up to a solo operation against Iran. Tehran, however, though conscious of the IDF’s high military, technological and cyber warfare capabilities, is convinced that Israel like the United States has lost the appetite for a military initiative.

Netanyahu must now revive Israel’s deterrence and convince Iran that his challenge at the UN had ended an era of military passivity and should be taken seriously.

In the coming weeks, therefore, the Iranians will react with steps to upset US-Israeli relations, possibly by raising military tensions in the region directly or through their proxies. Until now Tehran operated from outside Washington and its inner councils. Now, smart Iranian diplomats will be sitting down with the US president close to his ear for friendly discussions on ways to further their rapprochement.




Credit to DEBKAfile

PARENTS WARNED ABOUT PORN IN SCHOOLS

President Obama already has declared June to be homosexual “Pride” month, but “gay” activists now are designating October “LGBT History Month.”

The move has prompted a pro-family organization in California to issue a warning to parents across the United States about the possibility their children would be confronted with explicit pornography in their public schools this month.

Teachers, they explain, could introduce material that promotes homosexuality.

The homosexual-rights group Equality Forum, which is promoting LGBT History Month, is profiling various homosexuals and lesbians for each day of the month, including some whose work can accurately be described as triple-X rated.

Many schools plan to incorporate LGBT History Month into lessons.

“It is deeply disturbing that the organizers of LGBT History Month think our kids should be celebrating homoerotic authors and porn producers,” stated Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute. “This should be a serious wake-up call for anyone who still thinks gay history in schools is a good idea.”

PJI has warned parents to take immediate action to prevent their children from being blindsided this month by “explicit and highly objectionable material.”

“A patchwork” of schools, districts and individual teachers nationwide are expected to promote LGBT History Month to students, PJI said.

On Oct. 18, Equality Forum will feature “Tom of Finland,” who has a foundation promoting his explicit sex images, “erotic art galleries” and “artist and museum links” that include explicit nude images.

Also featured, on the 10th, will be “Patrick Califia,” born a woman and now described as a “bisexual transman.”

The writer of a sex column, Califia also is known for erotic fiction.

Then there’s the role model of the late Axel Axgil, a Danish advocate for homosexuals who was convicted on pornography charges for selling pictures of nude men.

And there’s Simon Nkoli, who promoted homosexuality in South Africa and at one point was jailed on claims he killed a man by throwing a rock during a protest. The charges eventually were dropped.

“Many parents will no doubt be alarmed when they see some of the characters being highlighted this year,” PJI’s statement said.

The group is urging parents to ask their children’s teachers whether there will be any reference to LGBT History Month.

“If so, parents should confront the teacher, principal and school board members with the reality of the individuals being presented as role models this year,” PJI said.

“Besides the X-rated inclusions, this year’s list continues a trend from previous years of including a drag queen, current television personalities, foreign political figures, and activists. The list also appears to be more targeted this year at ethnic and religious groups that have traditionally opposed homosexual behavior, highlighting several black and Asian LGBT figures, as well as a former Mormon,” the group said.

“This is exactly why we fought California’s gay history mandate a couple of years ago,” noted PJI Staff Attorney Matthew McReynolds. “We knew this was not about real history; it was about pushing a political agenda and sexualizing kids at increasingly young ages. It is completely irresponsible for the organizers of this event to promote individuals whose work is utterly inappropriate for minors.”

The institute said school districts from California to Florida have adopted LGBT History Month. Two years ago in New Jersey, it created controversy for Republican Gov. Chris Christie when he suggested a teacher should be fired for posting objections to it on her personal Facebook page.

California’s latest sex indoctrination law requires schools to allow students to choose which gender they prefer.

Karen England of Capitol Resource Institute said her group is working on a newly launched initiative to overturn the law that will need the signatures of some 500,000 voters.

The goal is to veto the “extremist” language adopted by majority Democrats in the state legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown that opens public school locker rooms to students of either sex.

Apparently, students will only need to tell school officials which gender they feel like. England affirmed that the law has no provision for certifying that someone is gender-disoriented or gender-confused before being given the rights provided in the new law.

England said parents in other states also should be concerned.

“We’re not like Las Vegas. What happens in California spreads to other states,” she said.

The law, AB 1266, adopted during this year’s legislative session, provides that students be given access to gender-segregated facilities according to their “gender identity.” It’s the latest in a long list of sex indoctrination laws adopted in California, including one that requires a day of recognition for Harvey Milk, the homosexual politician who also was an advocate of infamous cult leader Jim Jones.

English told WND the law is a direct assault on parental rights, because it allows schools to treat their children as members of either gender, lets them send them to locker rooms or restrooms that may be in conflict with their physical gender and keep all such information away from parents.

“This is as far as [lawmakers have] ever gone. This is the most extreme. Parents and teachers are absolutely outraged,” she said.

“Not one lawmaker campaigned on allowing boys in the girls locker room and restrooms,” she said. “Nor is there one who, I think, will, or will be able to stand and explain why they think this is a good idea.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/parents-warned-about-porn-in-schools/#pdA5IQJdRliLxKhH.99

Gerald Celente on the Brian Thomas Show - October 2, 2013

PROPHECY OF AN EARTHQUAKE COMING TO THE USA - Prophet Dr. Owuor

John Kerry tentatively agrees to negotiations with Iran

TOKYO, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the United States would negotiate with Iran only if it proved it would not pursue a nuclear weapons program.

Following a meeting Thursday with Japanese defense and foreign ministers, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in Tokyo, Kerry said his "hope is that there is a way forward" with Iran.

"Nothing we do is going to be based on trust. It's going to be based on steps," he said. "A country that generally wants to have a peaceful program does not have difficulty proving that it's peaceful."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said he wants to engage with talks about Iran's nuclear program to improve relations with the West. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking from the General Assembly at the United Nations this week, said Rouhani is "a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community" and would fool the United States about its nuclear ambitions.

"It would be diplomatic malpractice of the worst order," Kerry said, not to engage in a diplomatic solution to the longstanding conflict with Iran.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/10/03/John-Kerry-tentatively-agrees-to-negotiations-with-Iran/UPI-79731380798496/#ixzz2gf8nrO1s

Space troops not yet ready to fight aliens

Why do you need a space troop?

Unless you know something..... 

Despite being called Russia’s space troops, they are not ready to deal with invasions by aliens from outer space, according to a statement by a Russian defense official.

In a surprising move, an apparently serious journalist raised this question of extraterrestrial security during a media conference at the Titov Main Test and Space Systems Control Center near Moscow, Russia’s main satellite control center.

“So far we are not capable of that. We are unfortunately not ready to fight extraterrestrial civilizations,” the center’s deputy chief Sergey Berezhnoy explained.

“Our center was not tasked with it. There are too many problems on Earth and near it,” he added.

Titov space center, which is run by Russia’s Aerospace Defense Troops, controls around 80 percent of the country’s satellite fleet, both military and civilian. It is also engaged in launches of spacecraft and strategic ballistic missiles. The facility located about 40km southwest of Moscow is manned by some 1,000 officers and soldiers.

Russia’s space troops, in their current form, were created in 2011 through the integration of several military branches responsible for anti-missile defense, strategic anti-aircraft warfare and control of outer space.

Among its facilities are an early ballistic missile launch warning center with a corresponding network of radar stations, a center for space surveillance, the Plesetsk Military Cosmodrome and a strategic missile testing range in Kura.

While they may not as yet be able to deal with an alien attack, Russia’s space troops at least have extremely effective and high tech means for dealing with terrestrial issues and threats

Credit to RT

HOW LONG DO WE HAVE BEFORE SEEING HYPERINFLATION?

David Buckner, the founder and CEO of Bottom Line Training and Consulting, an adjunct professor at Columbia University, and the author of “Permission to Think,” explained on the Glenn Beck Program Wednesday why America hasn’t yet seen hyperinflation — but why it could be just around the corner.

Buckner said that in discussing hyperinflation, people often refer to the Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, and Bolivia, but say “it could never happen here” because a “certain kind of layering has to occur” that America hasn’t seen.

(Photo: TheBlaze TV)

That layering, he said, or the “recipe” for hyperinflation, is:

1) Economic Implosion

2) Collapse in tax revenues

3) Raise taxes

4) Lenders unwilling

5) Austerity or print

Beck seemed shocked by the list, saying all five have occurred.

But Buckner said some still squabble about certain points in the list — and regardless of whether we satisfy the recipe, people still say three things in America are “different,” and set us apart from the standard formula.

First, it is said that “everyone wants to buy our debt,” and no one will ever stop wanting to do so.  But Buckner countered that China is already quickly shifting our debt quickly to gold, and analogized the situation to a restaurant where China, the chef, lends the United States money to eat at its establishment.  Pretty soon, he said, there will be other customers, like India, who can pay outright.

Second, some also claim that “we’re not printing money” because “we’re exchanging an asset – a bond – for cash.”

“What they’re not saying is where that bond’s coming from – treasuries.  As soon as the government puts it out there, the Fed comes and takes it,” Buckner said.  “It’s circular, it’s absolutely circular. So we are printing money.”

The third factor that many say differentiates America is that we are a “productive” country, but Buckner said he disagrees there, as well.

What exactly does America produce these days, he asked? We have Apple, but the products are primarily manufactured overseas.  We have a good financial sector, but can we depend on that in tough times?  Others cite the country’s many innovators as something we “produce,” but Buckner noted that innovators are “produced” elsewhere, also.

COMPLIMENTARY CLIP FROM THEBLAZE TV

“And everybody says, well you’re not seeing hyperinflation,” Buckner said, but that’s because, “the interest rates are so low, nobody’s putting that cash back into investments in the United States.  But they are putting it into desperate countries in Europe. They’re putting it into other investments. And the money’s going out there, so the second Bernanke raises the interest rates, all of the sudden the money sucks back into the United States and we have hyperinflation.”

Beck asked Buckner if we need an “event” of some sort to trigger such a meltdown.

“We’ve had an event, but…we’ve become comfortably numb,” Buckner said.  “So there’s been a lot of hidden stuff that’s going on.  The treasuries continue to go out, and Bernanke continues to buy debt. [But] anytime he starts to back off the markets freak out, because they know. The markets know. But we don’t, the people don’t. People who are retired, pensioners, elderly, people who are holding money are going to be devastated.”

When Beck asked for a timeline, Buckner said that by January of 2015, if not by October in 2014, we are likely to see “an increase in interest rates which will start the domino.”

“When Bernanke announced that there would be a tapering, the markets just dropped because they knew that even if the interest rates changed one infinitesimal amount, it was the beginning of the domino,” he said.

“How fast do the dominoes go down?” Beck asked.

“Three months,” Buckner replied without hesitation. “You listen to many of the economists — within three months. And it’s going to be perception more than real price. You’re going to see hoarding, you’re going to see fear. It’s not the actuality. So if they can put a glaze over everybody…it’s may slow it down. That”s the problem, is we’re dealing with an illusion.  It’s an illusion of what is real.  We don’t have the money. So the interest rates go up, you’re going to see a domino.”

Credt to the Blaze

Ron Paul: "The Country Is Bankrupt... The People Are Being Bamboozled"

"The American people are being bamboozled into believing that you have to keep spending for ever," Ron Paul exclaims, as "neither side is truly looking for spending cuts." As he explains they all know that increasing spending is all that can maintain the status quo. In this brief CNBC clip, Paul says playing the blame game is ignorant of the reality that both sides are "rigid with bad ideas," dismissing Obama's 'faction' comments. For a glimpse at the chaos underlying the status quo (that is being exposed this week), Paul blasts that "it is a philosophy of government that is to blame; Keynesianism, Militarism, and Interventionism, and the funny-money system that we use. All that has come together and the country is bankrupt and nobody wants to amid it."

"Why in the world can't the people have an option to opt-out?"is the middle ground possibility that Paul suggests...

"While more are waking up to it (especially in light of the non-essential services furloughs currently), there is still an appetite for big government - people are afraid to give up on it."

The Democrats are just as "rigid" as the Republicans.. "They are rigid with bad ideas too in that "deficits don't matter, the government has to spend, and the government has to take care of us, and you should print money when you need it."

Paul goes on to discuss Gold "all central banks work together - they collude"

... Moral convictions, "right or wrong", and "the only thing that really counts is what the American people believe the role of government should be... and if deficits don't matter, it will not be a shutdown of government but a breakdown of government that occurs"

Credit to Zero Hedge 

Welcome To NEVERTAPER LAND: The U.S. Dollar MELTDOWN.

20 Obama Quotes About Islam Contrasted With 20 Obama Quotes About Christianity

You are about to read some of the most shocking quotes that Barack Obama has ever uttered in public.  A few of these have been widely circulated, but most of them are very obscure.  

Even though he claims to be a Christian, throughout his political career Obama has repeatedly attacked traditional Biblical Christianity and he has a very long history of anti-Christian actions.  In public speeches he has repeatedly cast doubt on the Bible, he has repeatedly stated that he does not believe that Jesus is necessary for salvation, and he has consistently said that he believes that all “people of faith” believe in the same God.  

At the same time, Obama has always referred to Muhammed as “the Prophet”, he has always expressed great love and respect for Islam, and he has even removed all references to Islam from terror training materials used by federal government agencies.  So what in the world does “the leader of the free world” actually believe?  Read the quotes below and decide for yourself…

20 Quotes By Barack Obama About Islam

#1 “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”

#2 “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer”

#3 “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

#4 “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

#5 “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”

#6 “Islam has always been part of America”

#7 “we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities”

#8 “These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”

#9 “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

#10 “I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”

#11 “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.”

#12 “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed”

#13 “In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.”

#14 “throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

#15 “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality”

#16 “The Holy Koran tells us, ‘O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’”

#17 “I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

#18 “We’ve seen those results in generations of Muslim immigrants – farmers and factory workers, helping to lay the railroads and build our cities, the Muslim innovators who helped build some of our highest skyscrapers and who helped unlock the secrets of our universe.”

#19 “That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

#20 “I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”

20 Quotes By Barack Obama About Christianity

#1 “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation”

#2 “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”

#3 “Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?  Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination?  Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?”

#4 “Even those who claim the Bible’s inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages – the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ’s divinity – are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.”

#5 “The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics.”

#6 From Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: “I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.”

#7 Obama’s response when asked what his definition of sin is: “Being out of alignment with my values.”

#8 “If all it took was someone proclaiming I believe Jesus Christ and that he died for my sins, and that was all there was to it, people wouldn’t have to keep coming to church, would they.”

#9 “This is something that I’m sure I’d have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and prostelytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell.”

#10 “I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.  I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.  That’s just not part of my religious makeup.”

#11 “I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing.”

#12 “I’ve said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know … I do not believe she went to hell.”

#13 “Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths.”

#14 On his support for civil unions for gay couples: “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount.”

#15 “You got into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

#16 “In our household, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology”

#17 “On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.”

#18 “we have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own”

#19 “All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra — (applause) — as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer.  (Applause.)”

#20 “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”

Credit to the Truth