Ah, here it is -- one of the first attempts to charge that the infamous New Yorker cover actually depicts the truth about Barack Obama.
Conservative media darling Brigitte Gabriel, author of the book Why They Hate and founder of anti-Muslim organization The American Congress for Truth, tells the Christian right American Family Association's (AFA) news service that in the Muslim world, the cover is seen as an accurate portrayal of Obama, because the Muslim world views Obama as one of its own. I've seen Gabriel a couple of times at John Hagee's Christians United for Israel events, and she's carved out quite a niche for herself peddling the idea that her experience as a Lebanese Christian surviving that country's bloody civil war qualifies her to declare Islam a violent religion bent on destroying Western Civilization.
The AFA has Gabriel, the "expert" on Islam, connecting Obama to al Qaeda as well, although it's difficult to tell whether she is saying that the Muslim world links him to al Qaeda or that she believes it herself. No matter. The AFA has managed to put the phrase "Obama has been sponsored by al Qaida" in print:
As for the picture of Osama bin Laden on the wall, she continues, Obama has been sponsored by al Qaida. "Al Qaida wants Obama to be president. The terrorist organizations around the world want Obama to be president," Gabriel notes. Gabriel also contends that in the Muslim realm Obama is portrayed as someone who has no loyalty to the U.S., and someone who will defend the right to burn the American flag. She says she finds it ironic that so many people in America are offended by the magazine cover when it is actually how the Islamic world views the Democratic presidential candidate.Don't get me wrong -- Gabriel and the AFA would have found a way to link Obama to terrorists with or without the New Yorker cover. But with it, they get to suggest that the with New Yorker's uncanny insights into Muslim thinking, the magazine must be secretly run by terrorists, too. It's a two-fer.
--Sarah Posner
