Radio host Neal Boortz falsely suggested Sen. Barack Obama is a Muslim, saying: “Let's ask Obama how many prayer rugs he has.” Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim.
Boortz: “Let's ask Obama how many prayer rugs he has”
Written by Asli Bashir
Published
On the August 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Neal Boortz falsely suggested that Sen. Barack Obama is a Muslim. While discussing Sen. John McCain's inability to answer the Politico's question about how many homes he and his wife own, Boortz said: “Let's ask Obama how many prayer rugs he has.” As Media Matters for America has noted, Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim.
From the August 21 broadcast of Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal Boortz Show:
BOORTZ: How many houses do you have?
ROYAL MARSHALL (engineer and “sidekick”): Two.
BOORTZ: OK.
MARSHALL: But I want to say one thing here. It could also be wealth envy, like you said, but it also could be a matter of age. He's so old he can't remember --
BOORTZ: Oh, jeez.
MARSHALL: -- how many houses. He forgot he's got two houses in Florida. He forgot about the house in Boca.
BOORTZ: Oh, jeez. OK.
MARSHALL: I mean, it's a possibility. The guy is 72.
BOORTZ: Senile. He's senile. He can't remember -- he goes -- he keeps going to the wrong home, too, at night.
JAMIE DUPREE (Cox Radio correspondent): Sometimes, it's the dumbest things that get you in trouble in a campaign, you know?
BOORTZ: Well, like I said, if this is it in this campaign, then this country just deserves whatever is gonna happen to us.
DUPREE: Well, just wait and see. Just watch if that thing keeps coming up in the next few days.
BOORTZ: Let's ask Obama how many prayer rugs he has.
DUPREE: See? And, you know, somebody would say that's not fair.
BOORTZ: Well, I'm not trying to be fair.
DUPREE: Well, exactly.
Asli Bashir is an intern at Media Matters for America.