KSFO's Rodgers falsely claimed Obama "admits in one of his own books" that he would "stand with the Muslims" against "the Western world"

Summary: KSFO's Lee Rodgers falsely claimed Sen. Barack Obama "admits in one of his own books" that "in case of a confrontation between the Western world and the Islamic world, he will stand with the Muslims." Rodgers' assertion recalls a similar allegation in a chain email that has been previously debunked. As FactCheck.org documented, while discussing "my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans" in The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote: "[T]hey need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

On the October 22 broadcast of San Francisco radio station KSFO's The Lee Rodgers Show, host Lee Rodgers falsely claimed Sen. Barack Obama "admits in one of his own books" that "in case of a confrontation between the Western world and the Islamic world, he will stand with the Muslims." Rodgers' assertion recalls the false allegation in a chain email that in his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote: "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." As FactCheck.org noted in debunking the email: "A second false quote has Obama saying he would 'stand with the Muslims,' words that don't appear in his book. What he actually said is that he would stand with American immigrants from Pakistan or Arab countries should they be faced with something like the forced detention of Japanese-American families in World War II." Even the false chain email did not go so far as to allege that Obama wrote that he would "stand with the Muslims" against "the Western world," as Rodgers claimed.

As FactCheck.org noted, on Page 261 of The Audacity of Hope, while discussing "my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans," Obama wrote: "[T]hey need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." From The Audacity of Hope:

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

From the October 22 broadcast of KSFO's The Lee Rodgers Show:

RODGERS: This is late in coming, but it might be a factor by Election Day, since this ACORN outfit is in the news. Forty-five percent of voters think ACORN is trying to register voters illegally, but they're divided over whether Barack Obama has ties to that group. What's to be divided about? He was their bleeping lawyer, for God's sakes.

I'm telling you, these Obama true believers, the enchanted ones, they're just -- I think it's some form of self-hypnosis. They don't want to know the truth about this guy. Even when he admits in one of his own books, for example, in case of a confrontation between the Western world and the Islamic world, he will stand with the Muslims. He said so. But they don't want to hear it.

OFFICER VIC (co-host Tom Benner): No.

RODGERS: They don't care.

OFFICER VIC: Well, he's a Christian, you know. Lifelong Christian, Lee.

RODGERS. Yeah. Well, read the Quran, about fathers and sons -- fathers and offspring, period -- and you'll find that the faith of his father does not agree with him, no matter what he says, thinks, or wants. Let's see, what else we got?

—N.T.