The first mosques did not appear in America until the first quarter of the twentieth century. So Obama’s rewritten version of history totally missed the mark. But it served his narrative for the moment, helping to counter against a stereotype of Islam as a religion of terror, while simultaneously endearing himself to Muslims. The problem is that when presidents (and even pastors) revise history in order to legitimize or illustrate a point, many will take what they say as gospel. Spiritual Amnesia