Saudi media fall for Obama Muslim joke 
 
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — When a US satirist joked that President Barack Obama will admit to Congress that he is Muslim in his latest compromise with Republicans, Saudi media took it seriously. 
 
 On Friday the online version of Al-Hayat newspaper and the prominent news website Sabq.org both reported straightforwardly humourist Andy Borowitz's column that began: 
 
 "In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim. 
 
 "In agreeing that he is a Muslim, Mr. Obama is sending a clear signal that he is trying to find consensus," Borowitz said in the column posted on the Huffington Post and The Borowitz Report websites this week. 
 
 Both Al-Hayat, one of the Middle East's most influential newspapers, and Sabq, believed to be controlled by the Saudi interior ministry, apparently missed the joke. 
 
 "Obama doesn't mind coming out as a Muslim if that will satisfy the Republicans," the Al-Hayat headline said. 
 
 "Obama: 'I'm ready to announce that I am a Muslim,'" led Sabq. 
 
 Both repeated Borowitz's "quote" of Obama saying:" My place of birth has been, and will always be, negotiable." 
 
 "White House sources indicated today that the president might be willing to meet the GOP (Grand Old Party -- the Republicans) halfway on his birthplace and say that he was born in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," Borowitz joked, 
 
 Despite Obama repeatedly saying he is Christian, because his native-Kenyan father was born a Muslim, and because his middle name is Hussein, many Muslims and even some US Republicans suspect he is secretly Muslim. 
 
 Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) -- In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim. 
 
 Differences over his religious orientation have been a sore point between the president and his Republican foes for the past two years, but in agreeing that he is a Muslim, Mr. Obama is sending a clear signal that he is trying to find consensus. 
 
 "The American people do not want to see us fighting in Washington," Mr. Obama told reporters at the White House. "They want to see us working together to improve their lives, and Allah willing, we will." 
 
 But Mr. Obama's willingness to back down on his claim of being a Christian does not seem to have satisfied his Republican opposition, as GOP leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) today insisted that the President must also agree that he was born in Kenya. 
 
 While Mr. Obama did not immediately agree to Rep. Bohener's demand, he hinted that yet another compromise might be in the offing: "My place of birth has been, and will always be, negotiable." 
 
 White House sources indicated today that the president might be willing to meet the GOP halfway on his birthplace and say that he was born in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Elsewhere, moments after his capture in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said, "I knew I shouldn't have signed up for Foursquare." More here. 
 
 The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has "one of the funniest Twitter feeds around." Follow Andy on Twitter here.
– Sarcasm doesn't always translate well. When satirist Andy Borowitz wrote this column at the Huffington Post headlined "In Latest Compromise With GOP, Obama Agrees He Is a Muslim," the Saudi media utterly missed the joke. A respected newspaper, Al-Hayat, and website, Sabq.org, reported it as straight news, notes AFP. "Obama doesn't mind coming out as a Muslim if that will satisfy the Republicans," read the newspaper's headline, while the website went with, "Obama: 'I'm ready to announce that I am a Muslim.'" If only they'd read to the bottom of Borowitz's column, the "quote" attributed to Julian Assange after his arrest—"I knew I shouldn't have signed up for Foursquare"—might have tipped them off that the whole thing was joke. Or maybe not.