Is Obama A Secret Muslim?

by Kathleen McKinley | August 20, 2010 1:01 am

No.

But apparently 18% of Americans think he is. Only 34% think he is a Christian. 43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is. Even among just Democrats, only 46% say Obama is a Christian.

The MSM is falling over itself trying to lay blame at the usual suspects, Republicans, Fox News, and conservatives.

But the real culprit of this mis-information is Obama himself. Obama has spent a great deal of time reaching out to the Muslim world. The media, naturally, has focused on his speeches to the Muslim world, and about the Muslim world. In comparison, he has spent very little time on what he claims to be his own faith. The Obamas have still not found a Church to attend regularly in Washington. Obama admitted that when they went to Rev. Wright’s church, he rarely attended. Which is how he supposedly missed all those racist rants of Rev. Wright.

This is what we know, and it’s not much. We know that the two of the father figures in his life, his father and his step-father were Muslim, although he says his father was an atheist. In Indonesia, where Obama attended school off and on from ages six to ten, he attended Muslim prayer services with his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro. In 2007, his third grade teacher told the Los Angeles Times that Obama had been a Muslim then. But Obama has denied that emphatically. In 2007 Obama described his maternal grandparents, who ended up raising him, as “nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists.” Obama himself has stated, without reservation, that he is a Christian.

But none of that stops the emails that claim all sorts of Muslim connections to Obama. What fuels all the those silly e-mails that go around about Obama’s past is the secrecy of his past. All we really know about Obama is what he wrote in his books. He has refused to allow any school records, grades, papers written or published by him, or any other record from when he was young to be released. The media never seemed much interested in them either, leaving people to speculate. When people speculate, all kinds of things get tossed around. Obama isn’t alone. So the next time a liberal rants about these crazy e-mails floating around about Obama, remind him that the left did the same with Pres. Bush. Here[1] is list of e-mails, rumors, and stories that went around about Pres.Bush when he was president, including that he refused to sell his home to a black family[2]. It gets ridiculous on both sides. But the difference is that Bush didn’t add fuel to the fire, so to speak, about the rumors regarding him.

One rumor, which is true, that gets passed around constantly comes from an interview he did in 2007 with the New York Times:[3]

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

It didn’t help when he mis-spoke in an television interview with George Stephanopoulos referring to his, “Muslim faith,” only to be gently corrected by Stephanopoulos himself.

And then he declared on April 6, 2009, “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.” His many speeches reaching out to the Muslim world doesn’t help. Not that I think he shouldn’t have done it. It’s just that it might have been better if he had evened it out a bit with some Christian references, other than the ones he seems to only use when speaking in a black church.

He said in Cairo in 2007, “I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. “

Given all this, it’s not hard to see why so many Americans, including Democrats don’t think Obama is a Christian.

The birther thing is a whole other story. Something like 27% of Americans doubt Obama was born in Hawaii. I’m sure the same percentage or more of the left believe Bush did cocaine, and lied about intelligence in Iraq. That’s the way it is when you are President. People believe untrue things about you. The left likes to ridicule those who are “birthers,” but their side believed just as many speculative things about Bush.

The problem with the Muslim thing is it seems to be a constant theme. Even with Michelle. It wasn’t reported here in the United States, but there is a Spanish news site called Libertad Digital, that reported that when Michelle Obama visited Spain she mostly toured Andalusia, the region with the most visible remains of the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. They said she wasn’t interested in any of Spain’s magnificent churches or monasteries, only in Islamic architecture, such as the Alhambra palace in Granada. They said it might be nice if next time the Obamas visit Europe if they acknowledge the continent’s Judeo-Christian heritage. (via The Week)

Obama has referred to the American Christian religious as “clinging to their guns and Bibles.” Yet he has never made such a condescending remark about Islam. And finally, Obama’s seemingly support of the Ground Zero Mosque doesn’t help. All this adds up to some crazy theories, beliefs, and downright falsehoods. But he really has no one to blame but himself.

I don’t believe Obama is or ever has been a Muslim. I also don’t believe he is a Christian. Now, that’s just my opinion, and nothing more. I think he joined Rev. Wright’s Church for political reasons only. He wrote that both his mother and his grandparents were not religious, but encouraged him to learn about all the great faiths. I think he has the same view as those who raised him. I think he looks at religion from a scholarly point of view only.

Given all this, I expect to see Obama step up his “Christian faith” in the coming days. He’s a politician after all. It’s what they do.