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To: Smiling Bob who wrote (290614)	11/10/2010 4:04:55 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Barack Obama – First Muslim President? Technorati ^ \| November 10, 2010 \| by Ian Stevenson technorati.com Halfway through his term, the percentage of Americans that believe Barack Obama is Muslim continues to grow, while the number of those who see him as Christian shrinks. Why does this belief persist, in direct contradiction to all known facts? Probably the President himself should accept most of the responsibility. A look at his statements on the subject, could certainly lead to doubt about where his true loyalties lie. During his trip to India, when commenting on the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, he prefaced his rather mild condemnation with expressions of regret that extremists use the “great religion” of Islam to justify violence. Islam as a great religion is a common theme in the President's speeches. He believes that "throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality." This may explain his silence on the bombing of a Catholic church in Iraq. It simply doesn't mesh with his view of this religion of peace and tolerance. He personally chose to make no comment himself, leaving a White House spokesperson to make vague references to innocent Iraqi victims, with no mention at all of their religion. Of course, nothing was said of the fact that they were killed by Muslims for the crime of being Christian. Not only in the Middle East, but in other countries with a predominantly Islamic population, repression of other religions is common. Barack Obama has just wrapped up a visit to Indonesia, praising it as a country both “tolerant,” and “diverse.” While Indonesia officially recognizes freedom of religion, attacks on non-Muslims and their places of worship are largely ignored by the government. In recent months, in neighboring Malaysia, several Christian churches have been fire-bombed, or vandalized. If Barack Obama is aware of these abuses, he chooses to remain silent. Compare this to the President's speedy and unequivocal condemnation of the proposed burning of the Koran. It might be easy enough to conclude that he sees the destruction of an Islamic book as a far more heinous crime than the slaughter of Christians for their faith. Slow to get involved in the debate on the mosque at Ground Zero, he finally declared that Muslims had the same right to worship as any other religious group. When pressed for an opinion on its appropriateness, he refused to comment further. If his public statements are anything to go by, his interest in the rights of these “other religious groups” is minimal by comparison. Does it matter what the nation's leader's religious beliefs are? It shouldn't, but it clearly does. America is still a predominantly Christian nation, and strong Christian values are seen as part of strong leadership, while a perception exists that a Muslim in the highest office would be a security risk. The President's words do little to ease this fear. He is reluctant to place blame for any act of violence or intolerance on Muslims, but is always swift in his condemnation of anything he sees as Islamaphobic. Barack Obama's lack of willingness to speak out against jihad (a word that he believes has many meanings) can't help but raise doubts about his ability to combat this threat, nor will it do anything to stop the steadily increasing belief that he publicly professes (for purely political reasons) to being a Christian, while really being a follower of Islam.