The Pew Research Center released a poll that showed 1 in 5 Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim, and that has caused an uproar. Then Iowa’s National Republican Committeewoman, Kim Lehman (who is a friend and contributes here on occasion) tweeted on Thursday, “@politico you’re funny. They must pay you a lot to protect Obama. BTW he personally told the muslims that he IS a muslim. Read his lips.” Now she’s taking some heat for those remarks.
There are a number of reasons why some believe he is a Muslim.
- His interview with George Stephanopoulos where he referred to “my Muslim faith” and had to be corrected.
- He extoled the Qur’an going beyond diplomacy.
- His being registered as a Muslim when attending school in Indonesia.
Those who have done more research than I’m willing to do on the subject could point out other reasons I’m sure. I personally don’t believe that he is a Muslim. He had a Muslim father and Muslim influence in his childhood. Because of this he does have sympathy toward Muslims and one can definitely accuse him of pandering to Muslims. If he is or was a Muslim he would be an apostate one because he certainly isn’t a practicing one.
He identifies himself as a Christian, though I would say that he and I would define that differently.
We do know for certain that he was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for 20 years pastored by Dr. Jeremiah Wright whom he considered a spiritual mentor. Dr. Wright is a proponent of Black Liberation Theology. Those spiritual leaders whom he goes to for guidance, like Jim Wallis, speak more about social justice than they do the Gospel. You can see this influence in his policies more than you can see Islam.
What you can see in his policies and interviews looking at his career is that he is impacted by social justice, does believe in redistributive justice, believes that Government is the solution to our societal ills, and does not believe in American exceptionalism. This is why he goes on apology tours of Europe. This is why he can pander to Muslim nations, and throw Israel under the bus. When you consider his worldview it sheds a lot of light on why he promotes the policies he does even at the expense of some in his own party.
No, President Obama is not a Muslim, but he is a statist who has given up on the traditional idea of American exceptionalism and that frankly scares me more. Debating that he is a Muslim to mean is a distraction from what his real agenda is.