OBAMA’S RELIGION IS HIMSELF, NOT ISLAM

When the Pew Research Center released a poll with awkward results for the White House, the Associated Press raced to do what it could to help.

“Americans are increasingly convinced — incorrectly — that President Barack Obama is a Moslem, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion,” the AP said.

According to Pew, 18 percent of Americans (up from 11 percent last year) think Mr. Obama is a Moslem; 34 percent think he is a Christian, and 43 percent say they don’t know.

On what basis does the AP declare the 18 percent are wrong?

Because Mr. Obama denies being a Moslem.  But he’s also said the economy is recovering; that Obamacare would cut the deficit, and that his would be the most transparent administration in history.

If the AP were a news organization instead of a propaganda arm of the Democratic National Committee, it would have reported the Pew results in the lede graf, followed by a paragraph containing Mr. Obama’s assertion he is a Christian.

It then would be fair — and enlightening — to note that according to various polls, large numbers of Americans believe screwy things (36 percent that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job; 34 percent in UFOs; 24 percent in reincarnation; 6 percent that the moon landing was faked), or are appallingly ignorant (26 percent don’t know from which country we declared our independence; 6 percent don’t know Hawaii is a state).

Compared to these, the belief — mistaken or not — that Mr. Obama is a Moslem is not unreasonable.  He has a Moslem name.  His grandfather and stepfather were Moslems.  He attended for a time a Moslem school.  As president, he’s given lots of attention — much of it fawning and sycophantic, as when he bowed to Saudi Arabia’s king — to Moslems.

And although Mr. Obama has celebrated prominently Moslem holidays — such as the iftar dinner at which he appeared to endorse construction of the Ground Zero mosque — he doesn’t go to church.  His aides say this is because he doesn’t want to cause inconvenience, which could well be true.  Ronald Reagan didn’t go to church much, either.  But Mr. Obama doesn’t seem to worry much about causing disturbances when he’s raising money for Democrats, as when he caused a monumental traffic jam in Los Angeles last week.

When Mr. Obama did go to church, it was to the church of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (a former Muslim), where the sermons were about race hate and Marxism. 

Mr. Obama’s aides say he prays and reads a devotional each day.  But we have only their word for that.

I don’t think Mr. Obama is a Moslem, for two reasons.  The lesser is that with all the time he spends worshipping himself, I doubt he has much devotion left over for another deity.

The greater reason is that — from what I can glean from his public statements — Mr. Obama’s understanding of Islam is cartoonish and puerile.  Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch described his iftar speech as “a few platitudes lifted straight out of a ninth grade World Religions textbook.”

The president’s pandering to Moslems seems more the product of a secular multi-culturalist world view than a religious one.  His view of Islam seems that of an agnostic who has a condescending view of all religions — but somewhat of a soft spot for Islam, because its more radical adherents hate the United States so.  A practicing Moslem would know better what actually is in the Koran, and how interpretations of it differ among Sunnis, Wahhabis, Salafis, Shia and Sufis.

And a practicing Moslem would be able to distinguish between genuinely moderate Moslems (those who have no desire to impose their religion upon others) and those aligned with Hamas who want to build a “victory mosque” near Ground Zero.

The rising number of people who think he is a Moslem, or who aren’t sure he isn’t, is a problem for Mr. Obama because it emphasizes his otherness — his detachment from most of the American people.  That’s why his allies in the news media rush to assure us he’s a practicing Christian, and to remind us that most who doubt this are conservative Republicans.  But, according to Pew, just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats think Mr. Obama is a Christian.

Bob Schieffer of CBS blames the internet for the rising belief Mr. Obama is a Moslem.  But responsibility for the confusion rests mostly with Mr. Obama.