The ongoing confrontation between the supporters and opponents of building an Islamic center near Ground Zero has brought back the spotlight on the religious identity of Barack Obama. In a survey published in USA Today in April 2008, 10 percent of Americans said they believe he is a Muslim, while 53 percent said they believe he is a Christian. However, a poll on the background of the debate on the Islamic center was held by the Pew Foundation, and found that 19 percent of Americans now believe Obama is Muslim, against 34 percent who believe he is Christian. Then again, a poll by Time magazine recently showed that 24 percent of Americans believe he is Muslim. During the presidential election campaign, Obama was accused of being a ‘secret' Muslim, and even of not having been born in the United States. After he won the elections and became president, these accusations continued. Now, there is a group called the Birthers that refuse to believe he was born in Hawaii to a Black Muslim father and a non-religious American mother, and was raised by a Muslim stepfather. The Obama camp responded to the rumors in a firm manner and issued a statement that said, “Barack Obama is not and has never been a Muslim. Obama has never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim and is a committed Christian who attends United Church of Christ [in Chicago]”. The controversy continued and Obama did not help his cause much when, in an interview with the New York Times in February 2008, he said that “the Adhan, [the Muslim call to prayer], is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset”, and recited it to the newspaper's reporter. Later on, he told People Magazine that he and his wife do not give their daughters gifts on Christmas. And when the time for the National Day of Prayer came for the first time in his term on 7/5/2009, he did not observe the tradition and did not organize a prayer ceremony in the White House, and then neglected this even for a second time this year. Nonetheless, he organized an Iftar dinner in the White House on the occasion of the fast of Ramadan this year, to which he invited the ambassadors of Islamic countries and others. In other words, President Obama gave his political opponents ammunition to use against him, and perhaps he realized this too late. During the Iftar ceremony in the White House, the President said, “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. This includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.” However, he was met with an uproar that is yet to settle for this statement, while the senior figures in the Democratic Party feared that this position might make matters worse for the Party's candidates in the midterm elections in two months. President Obama gave a statement on the next day, and said, “"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there”. However, his backtracking only made the campaigns against him fiercer, and the question of whether he is Muslim or Christian, and whether or not he was born in the United States has indeed become a major issue, after it had been previously exclusively championed by fringe extremist groups that are respected by none. Scores of politicians and some of the most prominent journalists are now parroting day after day the claim that Obama is a Muslim. Here, I can only give one example which is that of Ann Coulter, a right-wing extremist writer. She gave an opinion that went against the herd when she said that the claim that Barack Obama is a Muslim is ridiculous and must stop because Obama is an atheist. She decided that Obama has never prayed as a Muslim, while the only one who saw him praying in the United Church of Christ for 20 years is the Church's Pastor the Black Reverend Jeremiah Wright who hates the United States and thus, his testimonies cannot be accepted. But how did Coulter arrive to the conclusion that Obama is an atheist? She deduced this by using the path of least resistance: He is a liberal and all liberals are atheist, notwithstanding their claims to the contrary. In other words, Coulter has a monopoly on religious truth, be it Christian, Islamic or Jewish, for her and for the extremists like her. The issue is not just a story I am conveying to the readers. The President's stance is unpopular, and polls show that 70 percent of Americans oppose the construction of the Islamic center in the proposed location, which means that the Democratic candidates are losing popular support that they are in dire need of with the ongoing momentous financial crisis, and the shamelessness of the Republications who caused it and then blamed Barack Obama for it. Perhaps it is a consolation for Barack Obama, who knows his country's history well, that Abraham Lincoln was accused of being a Catholic, and Franklin Roosevelt of being Jewish. Thus, Obama's accusers are placing him in the same basket with two of America's greatest presidents.
