Brilliant insight from Jeffrey Goldberg:
Such a ridiculous question, is Obama a Muslim? Of course he’s not. He’s a Druid. But a Reform Druid. Meaning he only worships shrubbery.
I can’t believe this question is still being posed. Or that it was posed at all. Or that people seem to be missing the subtext of the question which is that being a Muslim is a bad, bad thing.
So 20% of Americans think Obama’s a Muslim? 20% of Americans also believe in UFOs and think that 9/11 was an inside job.
People will always believe in dumb and irrational things for the sake of the sensationalism that comes with “standing out”.
Enough, already. Let’s move on.
Rabbi Jesse Paikin 
Why is it “dumb” for people to believe that Obama is a Muslim? Also, why in the world would any American think it dumb to think that Obama being Muslim was a bad thing?
We would have thought it was bad for the POTUS to be a Nazi during WW2. This is largely the same.
Jonolan,
It’s dumb for people to believe that Obama is a Muslim because his religion has already been established, and there’s no evidence to support anything otherwise.
Why is it dumb and irrational to think that Obama being a Muslim is a bad thing? Because that establishes a hierarchy of acceptable religions and beliefs, and that is patently un-American. Full disclosure: I am not an American, though I live and work in the USA. While I was not raised with an American education or worldview, I’m pretty certain that freedom of religion is a defining facet of this country.
Your equating Nazism with Islam is troubling, and is largely (entirely) dissimilar to the current state of affairs. I’m going to defer to Peter Wehner on this one, as I think he has something eloquent to say regarding this:
Nazism was intrinsically malevolent, whereas [Islam is] not…
It is true, of course, that far too many Muslims in the world embrace a form of militant Islam; to deny that would be to deny reality. Those who attacked us on September 11 did so in the name of Islam. And those are not, by any means, the only attacks the world (or America) has witnessed.
At the same time, we have to be very careful not to conflate American Muslims with al-Qaeda and Wahhabism or argue, explicitly or implicitly, that mosques qua mosques are comparable to Nazism. Some mosques do fan the flames of hatred and violence; but of course many more do not.
One – How has Obama’s religion been established? He has previously claimed to be Muslim, claimed to be Christian (though I don’t think that Black Liberation Theology counts as Christian), and claimed some odd, multi-faith spirituality. All of that has been recorded on camera and is available on YoutTube if you want to vet my assertion.
Two – There has always been a hierarchy of acceptable behavior in all civilized countries. Even without the war between the West and Islam, that particular cult espouses behaviors that Americans find grossly reprehensible.
Jihad through terrorism may be a minority action within Islam but there are plenty of other behaviors that Americans actually hate worse that are completely mainstream in the cult. It is, in point of fact, intrinsically malevolent but I’ll grant you that it is not intrinsically violent towards America.
So, a Muslim is either the equivalent of a Nazi or one of the masses of the German who were complicit in what those Nazis did – if we’re sticking with my analogy.
With you reafirming your belief that all Muslims are equal to those who perpatrated the Holocaust, I guess we don’t have much more to talk about. It doesn’t really contribute to this debate, and is rather insulting and debasing.
I’ll only conclude by asking if you can provide a credible and reliable source for your assertions that Obama has claimed to be Muslim, Black Liberation Theologist, and “some odd, multi-faith spirituality.” Just curious…
Unless you agree with assertion that all Germans were part of the Holocaust, you’ve chosen the normal Liberal twisting of words you disagree with since I said that all Muslims are either terrorist jihadis or complicit in the activities of them by their lack of forceful dissent (only one fatwah against it) against it.
But to more specific matters:
Obama’s Muslim faith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMUgNg7aD8M
Trinity UCC Black liberation Theology: http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=3392
Obama’s statement about his personal theology (apparently a hodpodge) was another interview but I can’t find a link.