A great piece by Ellis Cose on Obama and so what if he actually were a Muslim. It is a great point that is rarely brought up in the news these days and associating someone with Islam automatically becomes a negative. Personally I would have liked to see Obama come out from the start to say that even though he isn’t a Muslim, there is nothing wrong with being called one. He separated himself from that faster than Joe Lieberman with the Democratic base which has been a little disappointing. You have also seen him avoid any campaigning in Mosques or with Muslim groups but he has had little problems making campaign stops in Churches or Synagoges.
So yea, everyone knows he is still scared to be associated with the Muslims community and he pretty much knows they are going to vote Democratic this year as opposed to in 2000 when Bush pretty much got the Muslim vote in a landslide. You know why? Because of Al Gore’s running mate’s religion. It wouldn’t surprise me if some study finds the Muslim community (although I don’t know how many of them would publicly admit voting Republican just solely on that reason) 3 out of every 4 voted for Bush/Cheney over Gore/Lieberman. It’s without a touchy subject that no one wants to invoke a race or religion card because just face the facts, those two subjects play a key role in every election. Look at the religion of every President elected since John F. Kennedy and tell me what their religion has been. Is it just by coincidence that 50% of the Presidents of America have been either Episcopalian or Presbyterian, groups that make up a combined 4.5% of the ENTIRE population of the United States of America?
One can certainly say that the following 8 years were brought on themselves given that they knew the history with George H. W. Bush and everyone that was associated within his campaign (Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc.)… did we really expect something different from his son?
Now it’s Obama’s way of getting the best of both words – getting an entire community which probably makes up 8-10 million people in the country to vote his way with him having to do little to no campaigning because I think they/we learned from the mistake of 2000.
Here is an excerpt from the article I was referring to:
Of course, even if he were a Muslim, that should be no big deal. In a country that officially separates church and state, a man’s religious beliefs are his own affair. Still, nearly half a century after John F. Kennedy became America’s first (and, thus far, only) Roman Catholic president, we haven’t fully accepted the notion that all religions should have equal access to the Oval Office.
At the start of the political season, when Mitt Romney seemed to have a shot at the Republican nomination, pollsters sought to determine whether his Mormonism might hurt him. Nearly a third of voters, they found, were less likely to support a Mormon. But some 45 percent were wary of Muslim candidates. For Obama, that is a potential problem—particularly in a race that shows ever more signs of being extremely close.
To read the rest of the article, click the source below.
[Source: Newsweek – So What If He Were Muslim?
Wikipedia – List of US Presidents Religious Affiliations
Adherents – Religious Affiliation of U.S. Presidents]
