06/26/2023
The Left is always accusing conservatives of believing that former President Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim, possibly having a secret prayer rug in his quarters in the White House, and asking people like Frank Gaffney the gotcha question “Do you think Obama is a Muslim?” on talk shows. (Gaffney’s answer, to the late Allan Colmes in 2015: “I have no idea. I think he was one … He grew up in the Muslim faith … “)
That’s a perfectly reasonable answer, since belief in the Muslim faith would be something taking place inside Obama’s head. (The ex-President is nominally a Christian.)
In a 2010 column called Obama A Muslim? It Depends On What The Meaning Of The Word “Muslim” Is, I wrote
President Obama is officially not a Muslim. He was sworn in on a Bible, not the Koran that Black Muslim Keith Ellison (DFL-MN, 5th District) was sworn in on. He was sworn in as Barack Hussein Obama — the name that John McCain wouldn’t use, and wouldn’t allow others to use, in the 2008 campaign.
As the natural son of one Muslim (Barack Sr.) and the adoptive son of another (Lolo Soetoro), Obama was raised in and traveled to Muslim countries as a youth. There he went to Muslim schools, where he was considered a Muslim, and practiced Islam, eating Halal foods, observing the Muslim Sabbath, attending Muslim divine services.
[Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam, By Daniel Pipes, FrontPageMagazine.com, January 7, 2008]
Now Daniel Pipes is back, explaining what happened to him when he produced, in 2007 and again in 2012, evidence of Obama’s Muslim upbringing:
I wrote five times on this topic in 2007-08, during Obama’s first presidential campaign (three of those times in FrontPageMag.com) and then aggregated all this information, plus new details, in a long and (so far) definitive September 2012 article, “Obama’s Muslim Childhood,” serialized in the Washington Times.
All those writings emphasized that Obama was now a Christian. The first one began with:
“If I were a Muslim I would let you know,” Barack Obama has said, and I believe him. In fact, he is a practicing Christian, a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. He is not now a Muslim. But was he ever a Muslim or seen by others as a Muslim?
Here’s how the Left responded:
Responses came fast and hard. Ben Rhodes’ “echo chamber” nearly fainted at the impudence of my lèse majesté. Like Kurtz, I was slandered without the facts I presented ever addressed. Here’s a small sampling of the deluge:
- Ben Smith in Politico derided my analysis as “the template for a faux-legitimate assault on Obama’s religion.”
- The Spectator called mine the “the worst article on the presidential election” and also deemed it “mad” and “despicable.”
- Martin Peretz in the New Republic said I had “simply gone bonkers … and malicious.”
- Vice ran an article “Would You Care If Obama Were Muslim?” that responded to my carefully-crafted argument with “BLARGHA BLARGHA BLARGH REPEAL OBAMA BIN HUSSEIN’S GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF OUR JOBS.”
He’s not exaggerating or paraphrasing Vice’s response. That’s literally what they said:
The Atlantic published no less than three attacks on the article and me. Mark Ambinder rued “the false notion that Obama is or was ever Muslim.” Andrew Sullivan dismissed my work as “toxins.” Matthew Yglesias ridiculed my saying that I believe Obama is not now a Muslim with “I, for one, believe Daniel Pipes when he says he’s not a child molester.”
And so it went, howling with outrage at the very thought of Obama as a Muslim …
Of course, it’s perfectly correct to think of Obama as a Muslim, even if he professes Christianity. In 2010, I pointed to the almost precisely similar case of 19th century Prime Minister of Great Britain, Benjamin Disraeli:
Disraeli really was an Anglican. He was baptized, went to church, swore all his oaths as a Christian, and never, as far as anyone knows, attended any Jewish religious ceremony. But he’s still considered Britain’s first Jewish Prime Minister by the British Government and by the Jewish Virtual Library.
Disraeli is famous for saying (in a novel), “All is race; there is no other truth.”
Peter Brimelow is also famous (or possibly infamous) for saying ”Race is destiny in American politics.”
It’s quite possible history will remember Obama as America’s first Muslim President, but how will it remember the 21st century Left?
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.