The Real Truth About Obama and Islam

By Eric K. Ward

If smoking as many cigs as I can is the best way to get over my urge to smoke, than those who are convinced to prove that Obama is a “Muslim in disguised” have done one even better. Their massive email drives have single handily assured that I will never, ever, check my Yahoo email account again. Since the middle of March I have received, at last count, over one hundred and sixty-eight emails pleading with me to understand that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and might even be a follower of Islam too!

Granted I’m a survivor of what’s left of the public school system in the United States, but I was always taught that being a Muslim means you are a follower of Islam. Like a good syndicated episode of the X-Files, my Obama is a Secret Muslim Friends (or OSMF as I like to refer to them), don’t let a good conspiracy yarn get in the way of the facts.

From a sampling of these emails you would think that my OSMF had the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution incarcerated in Guantanamo while I was off sampling my 5 PM Gin Martini (dry, stirred and three olives, if you’re curious)? Also, if you’re wondering if all these rumors have any grain of truth to them, stay tuned readers, I have the real answer for you at the end of this blog.

While my unchecked Yahoo account continues to fill up with OSMF (I just received another while writing this) I want to suspend their particular fantasy and insert my own question. Is it the false belief, that Obama is a secret Muslim, that will drive potential voters away from this particular candidate, or does the lie that Obama is a secret Muslim simply provide people the excuse they were looking for not to vote for him? Let’s test it out.

Let’s say that Obama was Muslim. What would be the big deal? We didn’t have a problem when Muslims gave us free labor (it is estimated that nearly 13% - 20% of enslaved Africans in the America’s were followers of Islam). We don’t seem to have a problem with American Revolutionary War Hero Peter Salem being placed on a postage stamp. We didn’t cry conspiracy when that Muslim country, called Morocco, stepped forward to be the first country to officially recognize the young fledging United States. Nor did we raise a big stink when Islam helped to influence America’s very own, The Blues. I guess it’s okay to be a Muslim in America as long as you don’t run for President, seriously?

So after all of this, it still comes down to that one question I promised to answer: “Is Barack Obama Muslim?” Does it really matter?

Our litmus test for who is the best President should revolve around knowing if our vote counts, how we’re going to put food on the table, how much we’re paying for gas at the pump, and keeping our children in schools were the teacher doesn’t have to work two jobs to survive. Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, or Baha’i (or no belief at all), we have more in common with each other than my OSMF. That’s because in our America, it’s not the religious lines that increasingly concerns us, but the economic one.