no puzzlement

Submitted by Taj (United States), Sep 6, 2008 at 04:41

Contrary to Pipes' assertion, Muslims do not puzzle over Obama's religious status. We are clear that he is a Christian. While the cultural default everywhere is to assume a child religious status is connected to the parents, Islam assumes responsibility for religion as one of conscious self determination. The assumption that Muslims think Obama is a Muslim because his parent wrote him down as one when he was a child is misleading ...

Obama's importance to American Muslims especially is based on the fact that he is a minority. This is expecially important as over a third of Muslims in the US are African American. Muslims here and internationally are not confused by his arabic name, as in many Muslim countries there are Arab communities that are not Muslim, especially in countries like Egypt and Lebanon noted in the article.

The only issue Muslims take with Obama is the fact that as he has repeatedly defended himself against accusations that he is a Muslim, this has reinforced the islamophobic notion that no Muslim should or can be President. As at one time in this country, the popular notion was that no Black person could or should do the same thing, there are striking parallels with the experience of Muslims with the experience of other minorities, so Muslims hope to see a balance of tolerance from Obama.

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