Probably not a Muslim by now, but certainly an islamophile

Submitted by Armand (Japan), Feb 26, 2012 at 03:48

I regret that you would quote the reference to "My Muslim faith". Obama was deploring those who tried to convince voters of his Muslim faith; the worse he can be accused of in that case is to have forgotten the word "alleged".

Although there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of his conversion to Christianity, what imports to the world is that Obama - who no one denies was born a Muslim and partly raised as one - retains a huge amount of sympathy for the Muslim culture. He did choose Pakistan as a travel destination as a young man and is on record waxing emotional about the beauty that is the muezzin's call to prayer.

This deep-seated personal sympathy is a problem for the US even in a Christian president. Combined with a huge gaps in his actual islamic culture, it leads the president to instinctively side with Muslims in the various, ahem, differences that they have with all neighboring cultures, bar none. Since, in most cases, the neighbours are the true friends of the US and the Muslim party tends to hate America, this inclination does create a problem for American power.

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