From Redstate: Obama rebrands America as Muslim

Obama rebrands America as Muslim

Posted: 03 Jun 2009 02:51 AM PDT

Rebranding America as “one of the largest Muslim countries” is not at all what I had in mind when I called for then candidate Obama to confront his Muslim issue head on.

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, President Obama said the United States could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world“:

And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.

You can watch the interview here (thanks to Richard Fernandez for the link). There is French dubbing on the video, but you can hear Obama brand America as “one of the largest Muslim countries” at the 2:25 mark of the video.

Obama may be technically correct. If you compare the “number of Muslim Americans” — 1.8 to 3.0 million — to the Muslim population of other countries, 55 of 175 countries have more Muslims than does the United States. Nevertheless, his convoluted argument reminds me of that old adage you can prove anything with statistics.

If you consider the same population numbers and look at them as percentages, the usual and more meaningful way to deal with demographic data, you find that only 53 of 175 countries have a smaller Muslim population than does the United States. Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.

Now that he is President, Obama is no longer hiding from his Muslim heritage.

ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report that in preparation for President Obama’s trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said “the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to — or before he’s been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world — you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father — obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.”

That is a far cry from candidate Obama’s constant emphasis of his Christianity, downplaying the fact that his father was born Muslim, and distancing himself from his middle name.

I’m glad that Obama is finally facing his fear of his Muslim issue. As I wrote a year ago, I was raised to respect others and was taught that I should strive, like God, to be “no respecter of persons.” I’ve always tried to do that. It does not matter to me what a person’s religious beliefs are. What is important to me is that our leaders have some religious belief.