Is Obama Muslim (No!)

So a lot of very smart people on the right still by into the ludicrous idea that Barak Obama is Muslim. One has to ask why? Because of the tone of his skin? His last name? The nation of origin of his father? (I'm not even going to get into the even more ludicrous birther argument - his birth certificate and hospital records disproved that long ago). Let's look at three things in turn: His last name, the nation of origin of his father, and where he actually worships.

First, his name, Barack Hussein Obama. His first name, Barack, has Semitic roots. That’s right, Hebrew. It is derived from a Biblical Isrealite general and is found in Judges 4. Does this make him a Jew? Hardly. It just means he has a name with Semitic roots. His middle name does have Arabic roots, and was first seen when Muhammed named his grandson Husayn ibn Ali. Does this make him Muslim? No more than his first name makes him Jewish. Now, his last name. Obama is a Luo name (NOT Arabic, nor Muslim), a people who can be found in Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo, and Tanzania. Of these countries, only Tanzania has Islam as its majority religion, and there at only 35%, while Christians make up 30% of Tanzanians. Of the others, Christianity is the majority religion, and by a very large margin: Kenya 70%, South Sudan 60.5%, Uganda 85%, Ethiopia 63%, and Congo 80%. In other words, the majority religion of the Luo is Christianity. Not Islam.

His father hails from Kenya (imagine that, a Kenyan having a Kenyan last name, not Arabic!). So just going off the majority religion, one would need to infer that Obama’s father, and probably Obama himself, is Christian. It is the most likely religion of any person hailing from that country by its prevalence.

Finally, just pay attention, people! President Obama calls himself Christian, He makes Christian references when he speaks, no Islamic. He baptized his children as Christians – hardly a Muslim act. We even know which church he attended before he took office – the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. And he currently attends the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. Again, hardly the acts of a Muslim.

So, please, for Pete’s sake, stop it with this nonsense of “Obama is a Muslim.” You just look the fool when you buy into that. And you make yourself look like an ignorant racist, to boot. But even if he were Muslim, should it matter? No! As long as he keeps his religion out of his politics, as the Constitution demands, he could worship a flying purple space cow for all I care.