Barack Obama just can’t win with some people. Either he’s too Muslim, or not Muslim enough. In a bizarre op-ed in the New York Times May 12, “President Apostate,” Edward Luttwak warns :
As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason…
At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.
Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion provides typically astute annotation:
How does it help “the fight against terrorism” to reject a candidate who is (allegedly) unacceptable to foreign Islamists? Why is this not the “appeasement” that conservatives are constantly denouncing? We might also ask whether Luttwak would have raised such a concern about an ex-Muslim-turned-Republican firebrand running for president…
However, while Luttwak is unable to give us any actual examples of Islamists who want Obama dead (and indeed, much of the anti-Obama rhetoric has been based on the assertion that organisations like Hamas would prefer him as president), it is that case that the adherents of one particular ideology have threatened to kill him, and they are based in the USA rather than the Muslim world. Jesus’ General has a quote from a certain racist radio host named Hal Turner:
…I’m starting to come to the realization that it may be up to a sole person, acting alone, to make certain this guy is never allowed to hold the most powerful office in the world. Sorry it may have to be that way, but it may.
Probably this kind of thing already “complicates the security planning” of Obama’s movements.
See our last posts on Barack Obama and the struggle within Islam.
