No, it's true. I mean, 52% of people polled in that great progressive state of Mississippi believe it, so it must be true. After my initial shock, I spent a few hours thinking about why they believe it and I came to the conclusion that the number one reason why is because of something that's hard to argue with, your gut instincts.
I spent some time thinking about those "gut" instincts, why the same person who earns such love and loyalty from me inspires such hatred and fear from others.
As I pondered, I was really wishing that his mother hadn't decided to name him Hussein, which is Arabic in origin, and means "good; small handsome one." I personally believe him to be a good man and handsome, so ultimately she got that right, but how could she possibly have known how that would hamper him politically, right? And then there's that other weird name, Barack, which is an African name meaning "blessed." Well, that name certainly hasn't blessed my favorite Prez in the political climate we've lived in since 9/11, but how could his mother possibly have foreseen that as she did a very traditional thing, naming her son after his father.
I've heard many people opine that the whole "Obama is Muslim" is just a way of being racist without using the N word. I'm sure there is some of that. But the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that what may bug the racists more than ANYTHING, is that Obama doesn't present as a black man. I was raised by an unrepentent racist and I can assure you that what she would have said is, "He don't know he's a nigger." As I flinched... and argued, I can assure you.
I wonder if I'm the only one who felt that Halle Berry's excessive joy in being the first "black" actress to win the Academy Award for Lead Actress was just a touch excessive and pretty dismissive of her Caucasian mother, who contributed at least half of her gene pool. Similarly, President Obama isn't truly our first black president for a number of reasons. Firstly, like Ms. Berry, he is biracial. Coming from the South, I am perfectly aware that from time immemorial even a "drop" of black blood was sufficient to condemn you to lower caste status. But Obama also doesn't present as a black man because he wasn't raised in the black culture and didn't come from a history of enslavement and cultural conditioning of being downtrodden. Having been mostly reared by his white mother and her family he probably would have been subjected to a lot of prejudice from his school peers had he not lived in Hawaii, which is far more racially diverse than any other place in America, along with the time he spent in Indonesia during his mother's second marriage.
Much as been made by his detractors of that period since in their mind his mother's second husband having been Muslim and the time her son spent being educated in both Muslim and Catholic schools convinces them that he was trained as a Muslim. I guess it's sort of convenient to forget he also got some Catholic training and it wouldn't help him politically to say that his mother was an atheist who was more interested in her son's education than she was in his indoctrination into any organized religion.
I conclude from all these musings that the real "truth" behind the "belief" that Obama is Muslim is not just the result of scurrilous pushing of this meme by his opponents (although there has been plenty of that), but because Barack Hussein Obama presents as a truly unique individual outside of the experiences of most Americans, and, given his background, how could he not? It is his "otherness" which makes him suspect to those who are committed to suspect him. He is guilty of that great crime of not being "one of us." Thus he most be Muslim... and their gut instinct to reject him is satisfied.
My beloved older brother (from Mississippi, very conservative and religious) was concerned about my support of and vigorously working to elect Obama in 2008. One day he said to me, very sadly, "What are you going to do if Obama turns out not to be the person you think he is?" To which I replied, "What are you going to do if he is the person I believe him to be?" He had no reply because he clearly believed that one day I would see the light. I've never asked him if he thinks Obama is Muslim, primarily because I'm pretty sure I already know the answer.