Charlie Chaplin was an agnostic, and there is no evidence that he had any Jewish ancestry. Yet throughout his life rumors circulated that he was a Jew. The Nazi propaganda machine regularly denounced Chaplin as a Jew, and even the FBI during the McCarthy era in the 1950's, while investigating Chaplin for his alleged Communist ties, noted in the investigative file that Chaplin was a Jew, born under the name Karl or Israel Thonstein.
Throughout his life, Chaplin was often asked if he was a Jew. Charlie Chaplin always answered, "I won't deny being Jewish." Charlie Chaplin was offended at these rumors because of what they revealed about Christian and American society. Chaplin felt strongly that there was nothing wrong about being Jewish. Even though he was not a Jew, he was not going to appease these bigots by denying a fact for which one should feel no regret or disgrace. There was nothing wrong, nothing negative, about being Jewish, so why should he deny it? And he never did.
Barack Obama could learn a lesson from Charlie Chaplin.
When confronted by the lies spread on the internet that he is a Muslim, Senator Obama has always denied being a Muslim and asserted that he is a church going Christian. But, in denying he is a Muslim, he is feeding the lies of the bigots.
What is wrong with being a Muslim? Muslims, Jews, and Christians all believe in one God, the same God. Should Muslims be ashamed of their faith? When Barack Obama denies that he is a Muslim, as if it were something of which one should be ashamed, he is in danger of offending the one billion plus Moslems on this planet.
Barack Obama should take a lesson from Charlie Chaplin and stop denying he is a Muslim. He needs to state that he is proud of his Muslim ancestry, on his father's side, and proud of the Moslem ancestry of his step-father, that although he is a Christian, there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, and that most Muslims, like most Christians and most Jews, are decent people.