Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

So What? A Thought Experiment

Okay, I suspect this could be a hot potato, but what the heck. Our friends over at RedState.com have debunked yet another Obama is a secret muslim story. Good that someone in the right-blogosphere is policing pure rumor-mongering from our side of the aisle. It seems to me that Obama’s connection with the Rev. Wright is more damaging than being a muslim.

In fact, let’s stipulate for the purposes of a clarifying discussion that Obama was an actual muslim, and not a supposed closet muslim. So what? Beyond the Article VI clause that there is no religious test for office, why would it make a difference if Obama were a muslim? Do we really think he would try to hand the country over to Osama, or to the mullahs and clerics of Tehran or the West Bank? Or try to impose sharia law on America’s women? Liberal Democrats would lead the charge to impeach him faster than Nancy Pelosi runs into a botox clinic. I’m more worried that he’ll merely want to turn the country over to Jimmy Carter.

To be sure, Americans broadly speaking want their presidents to be religious (polls show that Americans would not want an explicit atheist in the White House), so being a devout muslim, while exotic, should not in itself be a nonstarter. The real problem here is that we can’t make up our mind whether Islam is compatible with Anglo-American democracy, and are afraid to talk about this problem openly. As Pope Benedict found out, if you do try to bring up the deepest roots of this uncertainty, you often get a bad reaction.

Discussions - 7 Comments


Another problem is posts like this, that try to address something serious ( compatibility of Islam with western democracy) with idiot snark comments like Pelosi and botox. Whatever deep roots you wish to uncover, your attempts at humor conceal them all the more. Stick to Reagan apologetics.

ster - here's a serious address: you are a tool.

I saw an interview with Rick Warren on Nightline where he was asked if his TV show with McCain and Obama was a de facto religious test. He defiantly ansered no. Then he was aked if he could vote for a candidiate who was Jewish or Muslim. He said he would have no problem voting for a Jewish candidate--leaving the answer with regard to Islam silent. The interviewer declined to jump on this silence.

This is typical and understandable, because the question you ask in this post cannot be asked in "polite" television conversation. Besides, neither Warren nor his interviewer are probably capable of answering it intelligently.

The fact that it cannot be asked suggests you're onto something in your question--if the reaction to Benedict's lecture last year didn't already prove it.

BTW I read where Salman Rushdie has a new book which contains a biography--in lurid detail--about Muhammed. Here we go again!

I think Ster is a secret muslim.

Sorry, but it was me, Stertinius, not 'Ster.' And maybe Obama and I are secret muslims, radical followers of Abu Walid Muhammad Ibn Almad Ibn Rushd.

Stertinius thinks I've been frivolous about Pelosi. Well, I'll stand with The Economist magazine then, which described Pelosi as "a cross between Jesse Jackson and a Stepford Wife." Does she really measure up to Tip O'Neill or Sam Rayburn? I think not. . .

I always thought Salman Rushdie should double down and write a book entitled, "Buddah, You Fat F---"

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