Does it Matter if Obama is a Muslim?

As I scroll through my blogroll this morning there are lots of stories about Obama's comment about America being one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.

From The Caucus:

"The president said the United States and other parts of the Western world 'have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam.'

“'And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world,' Mr. Obama said. 'And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.'"

WTF?

Dan Spencer at Red State has the best response to this:

Obama may be technically correct. If you compare the “number of Muslim Americans” — 1.8 to 3.0 million — to the Muslim population of other countries, 55 of 175 countries have more Muslims than does the United States. Nevertheless, his convoluted argument reminds me of that old adage you can prove anything with statistics.

If you consider the same population numbers and look at them as percentages, the usual and more meaningful way to deal with demographic data, you find that only 53 of 175 countries have a smaller Muslim population than does the United States. Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.

Take that on the heels of this comment Obama made in April in Turkey:

"One of the great strengths of the United States," the President said, "is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

There was a lot of flak about that comment, given that he seemed to be denouncing the Christian roots upon which the Founding Fathers began this country. He was not speaking for a lot of Americans when he made that comment. It still rankles.

The part of Obama's most recent comment that puzzles is when he says that Americans have to "educate ourselves more effectively on Islam." Why? Because that's HIS religion? Because we need to better understand why the extreme wing of that religion wants to kill us? Why they hate us? Before you decapitate me in the comments, understand that I'm not criticizing the peaceful end of that religion. What I'm criticizing is the continued apologetic tone in Obama's references to Americans.

We don't understand Islam so we are at fault.

And he's not actually including himself when he says "ourselves" - it's more of a royal "we" that he is using. "We are not amused." HE understands Islam pretty darn well because the OTHER big story while you were sleeping is that now it's okay to refer to him as a Muslim - he's now embracing his Muslim roots.

Gateway Pundit tracks that one back through the campaign - how it wasn't okay but now it is.

Jake Tapper wrote about this new view last night:

During a conference call in preparation for President Obama's trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said "the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago."

But, during the campaign, on the Fight the Smears site, Obama was a "committed Christian." Maybe. Maybe not. Why does it matter?

It matters because it all affects Obama's world view and how he presents America to the rest of the world. Consider how he is now shutting out Israel. Israel has been our staunch ally in the Middle East and what are we now doing to them? Giving them ultimatums.

"United States President Barack Obama intends to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu four to six weeks to provide an "updated position" regarding construction in West Bank settlements and the two-state principle. "

Daniel Pipes writes "Even if one ignores the folly of focusing on Jerusalemites adding recreation rooms to their houses rather than Iranians adding centrifuges to their nuclear infrastructure and even if one overlooks the obvious counter productivity of letting Abbas off the hook – the new U.S. approach is doomed." (H/T: Israel Matzev)

So what does it all mean? So Obama is pretty much a Muslim, sees America as one of the largest Muslim countries in the world, and is turning Israel out into the cold. He told us he was going to remake America. We shouldn't be surprised at any of this.

Obama's America is a Muslim America with socialism. We've nationalized the banks, the auto industry and soon health care.

In the end what it means is that he may or may not be a Muslim but he does say and do whatever is politically expedient at the time. Which is I guess what all politicians do, to some degree. I don't care if he's Muslim. I don't care if he isn't. What I do care about is how he represents this country to the rest of the world and how he alienates our allies. I do care about how he's destroying the economy and socializing our country.