Suddenly Obama Has Muslim Roots

Politics | Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 8:40:33 am PST

In the National Post, Steven Edwards notes that suddenly it's fine for Barack Obama to mention his Muslim roots-when he talks to Al Arabiya.

During the U.S presidential campaign, Barack Obama's handlers vigourously pointed out his Christian faith whenever the misconception arose he may be Muslim (even though the politically correct response should have been his religion doesn't matter).

The handlers also roundly denounced any conservative commentator who might mention (mischievously, admittedly) his Arabic middle name, Hussein.

They charged that such usage was "fear mongering."

Once elected, however, he personally insisted on his middle name being spoken at his swearing-in ceremony.

And now - in a gesture to the Muslim world - he has not only granted the first sit-down interview of his presidency to a pan-Arab television network, but uses the occasion to gush about his Muslim ties.

"I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries," Obama tells Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, which is based in Dubai.

Indeed, Obama's Kenyan father, Barack Sr., was born into a Muslim family - though he became an atheist before arriving in Hawaii, where Obama Jr. was later born.

Obama also famously spent four years as a boy in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country.

All that's fine, except why was no one allowed to talk much about it before he snagged the Electoral College majority?

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