In the midst of the controversy surrounding the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’, or to give it it’s more accurate and less outrage provoking title – ‘An Islamic Community Centre near Ground Zero’, it has emerged that one fifth of Americans believe their President, Barack Obama, to be a Muslim.

The basis for this widely held belief is rather unclear. Obama professes to be a Christian, thus one fifth of Americans must believe their President to be a liar. Quite what reason the President would have to lie about his faith is unclear, since whilst it is absolute that the President of America must be an American born citizen, there is no rule regarding the religion he or she must follow. Many Americans see Obama’s support for the building of the supposed ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ as being evidence for his secret devotion to Islam. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has also spoken out in defence of the new building however, and is yet to face accusations of veiled veneration to Allah. Where does the big difference lie? Well sadly its yet another example of the hypocrisy of a nation which proclaims values of freedom, liberty and equality and yet, at its very heart, is dedicated to racism, paranoia and xenophobia. The conspiracy theorists seize on the fact that Obama’s middle name is Hussein, something foreign sounding enough to terrify the good honest God Fearing Americans. Not only does the President share a name with one of the USAs great enemies of the last two decades but his surname sounds stirringly familiar to a certain, cave dwelling al Qaeda operative. As if the similarity to Osama wasn’t bad enough we have the all together more worrying similarity to ‘A Bomber’. Shockingly to the majority of hardcore, righwing, Glenn Beck loving conservatives the fact that Barack Obama is black means he is untrustworthy and unAmerican.

Now that the ranting is over, lets examine some of the evidence that Mr Obama could be a secret Muslim

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Now the truly paranoid, delusional and bizzare could dismiss all this evidence as part of the wider conspiracy Obama and his(pick and choose from) ‘socialist, fascist, communist, muslim’ cohorts are plotting, to destroy America ‘the last bastion of hope left in the world’

Lets take this charming Gentleman’s view…

This red capped ignoramus seems to think the actions of 19 fundamentalist extremists are a sufficient basis for a total understanding of a religion practised by over 1.6 Billion people. This paticular man also presumably believes Barack Obama to be a Muslim. On which basis he is probably locked in a bomb shelter awaiting the President’s issuing of a nuclear jihad or flying Air Force One into the Empire State building.

Whilst Right wing America stands scared of the question of their President’s faith, the truly terrifying thing is the ignorance and hypocrisy with which these people conduct themselves. Although one must give them credit for their marvellous ability to hold two completely conflicting ideas simultaeneosly. They think all Muslims are terrorists and hate America. They think Obama is a Muslim. Yet they are unlikely (perhaps) to try and send the Department of Homeland Security to the White House to investigate Obama’s activities. The same people love to bleat on about freedom, equality and the constitution, and yet would deny American Muslims the right to a new community centre in New York City. These people deny the use of their faculty of reason in favour of hysteria. What is genuinely dismaying is that these people may account for up to a fifth of supposedly the most advanced and powerful nation on earth. To paraphrase the great George Orwell in Animal Farm – ‘America is the land of the free, but some people are more free than others’