As I've mentioned before I attended Catholic elementary school. There were many children of different faiths including Muslims (Persia now Iran) in my classes. Going to Mass everyday was a no prisoners adventure but the non-Catholic children did not have to take religion class. They went to art or music during religion class.
I'd much prefer that a candidates's religion was not a factor in that candidate's qualifications to be president of the United States. After all... none of the candidates will have any luck trying to convert the country. People would flip if that candidate even tried to convert them.
He left the Muslim faith, but still believes the Muslim call to prayer is the most beautiful thing on earth and can still recite it in flawless Arabic.
If B. Hussein isn’t a Muslim any longer, let him explain to the American people when and why he left the faith.
Of course. So would I. BUT.....
When the religion in question is "Islam", at this point in history, that question becomes critically relevant towards a future president's fundamental loyalties and responses to the global enemy we face.
It is worth noting that our founders included in the Constitution that there would be no "religious test" for the office of the presidency.
But it is ALSO worth noting (and call me presumptuous if you wish) that at the time that document was composed, and considering the faiths of those who wrote it, that the founders never conceived that there might be an Islamic or psuedo-Islamic in contention for the presidency. To those men of that time, "differences" in religions were primarily those that existed between Catholicism, the various branches of Protestantism, and Judiasm. I doubt that a single one of the founders ever for one moment believed that an Islamic might become president. Not one.
Say what you will, but in this struggle of Islam v. the West - which is fundamentally _religious_ in nature - the notion of which side of that religious divide a candidate's sympathies and loyalties lie becomes, well, fundamentally important.
In a posting before your own, someone else mentioned the Repubicans had better keep silent about Obama's early religious allegiances, lest it turn the electorate towards him. I contend that that would be a serious mistake. If anything, we must _expose_ Obama's beliefs to the electorate (the overwhelming majority which still considers itself Christian) and let the chips fall where they may.
Sweeping Obama's religious secrets under the rug will be as serious a misjudgement of the American people as the Republicans made regarding illegal immigration.
- John