Tonight On The Mike Malloy Show

Barack’s Religion Problem

Barack might have a religion problem that has nothing to do with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

According to an op-ed written by Edward Luttwak in today’s New York Times, contrary to popular opinion that Muslims would embrace Obama because his father was Muslim, the opposite might be true.  Obama might find himself in hot water with Muslims here and especially abroad specifically because he committed the “crime” of denouncing his faith and turning to Christianity.  Here’s the argument Luttwak makes in today’s NYT:

[regarding] the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world. . . .As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant. Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive). With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings.

Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.

At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House.

Okay, so the question is this: how much of an impact will Obama’s Christian conversion and related offense to Islam have on the voters?  Is it true that a President Obama would have extreme difficulty in the foreign relations department with Muslim nations as the article implies, or is Luttwak exaggerating the problem because of his own possible hidden agenda?

One thing is certain, once the “presumptive” part is dropped from “presumptive nominee,” Team Obama must be prepared to face this question from the McCain camp.  They’re going to hit him with everything they’ve got.

Can he take it?

We’ll talk about it tonight!

–KBM