Cal Thomas
| Syndicated Columnist
| Updated: May 21, 2008
May 14, 2008
Supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy say he could work well with Muslim and African nations because of his background. His father was a Muslim and he went to Muslim schools as a child before moving to Hawaii with his mother and entering Catholic school.
Is this true? No, according to a splendidly written column in Monday’s New York Times
by Edward Luttwak, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In a column titled, “President Apostate,” Luttwak says that according to Koranic law, Obama was considered a Muslim at birth because of his father’s religion. His claim to now be a Christian qualifies him as an apostate. In Islam, an apostate deserves death.
Luttwak writes, “It makes no difference whether Obama’s father renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.”
So if he were president, every Muslim leader – from Iraq’s Ahmadinejad, who Obama says he wants to talk to, to Egypt’s Mubarak – would regard him as an infidel and deserving of death. That doesn’t sound like a plus to me.
Luttwak writes, “It makes no difference whether Obama’s father renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.”
So if he were president, every Muslim leader – from Iraq’s Ahmadinejad, who Obama says he wants to talk to, to Egypt’s Mubarak – would regard him as an infidel and deserving of death. That doesn’t sound like a plus to me.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
