December 26, 2007: Conservative Scholar: Obama a ‘Lapsed Muslim’

Daniel Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum and a fellow of the conservative Hoover Institution, writes that presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) is a “lapsed Muslim.” Pipes bases his argument largely on a Los Angeles Times article that was debunked by the Chicago Tribune. Pipes admits that Obama “is a practicing Christian” and “is not now a Muslim.” But, he continues, Obama was a Muslim in his childhood, and may well be considered a murtadd, or apostate, who converted to another religion from Islam and is now a target of retribution. Pipes notes Obama’s repeated denials that he ever practiced Islam, even as a child, and then asks: “What is Obama’s true connection to Islam and what implications might this have for an Obama presidency? Was Obama ever a Muslim?” Pipes writes that even someone who does not practice Islam is still considered a Muslim by many in the faith, and goes on to say that because Obama uses his middle name of “Hussein,” he is sending coded signals to Muslims that he is, indeed, one of them. He concludes by asking: “[H]ow would more mainstream Muslims respond to him, would they be angry at what they would consider his apostasy? That reaction is a real possibility, one that could undermine his initiatives toward the Muslim world.” [FrontPage Magazine, 12/26/2007; Media Matters, 1/16/2008] Pipes’s assertions that Obama is a “lapsed Muslim” will be thoroughly debunked (see January 22-24, 2008), as have his assertions that Obama’s church advocates any form of “black nationalism” or “separatism.” [Media Matters, 11/29/2007]