{"id":71,"date":"2010-09-07T15:31:35","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T15:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/if-an-american-president-were-muslim-would-we-care.html"},"modified":"2010-09-07T15:31:35","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T15:31:35","slug":"if-an-american-president-were-muslim-would-we-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2010\/09\/if-an-american-president-were-muslim-would-we-care.htm","title":{"rendered":"If an American President Were Muslim, Would we Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Brian Williams asks President Obama what he thinks of the fact that one fifth all Americans believes he is a Muslim. The President gets defensive and sheepishly responds that this issue was put to bed during the campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

But let’s ask ourselves an honest
\nquestion for a moment. If he were a Muslim, would it matter? Yes, he isn’t, and
\nhas said time and again that he is a Christian. But if he were a Muslim I
\ncouldn’t care less. My problem with Obama is not his faith or lack thereof but
\nhis policies. If Obama were an Islamic president of the United States who
\nberated instead of coddled Arab dictators, like King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,
\nhe would have my vote. If he were a practicing Muslim who prayed in the
\ndirection of the Had but promoted democracy across the Middle East, rather than
\nKissingerian realpolitik, which seems to be the foundation of his foreign
\npolicy, I would endorse him. If he were a devout Muslim first magistrate of the
\nUnited States who spoke out against the abuses of women in the Islamic world, I
\nwould deeply respect him. If he were a Muslim who prayed in the Oval Office
\nfive times a day and fasted all of Ramadan and then lectured Hamas and
\nHezbollah to stop putting all their money into rockets against Israel and
\ninvest it instead into Universities for their people, he would inspire me.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with President Obama is that
\nhe does none of these things, rarely holding the Islamic world accountable for
\nits absence of freedoms, refusing to personally condemn Iran for its plan to
\nstone a woman to death, and putting the pressure on Netanyahu of Israel to make
\nterritorial concessions rather than place the blame for the failure of the
\nprogress toward peace squarely on the real culprits: the terrorist organizations
\nof Hamas and Hezbollah, both Iranian proxies.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have devout Muslim friends who love
\nIsrael and wish Arab countries emulated its democratic institutions, just
\ncourts, and freedom of worship and press. Likewise, I have G-dfearing Islamic
\nfriends who love America, would fight and die to protect her, and believe
\nAmerica is the light in an increasingly dark world. I would support anyone like
\nthis for President any day of the week over, say, Jimmy Carter, a devout and
\nself-declared evangelical Christian, who goes against the stalwart evangelical
\nChristian support for Israel and has the chutzpa to call Israel, a thriving
\ndemocracy facing existential enemies, an apartheid state. I would take a
\ncompetent Muslim President who believes in lowering the burden of taxation,
\ncontrolling runaway spending, and vastly reducing the appalling Federal deficit
\nover a President like Jimmy Carter, who as our leader, ran this country into
\nthe ground.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As a Jew I am trained to judge someone by
\ntheir actions not their beliefs. I will choose an atheist president, who loves
\nand respects all of humanity and would put an end to the genocide in Sudan any
\nday over a religious president who believes that we Americans have no such
\nresponsibilities to people beyond our border.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If an American president believed in
\nelves and the Easter bunny but fought Taliban misogynists who pour acid on
\nwomen who attend University, I would follow him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And if an American president spoke
\nKlingon in his private moments and worshipped Capt. James T. Kirk of the
\nStarship Enterprise as a divinity, but set up an alternative to the United
\nNations, to be known as the United Democratic Nations, open only to governments
\nthat were of the people and by the people, I would support him, too.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In short, I could not
\ncare less what a person believes but in what they do. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is the
\ninternational best-selling author of 23 books and was the London Times Preacher
\nof the Year at the Millennium. As host of ‘Shalom in the Home’ on TLC he won
\nthe National Fatherhood Award and his syndicated column was awarded the
\nAmerican Jewish Press Association’s Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary.
\nNewsweek calls him ‘the most famous Rabbi in America.’ He has just published
\n‘Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life.’ <\/span><\/i>Shmuley
\nhosts ‘The Shmuley Show’ live every Sunday from 7-9 p.m. on 77 WABC Talk Radio.
\n<\/span>Follow
\nhim on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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