{"id":390,"date":"2008-10-22T08:17:50","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T08:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/10\/one-of-the-most-striking.html"},"modified":"2008-10-22T08:17:50","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T08:17:50","slug":"one-of-the-most-striking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/10\/one-of-the-most-striking.html","title":{"rendered":"Have Republicans Really Spread the Obama-is-a-Muslim Charge, as Colin Powell Claims?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most striking parts of Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama <\/a>was his accusation that Republicans have helped spread the rumor that Obama is Muslim, and turned the word into a smear. “I have heard senior members of my own Party drop the suggestion he’s Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists,” he said.
\nSome Republicans took umbrage at the comment, saying McCain and Republicans haven’t directly made such an accusation. Jonah Goldberg of The National Review wrote <\/a>that it was a “low and dishonest blow,” and asked, “is there really much evidence that the GOP or the McCain campaign have had anything to do with the stories that Obama is a Muslim?”
\nIt’s an important question, worth a detailed look.
\nFirst, Powell himself noted that McCain himself has never intimated that Obama is Muslim. And he’s right about that. Neither McCain nor Palin have suggested such a thing, or even referred to their opponent as Barack Hussein Obama. At one point, the campaign fired a volunteer <\/a>who had told voters that Obama is Muslim. A recent video showed rank-and-file McCain supporters chastising an anti-Muslim McCainiac.<\/a>
\nHillary Clinton arguably stoked the rumor more directly than McCain when she said during the primary that Obama wasn’t Muslim “as far as I know.” <\/a>
\nWhat about the Republican Party? There’s no evidence that the national Republican Party has driven, coordinate or even overtly encouraged the Obama-is-a-Muslim line.
\nYet the idea has been widely embraced, and not just by a few conservative extremists. A recent Pew Research Center poll<\/a> found that 16% of McCain supporters believe Obama is Muslim – and only 47% of Republicans say he’s Christian (the balance is unsure).
\nLocal Republican parties<\/strong>: There are some instances of local Republican Party officials stoking the idea:<\/p>\n