Poll: Number Who Call Obama a Muslim Rises

(Aug. 19) -- The number of Americans who believe, wrongly, that President Barack Obama is a Muslim has climbed significantly since he entered the White House and now accounts for nearly one in five people, according to a survey out today.

Eighteen percent of the American population said that they thought Obama -- a Christian -- is Muslim, up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to the poll by the non-partisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The number who correctly said he is a Christian dipped to 34 percent, down from 47 percent two years ago. But the largest share of people, 43 percent, said they were uncertain of his faith, up from the 32 percent in late 2008.

Worryingly for the White House, the survey is based on interviews completed in early August, before Obama waded into the debate over whether an Islamic center should be built two blocks away from the World Trade Center site. The president last week said Muslims had the right to set up a mosque there, but refused to take a position on whether they should actually build it.

A separate survey carried out Monday -- five days after Obama talked about the mosque -- by Time magazine/ABT SRBI found that 24 percent think he is a Muslim, 47 percent said they believe he is Christian and 24 percent were unsure or didn't respond. The poll also revealed that 61 percent opposed the construction of the Park51/Cordoba House project, while just 26 percent approved it.

Much like his place of birth, the president's religion has been the subject of many Internet-fueled rumors. Some opponents have latched on to the fact that between ages 6 and 10, Obama lived in predominantly Muslim Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. And to many, his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, sounds distinctly Islamic.

The Pew survey found that those ideas have gained most currency among Obama's political opponents: 34 percent of Republicans claim he is a Muslim, an increase of 14 points since 2009. However, the poll also revealed that a growing number of his supporters were starting to doubt his faith. Among Democrats, for instance, 46 percent say Obama is a Christian, down from 55 percent in March 2009.

White House faith adviser Joshua DuBois blamed the poll results on "misinformation campaigns" by the president's opponents. "While the president has been diligent and personally committed to his own Christian faith, there's certainly folks who are intent on spreading falsehoods about the president and his values and beliefs," DuBois told The Washington Post. He added that Obama's Christian faith plays an "important part" in his daily life, and noted that Obama had talked about his own religious beliefs in six speeches.

Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston -- who says he has known Obama for years, told The Associated Press that the president was a committed Christian who prayed every day. He suggested that public confusion over Obama's faith could result from false press reports, describing some parts of the media as "a 24-hour noise box committed to presenting the president in a false light." That claim appears to be supported by the Pew survey, which found that 60 percent of those who think Obama is Muslim say they learned about his religion from the media.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, an evangelical Florida pastor who says he talks with Obama every week, said that the administration now needs to reconsider its approach to religion. "He is very definitely a Christian, but a lot of the things he does to work on spiritual formation are simply not public," he told CNN. "It may be time for them [the White House] to be a little more public about what the president does to be an active Christian."

Hunter said that he wrote devotionals for the president and frequently prayed with him over the phone. The preacher added that when Obama found out that one of the minister's grandchildren had been diagnosed with cancer, the president reached out and offered spiritual support. "He called and told me that he and Michelle were praying for us," Hunter said. "I explained that this was an aggressive form of cancer and he pastored me, saying the Lord would be with us through this and that we should trust in God. It was a real reversal of roles."

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