The New York Times has a strange op-ed by Edward Luttwak musing on the geopolitical implications of Barack Obama as a Muslim apostate:
As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.
Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian. . . His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive). With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress.
Luttwak goes on to muse that Obama’s status as an apostate would complicate American foreign policy, were he to be elected President, in part due to security considerations.
I don’t buy it. Any US President would be marked for death by the Islamic fundamentalists; there’s no difference there for Obama. The factor that will govern the success or failure of our foreign policy is whether or not we are viewed as strong and credible. That question (not his childhood biography) is what would complicate our foreign policy under an Obama administration.
ASIDE: Charles Johnson (via whom I found this piece) thinks he’s caught the Obama campaign in a lie here:
The Obama campaign, by the way, blatantly lied about Obama’s Muslim origins in a statement on January 23, 2007: . . .
To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago.
I think Johnson is being unfair. Muslim law may say that Obama was born a Muslim, but we don’t operate under Muslim law. (Indeed, this point is very important to Johnson!) In America, we choose our own faith. Absent any evidence that Obama was a practicing Muslim, I think it’s entirely fair for Obama to judge whether he ever accepted Islam’s precepts.
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