FaithWorld

Obama says not worried by “rumors” that he is a Muslim

By JoAnne Allen
August 30, 2010
Barack Obama | christian | muslim | pew | politics | public opinion | U.S.

obamaA public opinion poll showing Americans are increasingly convinced, wrongly, that he is Muslim does not trouble him, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.

“It’s not something that I can, I think, spend all my time worrying about it,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News, dismissing the results of a recent Pew Research Center survey.

(Photo: President Barack Obama in New Orleans, August 29, 2010/Jim Young)

“I’m not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn’t get much done,” he said in the interview (NBC video here — these comments start at 08:33)

The Pew poll showed nearly one in five Americans — 18 percent — believe Obama is a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009. In addition, only about one third of Americans surveyed correctly describe Obama as a Christian, a sharp decrease from the 48 percent who said he was a Christian in 2009.

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