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Pew Poll Shows More Americans Think Obama Is Muslim

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a new poll on Religion, Politics and the President. The finding making the most headlines (ABC News) is that a growing number of Americans incorrectly believe that President Obama is Muslim. 18% of those responding say Obama is a Muslim (up from 11% in March); 34% say Obama is a Christian; and 43% say they don't know.

The Press Gaggle aboard Air Force One yesterday (full text) included a lengthy exchange between reporters and Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton about this part of the poll. Here is a portion of the exchange:

Q The Pew poll came out today and there?s some numbers on there that are interesting -- one showing that the number of Americans who believe that the President is Muslim has gone up, while the number of Americans who believe the President is Christian has gone down. What do you guys make of that?

MR. BURTON: Well, I think ... for most Americans, ... what they?re focused on is ... important issues like what?s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, what?s going on in the economy, what are we doing to create jobs -- all these different issues.

And so the President is obviously a -- is Christian. He prays every day. He communicates with his religious advisor every single day. There?s a group of pastors that he takes counsel from on a regular basis. And his faith is very important to him, but it?s not something that is a topic of conversation every single day.

The poll also covered other aspects of religion and politics. 52% of the respondents said that churches should keep out of politics, while 43% say that houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues. 61% say it is important that members of Congress have strong religious beliefs. Only 46% of White Evangelical Protestants in the poll saw the Republican Party as friendly to religion. Republicans have made gains among all religious groups except for Hispanic Catholics.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on August 20, 2010 (boomark / email).