Newsmaker

Obama shrugs off tale he is a Muslim

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-05 07:50

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama last week blamed a "network of misinformation" for keeping alive persistent rumors that he is Muslim, but he shrugged off the misconception as being out of his control.

File photo shows US President Barack Obama (L) delivers remarks on the latest employment statistics, alongside Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in the Rose Garden of the White House, September 3, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

"There is a mechanism, a network of misinformation, that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly," Obama said in an NBC television interview. "If I spend all my time chasing after (rumors) then I wouldn't get much done."

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Opinion polls earlier this month showed that roughly one in five Americans wrongly believes Obama is a Muslim - even though the US leader is a Christian churchgoer who repeatedly has spoken out about his faith.

The rumors, which circulate largely on the Internet, gathered steam after Obama waded into a controversy earlier this month over controversial plans to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center bombing at Ground Zero.

Obama, at a dinner marking the end of the period of fasting for Ramadan observances, defended the constitutional right of Muslims to build a mosque near the New York site of the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks - remarks which apparently confirmed the suspicions of some who believe he is an adherent of the Islamic faith.

Rumors questioning his faith and nationality - Obama critics speculate he was born in Kenya despite a repeatedly authenticated birth certificate from the US state of Hawaii - have swirled about him for as long as he has been in public life.

"We dealt with it when we were first running for the presidency. There were those who said I couldn't win as US senator because I had a funny name," Obama said.