OK, I'm going to step out on a limb here and shock our resident Islamophobes. But if we did end up having a President who had a deeper level of understanding and insight into that culture, I would see that as a rather impressive advantage, and I suspect the rest of the world would agree. It doesn't mean he's going to try and convert us or suddenly attempt some insidious unification of mosque and state in this country. Heck, Dubya has done far more to ruin the traditional separation between church and state than any modern American leader in history.

I personally take Obama at his word--that he had an Islamic father and some exposure to that background during his schooling but that he's a Christian. This clearly is the case. But politics is a nasty game. And the Republicans won't even have to get their hands dirty. Before the convention and the primaries begin, his Democratic competitors are going to take issue with the fact that he's half black, half African, had exposure to Islamic teachings during his childhood, and that his middle name is Hussein.