Quote:
Obama's faith is widely mistaken in Kentucky

RANKFORT — Public misconception is widespread in Kentucky about Barack Obama's faith, a Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll shows.

Despite heavy national media attention about Obama's faith, more than half of likely Republican voters — 54 percent — and one of every four Democrats in the state do not know that the Democratic presidential nominee is a Christian, the poll found.

The poll showed that 14 percent of likely Kentucky voters — 28 percent of Republicans, 4 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of independents — think Obama adheres to the Muslim faith.

"With all the media attention to the fact that Obama is a Christian, it is shocking and sad to hear that any Kentuckian or anyone thinks he is a Muslim," said Mahmoud Shalash, imam of the Islamic Center of Lexington.

"I am concerned that some people are spreading this rumor for political purposes, trying to exploit the anti-Islamic sentiment in this country that ties Muslims with terrorists," Shalash said. "I don't blame the ignorant bigots as much as the educated people who try to perpetrate this."


ahem... bsams..

Colin Powell on Meet the Press last Sunday:

 Quote:
"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that [Obama] is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America."