Obama Still Tackling Muslim Rumor

In an interview yesterday with God-o-Meter buddy David Brody at Christian Broadcasting Network, Barack Obama confronted those false rumors that he's Muslim--again (watch video here). He doesn't go so far to say a rival campaign is behind the e-mail rumor campaign, but does call it "systematic:"

Obama: This is obviously a systematic political strategy by somebody because these e-mails don't just keep coming out the way they have without somebody being behind it.

Basically the e-mail falsely states that I'm Muslim, that I pledged my oath of office on a Koran instead of a Bible, that I don't Pledge Allegiance to the flag. Scurrilous stuff. I want to make sure that your viewers understand that I am a Christian who has belonged to the same church for almost 20 years now. It's where Michelle and I got married. It's where our kids were dedicated. I took my oath of office on my family Bible.

I lead the Pledge of Allegiance when I open up the Senate. I've been saying the Pledge of Allegiance since I was three years old. I think it 's very important for people not to buy into the kinds of dirty tricks that we've become so accustomed to in our politics and people need to understand I'm not and never have been of the Muslim faith.

I think that those who are of the Muslim faith are deserving of respect and dignity, but to try and feed into this fear-mongering and try to question my faith commitments and my belief in Jesus Christ, I think is offensive. And I want to make sure that people are absolutely clear about what's going on with this, and if they get another one of these e-mails that they're deleting it and letting their friends know that it's nonsense.

Brody: You said it was a dirty trick. Do you believe that it is somehow campaign related?

Obama: We have no way of tracing where these e-mails come from, but what I know is they come in waves, and they somehow appear magically wherever the next primary or caucus is, although they're also being distributed all across the country. But the volume increases as we get closer to particular elections.

That indicates to me that this is something that is being used to try to raise doubts or suspicions about my candidacy. It's something, as you said, has been lingering from the start. It's one of the consequences of having an unusual name or having a father from Africa, even though my mother is from Kansas.