Why Do So Many Americans Think Obama is a Secret Muslim?

This recent Pew Research Poll showing that an increasing number of Americans think Obama is a Muslim is] pretty amazing at this stage of his presidency. That's a lot of ignorance. In fact, in select states during the campaign the stats were more egregious. In Ohio and Florida during the primary of 2008 47% thought he was either Muslim or they didn't know his religion. (This was after the Rev. Wright business.) In Texas 23% thought he was Muslim.

Twice today I was asked by columnists why the number of people who believe he's a Muslim might be growing. Eleanor Clift and Clarence Page both were interested in the subject.

Here's what I told them. One explanation is simply that the debate about Obama being a Muslim has largely been one-sided since he became president. Since he moved into the White House he's no longer devoting resources to knock down rumors and half-truths as he did during the campaign, when he created a website to address these issues. So the rumors, which have continued non-stop, gain more and more currency.

In addition, the environment in which we are living is making us more susceptible to untruths and rumors. The more anxious we become about the future (and we are very anxious right now) the more susceptible millions of us are to myths that make sense of the world. The myth that Obama is a Muslim helps define him as The Other. That is an appealing myth to people who wonder what the hell has gone wrong with this country. In anxious times we often seek to make sense of the world by dividing it into Them and Us. It's a natural tribal instinct. By placing Obama in The Other camp we can "explain" why our position in the world seems to be declining.

Another consideration is that we are more susceptible to myths of all kinds during periods like the present. We become more suspicious of foreigners when unemployment is high. That's one reason immigration often looms as a larger issue in bad times than good times. We want to blame someone or something for our misery.

This is myth making being true to itself. The whole purpose of myths is to help define who we are and what values we cherish. The more complicated the world becomes -- and it is very complicated right now -- the more we cling to our myths to maintain our balance.

We are all susceptible to myths. Even Obama. He apparently believed he could speak out on the issue involving the New York mosque controversy because he believes in the myth of American multiculturalism, of which he is a prime beneficiary. Believing in the myth, he felt free to make a statement to help shape public opinion.

This was a mistake. This is not a society that believes wholeheartedly in multiculturalism. It is a myth to believe that. Obama's election wasn't in fact confirmation of our multicultural identity, much as we'd like to think that it was. Hence, Obama's inability to move public opinion to his side in this debate.

He should have known better. As the son of a Muslim father he lacks the moral authority in the eyes of millions to speak out on this issue. He cannot lead on an issue involving Muslims since his own identity as a child of a Muslim parent compromises his perceived independence.

This is the second time he has fallen victim to an American myth. It happened last summer when he came to the defense of the black Harvard professor who'd been arrested by the police in his own home. Obama undoubtedly thought he was simply making a plain statement of fact. The white cop had made a stupid mistake. As an American he felt free to say this. An American president in a colorblind society could. But America is not a color-blind society. Obama knows this and has said this. But on this occasion he forgot and reaped the whirlwind.

Had Obama been white he could have weighed in. Millions of white people would have been moved to share his viewpoint because they identified with him. But as a black man he was not in a position to exert moral leadership on this issue. That is an uncomfortable truth, I admit. But it is pretty obvious. It's why Obama, to the frustration of some in the black community, has been so silent about black issues as president. Speak out and he will appear to be engaging in special pleading for people who share his skin color.

We are not a bad people for having myths. All people have them. But we are more susceptible to them than most because we lack a common ancestry to hold us together. What unites us are our myths, those grand stories we tell about ourselves to ourselves. The information revolution was thought to be an antidote to myth making. This was an illusion. The more information we have coming at us from diverse quarters the more likely we are to cling to myths. As I said earlier, that is myths doing their job.