Egypt official: U.S. president claims to be Muslim

An Egyptian foreign-service official's comment about President Obama is turning into a sensation among bloggers for its claim that the American leader claims to be Muslim.

Obama's religiosity has been the subject of discussion since before he was elected and his Chicago-area pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, delivered a "God d--- America" sermon that was caught on video.

Obama later claimed to be a Muslim in a television interview where the interviewer corrected his "misstatement" and he has referenced the Muslim heritage in America's past several times.

Now the heat on the issue is being turned up because of a weeks-old report in Israel Today.

In the report, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying during an appearance on Nile TV that "the American president told me in confidence that he is a Muslim."

The White House remained silent on the comment, declining to respond to a WND request for comment.

But blogger Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs wrote, "This is akin to an SS officer getting elected president during WWII. Every country in the free world must be cognizant of such a catastrophic sea change in the leadership of the free world (as witnessed by events over the past year). This changes everything. He took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and yet he has gone around the world promoting Islam, the Shariah (Islamic law)."

She suggested that the exchange could have happened early in 2010 when Gheit was in Washington, D.C., to address "Mideast peace talks."

Obama's comments from before the 2008 election:

The Israel Today report, from late in April, focused on the "crisis" in relations between Jerusalem and Washington under Obama.

It quotes sources who called Obama a "strategic catastrophe" for Israel.

They expressed concern, speaking on condition of anonymity to the newspaper, that Obama's administration is a serious threat to the future of Israel.

The report then said Israelis feel Obama is "appeasing" Muslims at the expense of Israel.

"'The American president told me in confidence that he is a Muslim,' said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Nile TV. That could explain why Obama has instructed that the term 'Islamic extremism' no longer be used in official government documents and statements," according to the report.

There was no independent verification of the statement attributed to Gheit.

But a video has been assembled by a group called Feel the Change Media highlighting Obama's numerous remarks about Islam:

It has been viewed more than two million times already.

It was last year when Toby Harden, of the Daily Telegraph, cited Obama's statement that the U.S. is "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."

Obama had said, he quoted, "If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."

Obama also previously said in Turkey that Americans "do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation."

That prompted members of Congress to disagree. At that time a bipartisan group of 25 members of the House of Representatives submitted H.Res. 397, which calls on Congress to affirm "the rich spiritual and religious history of our nation's founding and subsequent history" and to designate the first week of May as America's Spiritual Heritage Week for "the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith."

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., specifically challenged the president's claims that America is not a Christian nation in a news conference announcing the bill immediately following a National Day of Prayer observance.

"The overwhelming evidence suggests that this nation was born and birthed with Judeo-Christian principles," Forbes told reporters, "and I would challenge anybody to tell me that point in time when we ceased to be so, because it doesn't exist."

During a June 2007 speech available on YouTube, Obama
stated, "Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least not
just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation,
and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."

In that speech, Obama took aim at the "Christian Right" for
"hijacking" religion and using it to divide the nation:

"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us
together and started being used to drive us apart. It got hijacked. Part of it's
because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, who've been all too
eager to exploit what divides us," he said.

Geller suggested perhaps other evidence should be considered as well, listing how Obama in early 2009 declared the "war on terror" over, suggested discussions with Hamas and recruited more Muslims for the White House staff.

He also created the outreach to the worldwide Muslim community in the State department, announced cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, offered funding to a Muslim technology fund, issued a special hajj message, had a "nonreligious" Christmas, ordered NASA to work with Muslim nations and offered support for an anti-Israel resolution at the U.N.

"This is one hellacious argument and anyone not lobotomized by liberalism can see Obama's an agent of Islam inside the wire," said one participant in Geller's forum page.