Barth:

You are missing the close relationship American has had with Islam, perhaps I should say more accurately: Fighting Islam.

The head of the Muslim tribes, Dey of Algiers was, around 1790, extracting a protection tax on people living in America that at one point totaled 20% of the GNP, it was Thomas Jefferson and John Adams who sought to put an end to this by forming a Federal government in order to build a United States Navy to fight the Muslims. (Because of this motivation for a Federal convention, the Dey of Algiers has been called the actual father of the American constitution by more than one historian.) Thomas Jefferson thereafter ran for a President of the US on a platform of launching a unilateral attack on the Muslim tribes of Western Africa and did so in a war known variously as the Tripolitan War or the Barbary Coast War. When you sing the Marine Hymn “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli” that was Thomas Jefferson fighting Islam.

Why do we care about Islam today? Because the religion has taken an intolerant turn: We have Muslims murdering Buddhists in Thailand, Hindus in Indian, Jews in Israel, Taoists in China, Christians in Africa, tourists in Bali, commuters in Madrid and London, office workers in NYC…its along list. Islam has not gone through an enlightenment, does not believe in the separation of church and state, and believes that they will ultimately replace the non-Muslim world and are willing to do so with incredible violence.

Hence the real and valid concern that Senator Obama, both born and raised as a Muslim, is still is one at heart.