One in five Americans believes Obama is a Muslim, says poll

Nearly one-fifth of Americans believe Barack Obama is Muslim, according to a poll conducted even before the President waded into a row over the building of a faith centre and mosque near Ground Zero in New York. Among all voters, 18 per cent said they believed the president to be of Muslim faith, according to one of the country's most prestigious polling organisations, the Pew Research Centre.

But the numbers are worse if restricted to voters who oppose Mr Obama, who last week defended the rights of Muslims to worship where they want in America. Among Republicans, 31 per cent shared the view he was a Muslim, up from 19 per cent when the same questions were asked in March this year.

Ignorance does not altogether spare Democrats. Only 46 per cent of Democrats polled were able correctly to identify him as Christian. Arguably the most remarkable figure is this: nearly half of all those surveyed, Republicans and Democrats, were at a loss to say just what kind of God Mr Obama worships.

Responding to the poll, White House spokesman Bill Burton said: "The President is obviously a Christian. He prays every day."

Even when he was a presidential candidate, Mr Obama faced a problem of "otherness", to do with his skin tone, name and sheer newness. Nearly two years into his presidency, the problem is not getting better, but worse.

Muddles over Mr Obama's religion are piled on top of the debate that never dies, thanks in part to right-wing TV and radio shock jocks, over whether Mr Obama is even a bona fide American. Other recent polls show a quarter of Americans still under the impression he was not born inside the country's borders. Evidence exists confirming his birth in Hawaii.

Assigning blame for this fog of misconception is difficult. Perhaps the President would have done better not reciting his full name when he took his oath of office – Barack Hussein Obama. Hardly helping are the tabloids that litter the racks at supermarket checkouts across the country, like The Globe, which in its current issue shrieks "Birthplace Cover-up!" and "Obama's Secret Life Exposed". In 2008, Mr Obama confronted the stories head-on, building a web site dedicated to overturning what he called "smears". It included the passage: "Barack Obama is a committed Christian. He was sworn into the Senate on his family Bible. He has regularly attended church with his wife and daughters for years. But shameful, shadowy attackers have been lying about Barack's religion, claiming he is a Muslim instead of a committed Christian."

That Mr Obama's critics encourage these myths is not in question. "This is an expression of the people who are opposed to Obama, having an increasingly negative view of him," said Andrew Kohut, the Pew Centre's director.

In 2008, there was a flap about Mr Obama not wearing a stars and stripes lapel badge. But that so many people today are muddled about his God is surely even more problematic.