My Muslim President

By Bill Wilson

Asma Gull Hasan is the poster child for the advance of Islam in America. The author of various books that make being a Muslim woman in America "OK", such as "Red, White and Muslim" and "American Muslims: The New Generation" and "Why I am a Muslim", Hasan is beautiful, energetic and someone the US State Department wants showing the Muslim colors in an America that has worn thin on the dark side of Islam.

Hasan presents a new beachhead for Islam in that she is a liberated woman, a business woman, a friendly face, and appears to be the type of person Americans can identify with when they want to believe that the Koran is not what al Qaeda makes it, and that Islam is not a violent religion.

So Hasan is somebody to pay attention to in the growing Muslim community if you want to believe that Islam and the American Republic can be compatible. Hasan has written a very interesting take for Forbes Magazine on the man who occupies the Oval Office, entitled "My Muslim President." She writes:

". . . many of us feel. . . that we have our first American Muslim president. . ." She says at the risk of right-wing zealots trying to cite her theory "as proof of an Islamic traitor in the White House or some such nonsense", "In commenting on our new president, "I have to support my fellow Muslim brother," would slip out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice."

Hasan says that the president attends a Unitarian church because it could be his way of still being a Muslim. She tells her readers not to forget that at the church where he worshiped in Chicago, the president chose the most "Muslim-esque minister out of the bunch to guide him." She speaks of the "umma" where "In the early days of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad led the small umma. Every decision, every effort, everything was for the umma - people who were often unrelated by blood but had become related by choice as Muslims." She suggests that it is the loyalty of Muslims to umma that makes them see the president as Muslim even though he says he is Christian.

Hasan reminds her readers:

"Once you have a Muslim parent, especially a dad, you're in. Whether you like it or not, Muslims all over the world see you as one of them."

Many are proud that an Arab American with an African heritage occupies the Oval Office and is the most influential person in the world. Still others are proud that a man of color would become president of the United States. And still others are proud that he is an ardent supporter of homosexual rights and feminism. But those of us who know the scriptures, know that without a humble and repentant relationship with the one true God, Proverbs 16:18 can ring true: