WASHINGTON: Well into his second term as president, over half of Republicans remain convinced that president Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to a poll released by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.
The poll finds that 54 percent of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim, 14 percent think he’s a Christian and 32 percent say they are unsure.
Obama’s country of birth also remains a question for Republicans. A plurality, 44 percent, say they don’t think he was born in the US. Only a third believe that he is American-born, and slightly less than another third are unsure where he was born.
Beliefs that Obama is a foreign-born Muslim are even stronger among Trump supporters. Sixty-six percent of Trump supporters surveyed think Obama is a Muslim; another 61 percent think he was not born in the US.
Conspiracy theories about Obama’s faith, as well as his birth, have existed among Republicans since the start of his 2008 campaign and have persisted throughout his presidency. In 2010, a Pew Research report found that 31 percent of Republicans believed Obama was a Muslim. Most recently, Republican presidential hopeful Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker told that he didn’t know if Obama was a Christian.
Obama has responded to criticism about his religion by asserting that he is in fact a Christian, but has made note that even if he practiced a different religion, that should not be treated as if it were a bad thing.
Majority of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim
