Photo Of Obama Reading A Muslim Book ‘The Post-American World’ Go Viral

Anti-M

uslim sentiment keeps on spreading in many countries outside the Middle East and some Asian nations, especially in the light of the Paris Massacre and recent beheadings of American and British captives by the Islamic State.

Thus, the political motive behind the resurrection of a 2008 photo of U.S. President Barack Obama holding a book authored by a Muslim appears obvious.

The photo of Mr Obama was taken in Montana before he became president. He was reading "Post-American World" written by Muslim author Fareed Zakaria, according to Waffles at Noon, a Web site dedicated to debunking online hoax articles.

The American-Indian author holds a PhD degree in political science from Harvard University and contributes to credible news organisations such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek and CNN.

He is an expert on US foreign policy, authored two New York Times bestsellers and published in May 2008 the book that Mr Obama was reading. The book's thesis is that the US would continue to be the most powerful country in the world, although its relative power would be diminished.

However, one likely anti-Obama person used the following caption on that photo IN 2012: "THIS PHOTO SHOULD STUN AND SADDEN AL AMERICANS! THE BOOK HE IS HOLDING IS CALLED THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD ... WRITTEN BY A MUSLIM. FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW POST MEANS THE WORLD AFTER AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT!!!!!! PLEASE SHARE THE HELL OUT OF THIS!!!"

A check with Twitter search showed that over the past two years, many members followed the call of the caption writer and retweeted the photo and the caption, or asked questions and even made educated guesses.

Martin W Schwartz tweeted, "Because in America anyone can read whatever they like. We don't censor books even for POTUS."

Low Country Today opined that maybe Mr Obama may want to be more familiar with his native religion or homeland. The comment stems from speculations that the president is a secret follower of the Islam faith because his father was a Muslim who became an atheist, while his stepfather was a nominal Muslim, though Mr Obama is a practicing Christian but not a formal member of any church since 2008.

Jonathan R believes the photo was circulated by anti-Obama groups, while Jeremy Bell hints it could be Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 who lost to Mr Obama. He pointed out that "Romney could say he saw Obama walking into a socialist convention and went and was reading a Muslim book and everyone would believe him."

Other Islam rumours about Mr Obama over the years include him being sworn into office as senator in 2005 while placing his hand on a Quran instead of a Bible and that he studied for four years in a Muslim seminary in Indonesia. Reality is he studied in a Catholic school, although he was registered as a Muslim, which was the official religion of his stepfather, although Lolo Soetoro was a nominal follower of Islam.

It doesn't help that the president's middle name is Hussein, which is an Arabic name, and the surname of the former dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

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However, for Mr Obama, the best proof that he is a Christian and not a Muslim is his public service which is "part of that effort to express my Christian faith."

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au