Apostate president?

I'm with Somerby on this one. What were the Times editors thinking?

Luttwak’s images of stoning, beheading and violent assassination (while security forces watch) is triggered by a noble impulse—the desire to refute “the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.” For ourselves, we’ve heard that “unrealistic hope” suggested once or twice—but we can’t recall when we heard it last. In Luttwak’s hands, this infrequent claim becomes a trigger for an exceptionally odd discussion, in which he spreads notions and images which should be approached with great caution:

LUTTWAK (continuing directly): This idea often goes hand in hand with the altogether more plausible argument that Mr. Obama’s election would raise America’s esteem in Africa—indeed, he already arouses much enthusiasm in his father’s native Kenya and to a degree elsewhere on the continent.

But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.

Is Barack Obama “half African by birth?” Does Obama have a “Muslim heritage?” Did Obama “convert” to Christianity? In the current American political context, these notions should be pursued very cautiously. Instead, the Times throws them out in an unseasoned stew, wrapped in the image of stoning and beheading. All so we can see through an “oft-made claim”—an oft-made claim which isn’t being made very often at all.

Was Luttwak’s topic worth discussing? Concerning that, we have no firm view. But a very peculiar set of images drives today’s unfortunate piece. Major figures like Obama are normally granted a higher threshold of dignity. Today, we’re invited to picture him getting beheaded because of his “conversion” to Christianity—all so Luttwak can try to debunk a claim few people are discussing. This somehow made sense to the New York Times. It doesn’t make much sense to us.

I hadn't read the op-ed, so I had no idea there was something worse than Kristol's column in the Times this morning.