I very much agree that religious liberals should be opposing the dangerous trend of anti-Muslim prejudice in America.

But it's not clear to me that saying "what if Obama were Muslim?" is the best way to do that.

The media frenzy over Obama's religion could be further inflaming anti-Muslim prejudice. The implied message from the media is "we better root out Obama's possible connections with Islam, because if he were Muslim, that would be a terrible thing." For that reason, I think it may be better to push back against this media coverage by reminding Americans again and again that it is totally without substance. In short, "Obama is not Muslim, this story is more about the media's own crazy obsession with Islam, let's end it now."

I also suspect there may be an element of racial prejudice here (although I'm not certain). I can't help wonder, why is the media having such a hard time accepting that Obama is a Christian? I don't remember any "is Joe Lieberman really Jewish?" controversy, nor can I remember the last time a Christian candidate who has been attending the same church for approximately twenty years was accused of misrepresenting his or her religious affiliation. At the very least, it's incredibly disrespectful to insist over and over that Obama cannot really be Christian, and it's blatantly deceptive reporting.

Rather than asking "what if Barack Obama was Muslim?" (which plays into the media hysteria), I believe an effective way for religious progressives to fight back against anti-Muslim prejudice is to repeatedly affirm the civil rights of Muslim Americans and to support progressive Muslim American candidates for public office.