GEORGE W. BUSH: SECRET MUSLIM?

Frank Gaffney is getting a lot of flak for a Washington Times op-ed in which he argues that Barack Obama is effectively, if not literally, "America's first Muslim president," and in which he compares Obama to Hitler:

The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.

But is Obama really America's first Muslim president? Let's look at just one piece of Gaffney's evidence:

• Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to "the Holy Koran." Non-Muslims -- even pandering ones -- generally don't use that Islamic formulation.

Wait -- does that mean George W. Bush was a Muslim, too?

President Hosts Iftaar, November 7, 2002:

According to Muslim teachings, this season commemorates the revelation of God's word in the holy Koran to the prophet Muhammad.

President Commemorates Eid al-Fitr, December 5, 2002:

Islam traces its origins back to God's call on Abraham. And Ramadan commemorates the revelation of God's word in the Holy Koran to the prophet Mohammad -- a word that is read and recited with special attention and reverence by Muslims during this season.

Remarks by the President at Iftaar with Ambassadors and Muslim Leaders, October 28, 2003:

According to the teachings of Islam, Ramadan commemorates the revelation of God's word in the Holy Koran to the prophet Mohammed.

The evidence is unambiguous! Bush was one of them!

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In his post on the Gaffney op-ed, Steve Benen cites a post I wrote a while back in which I noted that Gaffney isn't sure Obama's a citizen. The current op-ed suggests that this isn't the only Obama conspiracy theory he finds credible. Gaffney writes:

What little we know about Mr. Obama's youth certainly suggests that he not only had a Kenyan father who was Muslim, but spent his early, formative years as one in Indonesia.

"Suggests"?

What does Gaffney mean by this? Specifically, does he not think it's an established fact that Obama's father was a Muslim (by birth, at least)? Is he one of the nutjobs who believe that Obama's real father was the writer Frank Marshall Davis, or possibly Malcolm X?

His wording certainly, um, suggests that that's what he believes.