LETTER:  A different take

Dear Editor:
I take a totally opposite position in this election to the editor and Bill Gilmer Sr., both of whom claim McCain is the man. I support Barack Obama because I hope for a change from the policies of the past. So we differ, that is America!
I feel compelled to write, though, in response to Gilmer’s effort to paint Barack Obama as an associate of left wing radicals and indebted “throughout his career to extremist Islam.“ Unfortunately, this is a persistent rumor, and a deliberate effort to tar Obama as an enemy of the United States, someone who is foreign and un-American. Numerous web sites, certain talk shows, emails by various sources insist Obama is a Muslim in hopes naive readers will leap to “connections with terrorists.“ Daniel Pipes, whom Gilmer sites, is a controversial professor of Islam known for his strong pro-Israel views and for emphasizing the dangers of radical Islam. He doesn’t call Obama a Muslim, but says he is a Muslim apostate. 
Theologian Rosemary Radford Reuther, writing in the National Catholic Reporter says: “For many, the allegation that Mr. Obama is Muslim is code language for racism.“ She claims this rumor springs from a deep fear of foreigners that afflicts some Americans. For them Islam is an “evil” religion. Reuther reminds us of the ethnically bigoted view that a Catholic, as in John Kennedy’s campaign, could not be president since Catholics are subject to the “foreign power” of the pope which makes them incapable of being loyal Americans.
It seems outrageous the impute that a candidate chosen by the people in a major political party is a consort of terrorists and un-American. Let’s stick to the real issues.
CLARE MCBRIEN