More than two months after Barack Obama placed his hand on the Bible and was sworn in as president of the United States, 11 percent of Americans still think he is a Muslim, a poll suggested on Thursday. White evangelical Protestants and Republicans were the most likely to say Obama - who has an Arabic middle name - was Muslim in response to the poll question.
"Do you happen to know what Barack Obamas religion is?" Nearly one in five white evangelical Protestants and 17 percent of the Republicans who took part in the telephone poll of 1,308 adults, which was conducted by Pew Research from March 9-12, said they thought Obama was Muslim. Fewer than half in each group - 38 percent of white evangelicals and 46 percent of Republicans - correctly identified him as Christian. Even among Democrats, only 55 percent correctly identified Obama as a Christian; seven percent thought he was Muslim.
Poll respondents with a university degree scored highest - 68 percent - in correctly identifying the Democratic presidents religious affiliation as Christian. Only six percent of university graduates said they thought he was a Muslim - less than half the 14 percent of respondents with no more than a high school education who said the same. During the race for the presidency, Obamas opponents spread inaccurate rumours that he was Muslim in an attempt to discredit him.
A smaller survey conducted by Ohio State University in the weeks immediately following Obamas historic election on November 4 last year showed that 22 percent of Americans believed the rumour that their new president was a Muslim.