Is "He's a Muslim" a More Socially Acceptable Way of Saying "He's a N****R?" (Repost)

[I'm going to repost this only because it is short, and I think it is a thought provoking question, which is the kind of question I'm all about:]

Is "He's a Muslim" a More Socially Acceptable Way of Saying "He's a N****R?"
by DHinMI, Daily Kos

I heard yesterday of a focus group done in Charlottesville, VA—home of the University of Virginia, thus not a particularly isolated locale—in which several of the undecided voters claimed to believe that Barack Obama is Muslim.  We've all seen and heard the examples.  We can joke that you've got to be thick to simultaneously believe he's a Muslim and decry his choice of church--Christian Church—-but it's out there, this belief that Barack Obama is a Muslim.  One can imagine the thinking: "his name, I mean, it sounds Muslim, his father was from somewhere over there, where they're Muslims, I saw that photo of him in that garb, and there are all those emails that say he's Muslim, so..."

In America, maligning Muslims is still too easily ignored.  In most circles people know it's not socially acceptable to express anti-Semitism, or racism, or increasingly even homophobia.  But too many people still find it acceptable to malign all of Islam and every Muslim.

For the moment, let's set aside the problem of anti-Muslim bigotry.  The question I have is how many people who claim he's Muslim and offer that up as a reason why they are uncomfortable with Obama's candidacy.  How many of the people insinuating that they won't vote for Obama because he's a Muslim are simply substituting opposition to his supposed religion for opposition to him based on his race?

I assume the Obama campaign has done extensive research to get an idea of who thinks he's Muslim.  Some of these folks are just ill-informed.  The video "A Man From Hope" shown at the 1992 Democratic convention was in response to research that revealed that a sizable group of voters believed that Bill Clinton came from a privileged background.  Eventually folks figured out he didn't, and it helped burnish his populist credentials.  Some people are educable, and a good campaign educates.

The people today expressing apprehension toward Obama because "he's a Muslim" include many who will vote for him in the fall.  We need to figure out how to reach them, and in a way that doesn't validate anti-Muslim bigotry.

But for others, who are saying they won't vote for Obama because he's Muslim when they really won't vote for him because he's black, we just need to write them off as people who probably don't vote for Democrats in any circumstances, and who won't vote for Obama because they're racists.

[Or look at it this way, do you think a white person with a weird name and a Muslim step-father s/he's had barely anything to do with be plagued by this repeated question of "Is s/he a Muslim?" even after attending a Christian church for over 20 years? We already know white people aren't held to the same standard concerning crazy pastors who say outrageous things.]