New York Times wants Obama to become Islam’s “very special leader”

Add liberal New York Times columnist (pardon our redundancy) Thomas Friedman to the list of those who think President Obama is Muslim. At least that’s our takeaway from his latest column.

Friedman’s flash of insight came while watching a movie about Nelson Mandela:

Speaking of South Africa’s whites, Mandela adds, “We have to surprise them with restraint and generosity.”

I love that line: “We have to surprise them.” I was watching the movie on an airplane and scribbled that line down on my napkin because it summarizes what is missing today in so many places: leaders who surprise us by rising above their histories, their constituencies, their pollsters, their circumstances–and just do the right things for their countries.

According to Friedman’s theory, Islam needs “a very special leader” who can lead “a political surge by Arabs and Muslims to heal intracommunal divides.” So far, so good. But this is where Friedman’s theory goes off the tracks. Seriously off the tracks.

It would be great if President Obama surprised everyone and gave another speech in Cairo–or Baghdad–saying that.

height=220Say what? Is Friedman suggesting that he thinks Obama can become Islam’s “very special leader”? Doesn’t that say, by definition, that Obama is Muslim? And isn’t that the kind of thing Friedman would normally accuse conservatives of saying?

Let’s just consider ourselves lucky that the airline didn’t show this cartoon before the movie or Friedman may have proposed that Mickey Mouse become Islam’s special leader.

H/T: Wall Street Journal