Over in the Corner, Byron notes a New York Times op-ed by Edward Luttwak, contemplating the Muslim world’s reaction to learning that A) Obama’s father was Muslim (at least for a while) and B) he was educated as a Muslim (again, for a while) and C) is no longer a Muslim, and sees himself as a Christian.

Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing. At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.

Neither Byron nor Luttwak are suggesting that this ought to be a factor as Americans go to the polls – but a couple of points worth making:

1. Many on the right, including myself, will have a teeming cornucopia of gripes, objections and disagreements if Barack Obama wins the presidency. But if he wins, the moment he’s sworn in, he’s our president, and the Muslim world risks unleashing a thundering wave of American wrath if they tried to kill him for apostasy.

2. There are a lot of reasons to vote against Barack Obama. The fact that the Muslim world doesn’t like the fact that he became a Christian isn’t a good one. Selecting the leader of the United States is a decision that rests entirely in its citizens; Americans who hesitate to vote for their preferred candidate because they fear the reaction of the Muslim world is creating a de facto “Islamic veto” to our political process.

In fact, the fact that Obama’s journey of faith would enrage already-easily-enraged Muslim extremists is probably one of the better sales pitches for his presidency…

UPDATE: Via a reader, Robert Spencer points out:

So is Obama under a death sentence? Probably not. As far as I know Obama has never explained when he left Islam and became a Christian. This is a crucial point, for according to Islamic law an apostate male is not to be put to death if he has not reached puberty (cf. ’Umdat al-Salik o8.2; Hidayah vol. II p. 246). Some, however, hold that he should be imprisoned until he is of age and then “invited” to accept Islam, but officially the death penalty for youthful apostates is ruled out.

From Obama’s descriptions in Dreams From My Father, he talks about embracing his Christian faith at (sigh) Trinity United, upon hearing Jeremiah Wright’s preaching. So he probably would say he became a Christian as an adult… but he turned away from whatever interest he had in Islam after his religious teaching at the madrassa in Indonesia.

Note that Obama’s campaign says the candidate was never a Muslim. But also note that in the eyes of some Muslims, the fact that Obama was/is not a practicing Muslim is irrelevant; they see him as Muslim because his father was Muslim.

UPDATE: Ali Eteraz writes in to note, “Islamic law recognizes abandonment by the biological father. Obama’s Kenyan father abandoned Obama. As such, any religious imprimatur he may have had over Obama — which is already a stretch since the man was an atheist — is null and void… Under Islamic law, step-fathers do not acquire ownership over the child. Their relationship to the child emanates from their relationship to the child’s mother. Again, Obama’s mother was not Muslim. If a practicing Muslim man marries a Christian woman with children from a previous marriage, her children wouldn’t automatically become Muslim. Here, the new father wasn’t even practicing.”