Politics / Sharia law 52% of GOP Thinks Obama Supports Spread of Islamic Law And 24% of Americans still think he's a Muslim By Jane Yager, Newser Staff Posted Aug 31, 2010 7:21 AM CDT Copied President Barack Obama, who is in fact a Christian, not a Muslim, makes a statement Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) More than half of Republicans surveyed in a new Newsweek poll believe that President Obama supports the proliferation of Islamic law worldwide: 14% of Republicans said Obama definitely "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world," while an additional 38% think he probably does. And—the poll question that just won't die—some 24% of all survey respondents believe that Obama himself is a Muslim. Showing fallout from the "Ground Zero mosque" controversy, 59% of Republicans said Obama favors the interests of Muslims above those of "other groups of Americans." Some Dems and Independents are also worried about Obama and Islam, though far fewer than Republicans: 17% of Dems and 27% of Independents think the president "probably" or "definitely" supports the worldwide imposition of Islamic law. (More Sharia law stories.) Report an error