Obama’s inclusive religious framing angered critics who saw him as both Muslim and secularist.

Evidence

In declaring his Christian faith, Obama stated, “I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth. That’s a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans—Evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims alike.” In the same speech, however, Obama noted the ongoing transition in America’s identity as it relates to religion: “Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo- Christian tradition,” and yet “we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.” Such statements would attract the wrath of the Evangelical Christian Right and Islamophobes, who believed Obama was simultaneously a secret Muslim and a liberal secularist. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 999

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘secret Muslim and liberal secularist’ double accusation parallels how contradictory stereotypes converge on out-groups — similar to anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant double binds elsewhere.