Even though his campaign went to great lengths to hide it, because of perceived American discrimination against Muslims, it turns out that President Obama's Muslim roots run deep. In fact, his father was Muslim. Recently, Jake Trapper of ABC News heard a comment from a White House aide would have never been spoken during the campaign trail.

According to ABC's Trapper, during a conference call in preparation for President Obama's trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will soon be giving an address to the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said:

"The President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago."

Not only was his campaign much less than forthcoming about his Muslim roots, but he went to great lengths to avoid even using his middle initial, "H," which stands for Hussein. Even going by "BHO" was avoided, and anyone who used the initial or name were swiftly demonized as trying to stir up racial or religious bigotry, like popular radio talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Bill Cunningham. John McCain, afraid of being labeled a bigot, threatened to fire any campaign staff that used Obama's middle name.

In the heat of the presidential campaign, then candidate Obama told a Pennsylvania audience:

"I know that I'm not your typical presidential candidate and I just want to be honest with you. I know that the temptation is to say, 'You know what? The guy hasn't been there that long in Washington. You know, he's got a funny name. You know, we're not sure about him.' And that's what the Republicans when they say this isn't about issues, it's about personalities, what they're really saying is, 'We're going to try to scare people about Barack. So we're going to say that, you know, maybe he's got Muslim connections.'...Just making stuff up."

It turns out that people were not "just making stuff up." Having a Muslim father in the faith of Islam is very significant in that faith.In that male dominant religion, if the father is Muslim, the children are automatically considered Muslim. Today, it's been reported that he even knows, Arabic. No wonder he knew it was protocol to bow before the Saudi King.

Back then, the campaign's "Fight the Smears" website addressed the candidate's faith without mentioning his father's Muslim religion:

"Barack Obama is a committed Christian. He was sworn into the Senate on his family Bible. He has regularly attended church with his wife and daughters for years. But shameful, shadowy attackers have been lying about Barack's religion, claiming he is a Muslim instead of a committed Christian. When people fabricate stories about someone's faith to denigrate them politically, that's an attack on people of all faiths. Make sure everyone you know is aware of this deception."

Whether or not the President is Muslim is not of significance. It's the fact that his campaign went to such lengths to deny any connections to the faith whatsoever. The deception of inaccurately portraying his background as being something contrary to the truth is the problem.

This article is also published at The Freedom Post: http://www.myfreedompost.com