He Looked Into His Heart & Saw A Presbyterian

So much for quelling those "Obama is the Islamic Manchurian candidate" rumors (via Double-M):

Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi, who was appointed volunteer national coordinator for Muslim American affairs by the Obama campaign on July 26, stepped down Monday after an Internet newsletter wrote about his brief stint on the fund’s board, which also included a fundamentalist imam. …

In 2000, Mr. Asbahi briefly served on the board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund, a Delaware-registered trust. Its other board members at the time included Jamal Said, the imam at a fundamentalist-controlled mosque in Illinois. …

The eight-year-old connection between Mr. Asbahi and Mr. Said was raised last week by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, which is published by a Washington think tank and chronicles the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a world-wide fundamentalist group based in Egypt. Other Web sites, some pro-Republican and others critical of fundamentalist Islam, also have reported on the background of Mr. Asbahi. He is a frequent speaker before several groups in the U.S. that scholars have associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ensign Ed connects the dots:

The Muslim Brotherhood, launched in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, has given birth to radical Islamist groups for the last eighty years.  Al-Qaeda indirectly owes itself to the MB, as did Ayman al-Zawahiri’s original Egyptian Islamic Jihad group, which now exists within AQ.  The MB promote radical, political Islam, and preach violence in pursuit of their goals.  If Asbahi spends his time engaging those groups, people can legitimately wonder what his intent was in joining Team Obama.

Or what "the guy with the funny sounding name"'s intent was in tapping Asbahi to be his "Muslim outreach director".  Perhaps he wanted the post to be filled by somebody with "authenticity"?  Or is Ed right that this was just more sloppy vetting?

And how appalling is it for Obama that the latter constitutes giving him the benefit of the doubt?