The Rev. Franklin Graham has disgraced himself as surely as his father Billy did when the old man's anti-Semitism became clear.

Now Graham is proclaiming that Barack Obama is a Muslim because his father was born one.

As the Duke of Wellington used to say 'if a a man is born in a stable does that make him a horse?'

Given that Jesus was born in one according to the Gospels, I'd hardly say so.

Of course not, and Graham is just cozying up to the right wing nuts who have launched a major effort to portray Obama as somehow outside the mainstream in America.

Having failed to convince Americans that Obama was born outside the country the effort is now underway to portray him as some kind of alien, connected in some way to the Islamist extremist world.

It is a sad reflection on American life that apparently about one in five now perceive him as such and believe this claptrap.

Obama has tried to avoid the issu,e saying religion is a private matter between him and his Christian pastor, but the right wingers will not leave this alone.

Now comes Graham, joining the latest crusade with more bullying rhetoric.

For a man of God he should be ashamed of himself.