Barack Obama’s campaign has launched a new website called “Fight the Smears,” in hopes of dispelling rumors about the Democratic presidential candidate. One of the so-called “smears” the website addresses says Obama is a Muslim. The website reads: “Smear: Barack Obama is a Muslim... Truth: Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim and is a committed Christian.”

The accusations highlight a tricky balance the campaign must walk between dispelling false rumors without offending Muslims and harming his image of inclusiveness. Lately, some Muslims, concentrated in several battleground states, say they are having second thoughts over his campaign’s fervent attempt to dispel rumors he is a Muslim. Although Obama is in fact a Christian, the way in which he is fighting the rumor has left some Muslims with “a bitter taste,” Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told the New Haven Register.

“He did not say, ‘Well, what is wrong with being a Muslim?’ It’s as if he’s saying that being a Muslim does not qualify you to run for president,” Dhaouadi said.

Tony Kutayli, a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a Christian, told The Wall Street Journal, “If he were a Muslim, so what? That insinuates that if he were a Muslim, he’s atomically a jihadist. That’s incredibly insulting to people of the Muslim faith and Arabs who are Christian.”

An incident last month in which two Muslim women dressed in hejab were barred from standing behind Obama at a Michigan rally reignited the Muslim debate. Local Muslim leaders and political scientists are varied in their beliefs about whether Obama’s camp did anything offensive in its effort to dispel the rumor. But they generally agree Obama’s behavior will have little or no negative impact on Muslim voters.

“I think [Obama] is overcompensating in keeping a distance from the Muslim-American community,” said Ahmed

Rehab, a spokesperson for CAIR at the national level, called it a “strategic mistake,” because “it’s not compatible with his message.” He pointed out that Obama has visited many churches and synagogues, but “has yet to show up at a mosque and address Muslim concerns.” (In 2000, then candidate George W. Bush visited many mosques; Bush was the first presidential candidate ever to court the American Muslim vote.)

Shafiq Abdussabur, a New Haven police officer, liaison with a youth outreach program and a Muslim in the process of opening a school focused on Islamic theology and culture, wasn’t at all offended by Obama’s behavior.

“Barack Obama is running for president of the United States for everybody that lives in this country. He’s not running for president of the Muslims. He’s not running for president of the black people. I don’t think a president needs to segregate himself and get all the way down to a specific culture campaigning because that’s what they’re asking the man to do,” Abdussabur told the New Haven Register. He said that as the first serious African-American presidential contender, Obama is up against enough challenges and “aligning himself now with the Muslim community is not in his best interest.”

Arthur Paulson, professor of political science at Southern Connecticut State University, said, “I think in the long run, it’s better for [Obama] to take the approach he’s taken, frankly. Anything he can do to make himself look more mainstream, the better for his campaign.” Dhaouadi recalled a mock election carried out by CAIR New Jersey a few months ago between Hillary Clinton, Obama and John McCain that Obama won by a large margin. The bottom line is that “Muslims don’t care who sits behind Barack Obama,” Abdussabur said, referring to the Michigan incident.

A March poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed the Muslim rumor has stuck with a small but significant portion of mostly conservative, non college-educated voters: 79 percent of respondents said they had heard Obama is a Muslim, with one in 10 saying they believe it. In a separate Pew poll conducted last September, 45 percent said they have reservations about voting for a Muslim as president, compared with 25 percent for a Mormon and 11 percent for a Jewish candidate.

Minnesota Democratic Representative Keith Ellison, one of two Muslim members of Congress and an Obama supporter, said he would like to see the campaign more directly address the Muslim community. Ellison said, “I know his [Obama] campaign is a little worried about how that could be twisted, but I think you have to be careful not to start letting your detractors dictate whom you talk to. Then you’re not the captain of your own ship anymore.”