In response to a storm of criticism over her endorsement of President Obama by calling him America’s “black Muslim in the White House,” Madonna yesterday issued a statement saying she was being deliberately “ironic on stage.”
“I was being ironic on stage,” she said in a statement released through a spokeswoman. “Yes, I know Obama is not a Muslim—though I know that plenty of people in this country think he is. And what if he were?”
“The point I was making is that a good man is a good man, no matter who he prays to. I don’t care what religion Obama is—nor should anyone else in America,” she said.
During a performance in downtown Washington at the Verizon Centre, stopped to urge the audience to vote for Obama. Her profane speech was captured on video by an audience member and posted on YouTube.
“Now, it’s so amazing and incredible to think that we have an African-American in the White House … we have a black Muslim in the White House … it means there is hope in this country, and Obama is fighting for gay rights, so support the man,” Madonna said.
Though Obama is a practicing Christian—who was even assailed in 2008 for his membership in the Church of Christ pastored by Rev. Jeremiah Wright in Chicago—the myth persists across the country that he is Muslim. As recently as March 2012, a poll found that half of the Republican voters in Alabama and Mississippi believe that the president is Muslim.
Madonna has remained steadfast in her support of Obama, using some unusual ways to demonstrate it. At 54, the pop legend still knows how to provoke—at several recent concerts she ripped off her short to reveal the word “Obama” inked across her lower back.
