religious bigotry

"Perhaps the most surprising thing about the news this week that 1 in 5 Americans believes that Barack Obama is Muslim is that so many people greeted the news as a surprise. Americans taking out their discrimination toward minority religions on the president of the United States is as American as apple pie; the custom has been going on as long as there has been a presidency. George Washington was the subject of widespread grumbling that he was a more loyal Mason than he was a Christian. . . . It's the nature of how we conflate political frustration, economic anxiety, and concern about the changing fabric of our identity."

and plenty of people thought lincoln was a catholic and that roosevelt was a jew---