Bingo, Counselor! It's a way to point out President Obama's "blackness," as it were.

Prior to 9/11 and the phrase "Radical Islam" becoming popular, many white Americans associated Islam with the Black Power movements of the '60s and '70s: Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, The Black Panthers (not that the Panthers were exclusively, or even predominantly Muslim), et al. They used words like "militant" and "uppity" in describing them. By branding President Obama a "Muslim," they kill two birds with one stone, by connecting him to both the bad old days of the '60s riots, and the current horrors of two wars that are no closer to ending today than they were nine years ago.