By Tim Reid
15 July 2008
The Times

A magazine cover showing Barack Obama in the Oval Office dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist was condemned by both the Democratic presidential candidate and his Republican rival yesterday.

The New Yorker defended the illustration, which also depicted an American flag burning in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama bin Laden on the wall, as a satirical condemnation of the unfounded claim that Mr Obama, who is Christian, was a closet radical Muslim. However, the left-of-centre magazine found itself under fire not only from the candidates but also from many of its reader.

Mr Obama has pushed back hard against anonymous rumours about his religion and patriotism. He has even set up an internet team to track down and debunk the claims. His spokesman, Bill Burton, said: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

Learning of the cover from reporters, Mr Obama said: "I have no response to that."

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, said: "We completely agree with the Obama campaign that it is tasteless and offensive."

The cartoon, drawn by Barry Blitt, shows the Obamas in the Oval Office giving each other a fist-bump - a greeting they performed in public before but which one US commentator called a "terrorist fist jab".

David Remnick, the Editor of The New Yorker, said that the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are.

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall - all of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover." Mr Remnick added that the magazine included two "very serious" articles about Mr Obama: a commentary and a 15,000-word investigation of his political education and rise in Chicago.

Mr Obama and his aides are sensitive to any false claims that he is a Muslim or harbours anti-Israeli feelings. Last month he spelt out a muscular and hawkish pro-Israel stance in a foreign policy speech and has taken to wearing an American flag badge on his lapel recently - something he was criticised for not doing earlier.