Finally. It took retired general Colin Powell to articulate what no one else on the American public stage has had the courage or conviction to say: Barack Obama is not a Muslim - but so what if he were?

Powell's comments on religion were largely overlooked this week as pundits and politicians weighed the importance of his dramatic endorsement of Obama over his longtime friend John McCain. But in the long run, they may be more profound, speaking not just to the outcome of this election but to the kind of America we want to live in.

False rumors that Obama is a Muslim have circulated for months in cyberspace and the far reaches of talk radio and television - weirdly persistently, even amid the frantic reporting about Obama's 20-year relationship with a controversial Christian minister in Chicago. His opponents darkly insist on using his middle name, Hussein, to conjure up connections to the Hussein most well-known to most Americans: Saddam Hussein. To make matters worse, a printing goof in New York state recently resulted in early ballots confusing the candidate with America's No. 1 enemy - his name was rendered "Barack Osama." And while Gov. Sarah Palin's insistence that Obama has "palled around" with "terrorists" is a hateful and inaccurate reference to a white man in Chicago (if you get her reference), to a casual audience it raises fears of Islamic extremists like those responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

Obama's campaign has remained remarkably calm amid the confusion, pointing out repeatedly that Obama is a Christian. The candidate even agreed to take part in a forum on religion with the Rev. Rick Warren back in August, as if being asked to prove the depth of his Christianity was somehow an acceptable part of a campaign for president.

McCain and his campaign have sometimes let the Muslim rumor pass without mention - and sometimes contradicted it. When a voter at a recent GOP rally in Minnesota told McCain that she didn't trust Obama because he was "an Arab," McCain interrupted the woman and corrected her - winning praise after days of criticism for the hateful outbursts at his events.

"No, ma'am. He's a decent family man (and) citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not (an Arab)."

Trouble is, neither McCain nor anyone around him pointed out the obvious: You can be an Arab or a Muslim and also be a decent family man. You can be a Muslim and a good American citizen. You can be a Muslim and run for president.

Every time McCain and Obama and the rest of us decline an opportunity to make just this point, we allow a strange bigotry to persist, rendering Muslim Americans as second-class citizens at best and invisible at worst - implying that "Muslim American" is somehow a contradiction in terms.

Powell's remarks on Meet the Press Sunday put the lie to that notion. He spoke hypothetically about wanting a 7-year-old Muslim kid to grow up thinking he, too, could grow up to be president. And he spoke specifically about a young man named Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan who was born in New Jersey and died fighting for this country in Iraq. He is buried at Arlington, under a stone with the crescent and star of the Islamic faith. Powell could have reminded viewers, too, about Andre Carson of Indiana, who recently became the second Muslim in U.S. history elected to Congress.

We have come a long way in this country. In 2000, Al Gore chose Joe Lieberman as his running mate, calculating that America's long bigotry toward Jews had receded. In this year's campaign, Mitt Romney's Mormonism drew only token attention. The 2008 race has featured not one but two high-profile female candidates. And the notion that an African American may well become our next president can still take your breath away.

Amid all of this, anti-Islamic bigotry remains. It would behoove all of us to heed Powell's example and challenge such prejudice wherever we find it, swiftly and sincerely.

Clarification

The Oct. 16 editorial called the recently-opened roundabout at the intersections of Centre, Auburn and Liberty streets the first in the city. Properly said, it is the first roundabout built at a major intersection. Several roundabouts were installed earlier by the builders of developments whose roads are now city streets.