American Muslims in Fremont backed Senator Barack Obama’s push for the Presidency, but not his advice to vote no on Prop 8.

Voters of the Muslim faith in Fremont said they were in favor of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry, on the advice of their mosques and because of their traditional values.

Mosques such as the Islamic Center of Fremont urged their members to vote for Prop 8. “If there is something against the religion, then we’re going to vote in one way, particularly for Prop 8. Muslims are supposed to vote Prop 8 yes,” said Mohammad S. Akhtar, who is originally from Pakistan and is a board member at the Islamic Center of Fremont, the second largest mosque in Fremont.

Sam Saleh, a store owner who is originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, said that the prayer leader at his mosque had told members to vote yes on Prop. 8 during the Friday sermon. Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day, but Friday prayers are usually the busiest at mosques, equivalent to Sunday service at church.

Asked why he thought same-sex marriages should be banned, Saleh said: “I have children. God created one man, one woman. I can’t go against God. That’s the way I think is right and everybody in the Muslim community voted yes.”

Tariq Masood, an insurance agent originally from Pakistan, said gay marriage “should be stopped” and that God condemned nations that condoned homosexual behavior. He also suggested that homosexuality was to blame for earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Before he went out to cast his ballot on election day, Masood asked a Muslim friend over the phone for last-minute advice on whether voting yes or no on Prop. 8 meant a vote to stop same-sex marriage and was reassured in his decision.

Mimi Najati, owner of a beauty salon in Centerville who is originally from Afghanistan, said her husband, like the Muslim community in general, was against gay marriage. But she said she would have voted against Prop. 8, if she had remembered to register on time. “I’m not supporting gay marriages but if somebody likes to marry they should be given the right to do so,” she said.

“We as human beings should be given freedom of choice, nobody should be against that. It’s not our business what somebody does. It’s not going to hurt anybody so why should we be against it?”

“I think a lot of us here support Obama,” said Berkeley resident Dan Spitzer, 58. “But we’re worried about his associations.”

Mr. Spitzer, who described himself as pro-Israel, named some people who particularly worried him: William Ayers, a former member of 60′s domestic terror group the Weather Underground; Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter; and the late Edward Said, a Palestinian thinker and activist. These men and others, said Spitzer, did not support Israel, and he feared that their views had shaped Senator Obama’s own.

In response to Spitzer’s question, Pipes said he felt Obama would move US Israel policy closer to that of the Europeans, which emphasizes Palestinian rights. In his talk, Pipes derided that approach as ineffective.

Mr. Pipes’ last solo appearance at the university in 2004 drew national attention when members of the Muslim Student Association, a pro-Palestinian group on campus, protested and disrupted the talk.

This time, the lecture went on as planned.

Though Pipes did not discuss Obama’s personal associations at length, on his website he has published a number of articles suggesting that the senator has practiced Islam and identified as a Muslim. Throughout the campaign the Senator has said he is Christian.

On his website, Senator Obama expresses strong support for Israel, as well as for the military and economic assistance it receives from the US. In the past, the Senator has supported Palestinian rights as well, and his Web site endorses a two-state solution.

Questions about Obama came up several times during the half-hour question-and-answer session. Afterward, audience members said they still felt uncertain.

“I support Obama on most things,” said Spitzer after the talk. “And I’m going to vote for him because I’m an American. But I’m more than a little wary of some of the people he’s been close to.”

Jonathan Wornick, 44, said that up until a few weeks ago, he had been regularly raising money for Republican candidate John McCain. Now, though, he said he felt conflicted, because he agreed with Obama on many social issues but wasn’t sure he could trust him on Israel.

Danny Ponticello, 20, a third-year political science major at UC Berkeley, said all the discussion about Obama had thrown his vote into question.

“I’m conflicted now,” he said. “Before this talk, I had been leaning towards Obama. But I’m pro-Israel, so I’m going to have to look up some more information on his stance.”

Two other students who were talking with Ponticello both said they supported McCain.

Over a hundred people attended Pipes’ talk, which was held at the Boalt School of Law under high security: five uniformed police officers stood inside and outside the lecture hall, and students screened audience members with hand-held metal detectors at the door. Anyone who attempted to disrupt Mr. Pipes as he spoke would be “forced to leave,” said John Moghtader, the president of Tikvah, the pro-Israel student group that sponsored the event, before the lecture began. He added that “there may be sanctions imposed.”

Zohair Jamal, communications director for the Muslim Student Association, said before Thursday’s event that no protest was planned.

“They are entitled to their freedom of speech,” he said. “We feel that if we disagree with an event, whatever it may be, it would be a much better use of our time to use our voices on campus and hold our own events countering what was said.”