A South Carolina pastor says he wasn’t trying to be political when he posted a sign in front of his church linking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Usama bin Laden.

Pastor Roger Byrd told WYFF-TV that he just wanted to make people think when he put the sign reading “Obama, Osama — humm, are they brothers” in front of the Jonesville Church of God on Thursday.

Obama attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Fifteen percent of respondents to a recent Associated Press-Yahoo News poll said they thought the Illinois senator was a Muslim.

Byrd says he won’t take the sign down. He says his congregation voted unanimously Sunday to keep it up.

Jonesville is a town of about 1,000 people in northwestern South Carolina near the North Carolina line.