Who started the 'Obama is a Muslim' smear? (conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com)

TimesOnLine ^ | June 30, 2008 | Daniel Finkelstein

[IrishMike]

An early example is the work bring done to trace the source of the so-called smear about Obama's religion.

I call it a so-called smear not because I am suggesting for one second that Obama is a Muslim but because, if you think about it, it is odd to call suggesting someone is a Muslim a "smear", isn't it?

Well, Matthew Mosk in the Washington Post makes clear why the smear label is well merited. From the beginning the allegation was less that Obama was some sort of Islamist than that he was a liar. The idea, the smear, was that he was attempting to conceal his religious background.

It is rather similar to the reason why Holocaust denial is anti-semitic. The numbers who died are a matter for historical research, the suggestion that the Jews are engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the truth is a smear.

Mosk attributes the uncovering of the truth about the Obama smear to political theorist Damielle Allen and a Google search she conducted using phrases from an attack email on Obama's religion:

That search showed that the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail on Jan. 8, 2007, and added this line at the end: "Don't know who the original author is, but this email should be sent out to family and friends."

Allen discovered that theories about Obama's religious background had circulated for many years on the Internet. And that the man who takes credit for posting the first article to assert that the Illinois senator was a Muslim is Andy Martin.

[IrishMike]

...'Whatever.

But it looks like they've got their man'....

[ClearCase_guy]

Allen discovered that theories about Obama's religious background had circulated for many years on the Internet.

So why is a 2007 posting on FreeRepublic being singled out?

[Jeff Head]

Why is Obama so afraid of his own roots, hmmm?

Obama's own website says the following:

"Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim," followed by: "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim."

I have a few questions for Obama's campaign and anyone inerested in researching Obama's background...which when considering him for the President of the United States, we as voters in this Republic have a de facto responsibility to do when any questions arise.

1. Did or did not Obama recite the Islamic call to prayer from memory in an interview? Did he or did he not, in that interview refer to it as one of the most beautiful sounds at sunset? - [Reference Obama:Man of the World, March 6, 2007, Nicholas D. Kristoff, NY Times Select]

   From that article:

   “I was a little Jakarta street kid,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in his office (excerpts are on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground). He once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school, but a president is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics — and more likely to be aware of their nationalism — if he once studied the Koran with them.
   
   Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

2. Do or do not many Islamics consider the recital of that prayer as a defacto part of fundamental Islamic/Muslim religious membership? [Reference The Adhan (Ilsamic call to prayer)].

   Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.
   Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.
   I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.
   I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.
   I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.
   I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.
   Come to prayer. Come to prayer.
   Come to Success. Come to Success.
   Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.
   There is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.

3. Did or did not Obama attend, as a youth, Muslim schools and was he or was he not considered a member of the religion of his step father in Indonesia? [See notes and reference to number 1 above. Obama admits it himself.]
   
   
4. Was or was not Obama registered in his elementary school classes as a "Muslim" requiring that he study Islamic principles and the Koran each day? [Reference Barack Obnama's Muslim childhood.]

   From that article:

   Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng explained to Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: "My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim." An Indonesian publication, the Banjarmasin Post reports a former classmate, Rony Amir, recalling that "All the relatives of Barry's father were very devout Muslims."
   
   Barack Obama's Catholic school in Jakarta.
   
   The Catholic school: Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports that "documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim" while at a Catholic school during first through third grades. Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was "listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school." A blogger who goes by "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" found that "Barack Hussein Obama was registered under the name ‘Barry Soetoro' serial number 203 and entered the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. … Barry's religion was listed as Islam."
   
   The public school: Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times learned from Indonesians familiar with Obama when he lived in Jakarta that he "was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended."

Clearly, the record is at significant odds with Obama's campaign, and his own statements. Why?

Now, whether or not Obama considers himself Muslim now, whether or not he is willing to admit to his past and upbringing, these questions and his efforts to hide or color the truth of his background are relavent to his aspirations to be President.

If he will not even be truthful about his own upbringing, his own roots...how can we expect him to be truthful about his own stances on critical issues of the day and his ideology as regards the United States?

The answer is plain...we can't.

His own shifting stances on the issues, his own willful associations for decades with virulent anti-Americans and then his attempts to hide from those associations all atest to this.

Footnote: All of this may help to explain the initial picture in this article of Obama that his half brother proudly displays of Obama at the age of 24, wearing traditional Muslim garb.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON, BUT DON'T WANT

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

NOBAMA '08 SIGHTED IN IDAHO, JULY 2008

[Eye of Unk]

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck it sure isn’t a golden retriever!

[autumnraine]

Hey, free advertising!

[stuartcr]

It’s not odd at all, if you believe that Muslims are demon-spawned murderers.

[McGruff]

...the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail...

Cool. Do we get the Worst Person in the World award then? It would be an honor.

[Eye of Unk]

I think now that Islam is Satan’s pyramid scheme.

[NTHockey]

From the comments: >>Well there’s this, if you’re interested. Barack Obama actually attended a Catholic school in Indonesia, Franciscan Asisi Primary School, where he was registered as “Barry Soetoro”. School documents listed Barry Soetoro as an Indonesian citizen born in Honolulu, Hawaii on 4 August 1961. Barry’s religion was listed as Islam.

On this basis he was released from classes so he could study the Koran and say the Shahada, recitation of which makes one a Muslim.

Google is your friend. Look it up.

Posted by: Julianne Wiley | 1 Jul 2008 00:45:31<<

Indonesian citizen??? Qualification for Presidency?? Naturalization??

[AppyPappy]

He was a Muslim because his father was a Muslim.

[johnny7]

If you ask the sheeple... I’d bet they’d say Hillary.

[metesky]

Woof! Woof!

[ShadowAce]

I think now that Islam is Satan’s pyramid scheme.

It may well be part of it--Global Warming is another part.

[IrishMike]

Contradictions on two consecutive paragraphs

....’That search showed that the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail on Jan. 8, 2007, and added this line at the end: “Don't know who the original author is, but this email should be sent out to family and friends.”

Allen discovered that theories about Obama’s religious background had circulated for many years on the Internet. And that the man who takes credit for posting the first article to assert that the Illinois senator was a Muslim is Andy Martin’....

[IrishMike]

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, ‘He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.’

Obama’s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son’s education.

Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta.

[missnry]

BTTT

[Delta 21]

So lets track down that post and make that Freeper our Hero for today!

[Jeff Head]

He also , according to his own book, willfully sought after the heritage of his father and through his step father, attended Islamic school, and later, before finding the perverted Trinity Church, was seen while visiting his African family in Muslim garb up until the time he was at least 24.

His background and upbrining is clearly Muslim. Whatever he is now, Obama lies about his past and is certainly lying about his positions now.

[Delta 21]

BTTT

[AppyPappy]

What Wahabi school was that?

[AppyPappy]

What was the name of the Islamic school he attended?

[NeoCaveman]

When I go to family gatherings, the typical white people there always tease the Democrat(s) in the room about voting “for the Muslim”.

The hilarious part is this even happens at family gatherings were I’m not related to anyone. So it is not an isolated incident.

[IrishMike]

Speaking to the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Illinois senator said his experience living in Indonesia for four years as a child and his ability to speak to Muslims could make him a better president.

“If I go to Jakarta and address the largest Muslim country on earth, I can say, ‘Apa kabar,’ — you know, ‘How are you doing?’ — and they can recognize that I understand their common humanity,” Obama said. “That is a strength, and it allows me to say things to them that other presidents might not be able to say. And that’s part of what’s promising, I think, about this presidency.”

[smalltownslick]

“Indonesian citizen??? Qualification for Presidency?? Naturalization??”

American ExPat in SE Asia mentioned this several days ago on one of the birth certificate threads. I was under the imipression from what he wrote that he was looking into that, but I haven’t read anything from him since. We definitely need to know more about this.

[Wolverine]

"I Will Have Credibility With Muslim World"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpjWAzqAwcw

---

Obama: I Will Have Credibility With Muslim World

He says he will have credibility in the Muslim World because he lived there.

My name is Barack Hussein Obama

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset."

Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet…

[wildandcrazyrussian]

With further info at:

Much info on Muslim connections

more great info from Daniel Pipes

[IrishMike]

In two best-selling autobiographies—”The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” and “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance”—Mr. Obama, born in Honolulu where his parents met, mentions but does not expand on his Muslim background, alluding only to his attendance at a “predominantly Muslim school.”

The sources said the background check concerned Mr. Obama’s years in Jakarta. In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a Madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim. Although Indonesia is regarded as a moderate Muslim state, the U.S. intelligence community has determined that today most of these schools are financed by the Saudi Arabian government and they teach a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims.

[wolfcreek]

“That search showed that the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail on Jan. 8, 2007, and added this line at the end: “Don't know who the original author is, but this email should be sent out to family and friends.”

I did a Google search, Snopes.com and Urbanlegend.com

Not a word about FR.

I all B.S. Everyone I know has received the E-mail or many others.

[TomGuy]

Mosk attributes the uncovering of the truth about the Obama smear to political theorist Damielle Allen...

That search showed that the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail on Jan. 8, 2007

==

The article, Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim by Debbie Schlussel, was initially published online December 18, 2006.

[magslinger]

Cool. Do we get the Worst Person in the World award then? It would be an honor.

Let me know if we receive it. I've got the trophy done up and saved.

[festus]

Masdra Al Get Whitey

[xsmommy]

i am heartened by your tales from the heartland. in the DC area they are embracing the Obams and selling his tshirts and toting his bumper stickers.

[AppyPappy]

What was the name of the Madrassa?

There are too many loose items in this whole “Obama is a Muslim” story. He was labeled a Muslim in school because his dad was a Muslim. That’s the law there. A boy cannot say “My father is a Muslim but I am a Catholic”. They don’t play that in Muslim countries. Children don’t choose their religions. I have seen no evidence that Obama practiced Islam when he left Indonesia. Therefore, I see no reason to believe he was a practicing Muslim.

[IrishMike]

From Obama’s speech in Philadelphia regarding Pastor Wright

.......”But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith”,

What age is Obama ?
20 plus years ago introduce me to my christian faith
..... what is there or was before ?

..........................................

Obama’s Grandma Changes Islam Story

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2042875/posts

[AppyPappy]

As best I can tell, he was nothing. His mom was a religious mutt so he never had any real direction.

[STD]

Very plainly this liberal author makes two very derogatory and libelous statements, which would be handled by violent execution in any muslum country. His death sentence would involve the horror of having his head cut off by a long heavy semitar. No gentle painless needle like the one Tim McVey was given for your crimes infidel! His head is forfeit wherever Sharia law is practiced today. Mr. Author had better be very careful where he presents his passport when he travels.

Who started the 'Obama is a Muslim' smear?

This statement infers some pretty damning comments about both islam, allah and muslums. If allah is god, the author has blasphemed. If islam is the only real pathway to god, then he's missed the train and is going to this gods particular hell.

Finally, if both of the above are indictments or smears then it's the writer who makes the claim and states that islam is a fraud and being a muslum is a smear.

Off with the authors head! Off with his head!

[IrishMike]

Look into the SYRIAN connection ??

An Obama-Rezko primer: Who is Tony Rezko?

A: Antoin “Tony” Rezko is a millionaire Chicago businessman who has long helped young politicians raise money and make connections. Raised in Syria, he moved to Chicago to study engineering but wound up making money in real estate and fast food. He is now on trial in federal court on mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and attempted extortion charges.

[Jeff Head]

There were two schools he attended while in Jakarta. One a Catholic school, then a state run Indonesian school which required him, being listed as a Muslim to attend Islamic studies each day.

The first school was Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School. He was listed there as a Muslim and so qualified under their rules to be exempt from Catholic religious studies.

While the she second school, Besuki Primary School, was not a madrassa as early reports tried to indicate, it was a state run school that required Muslims to attend Islamic studies each day where he was taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam.

A lot of credit goes to Freeper, Expatguy, an American Expatin SE Asia, who has personnaly gone to Jakarta and looked at the records.

But that is not the end of it, in Obama's own book, "Dreams of my Father", which I have downloaded and read, Obama himself describes the second school as a Muslim school and admits to having studied Islam there.

"In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Quranic studies."

One of the key issues (among others) is that Obama and his campaign routinely color the truth (ie. lie) about Obama's upbringing and background. If he cannot be truthful about his own upbringing and heritage, then we cannot expect him to be truthful about much else.

[xzins]

I suspect that Obama is an atheist, but that’s a different subject having to do with his communist ideology.

The question is not whether he is a Muslim or a Christian.

The issue is whether he had a Muslim background or a Muslim upbringing. The answer is that he had both.

[Jeff Head]

The second school he attended in Jakarta, Besuki Primary School, was not a madrassa as early reports tried to indicate, but it was a state run school that required Muslims (which Obama was enrolled as) to attend Islamic studies each day where he was taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam.

To this day he can recite the Islamic call to prayer in fluent Arabic, as he did in an interview for the NY Times.

[IrishMike]

In his political life in Chicago, he called himself Barry. Not Barack. Now, we see things like his campaign telling the Canadian’s one thing about NAFTA and the American public another. Or his chief aide on foreign relations saying to over seas press, they Barack doesn’t really think the war is going to be ending. Examples.

This is not transparency, this is politics as usual. The problem with Obama being Muslim, is Obama is making it an issue, but dancing around the issue.

[nonsporting]

The question is not whether he is a Muslim or a Christian. The issue is whether he had a Muslim background or a Muslim upbringing. The answer is that he had both.

Of course the questions of whether he's a Muslim (which he denies) or a Christian (which he claims) are important. They help to characterize the man in broad and general ways that may be missed otherwise.

I'm most interested in his claim about being a Christian, since many will accept this without clarification and possibly vote for him based on this "identity." Franklin Graham during a lengthy talk with Obama was convinced that Obama was not and shared the gospel with him.

People who do not read and study the Bible will take offense and say "Who does F.G. think he is to call into question Obama's beliefs." Well, F.G. is a student of the Bible and is qualified to judge (see Matthew 7ff). There is no way to ascertain whether one is a "false prophet" (a messianic figure (or change agent) who is not what he claims to be) without judging.

[weegee]

From the beginning the allegation was less that Obama was some sort of Islamist than that he was a liar. The idea, the smear, was that he was attempting to conceal his religious background.

Obama wrote in his own book how he got caught goofing off in his Koranic studies class.

Obama told a journalist at the New York Times that the Islamic call to prayer at sundown is one of the most beautiful things. He then recited it in Arabic.

These do not make him a muslim but it is a LIE to say that he was not educated in Islam and it is a SMEAR to call those who point these inconvenient truths out "LIARS".

[weegee]

The Hillary campaign had a staffer who was sending out the email. When did their mailings begin.

[weegee]

I went to Yahoo and did a search for this FR thread by date.

I found this one:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1773193/posts
The audacity of apostasy: Barack Obama’s Muslim links (by Dr. Jack Wheeler)
Brooksnews.com ^ | January 8, 2007 | Dr. Jack Wheeler

Posted on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 7:10:23 PM by Gritty

---

Note that the ARTICLE is dated January 8th but posted on January 24th (over 2 weeks after “publication”). The author of the article is attributed but people insist that they can't find the “author”. Googling Jack Wheeler's name finds bylines at Newsmax, WND, and elsewhere.

This isn't FR’s problem. We post articles and excerpts for discussion. The “facts” that are in error are investigated. We do it to “conservative” articles as well as AP, Reuters, NY Times, LA Times, etc..

[weegee]

By post 11 of that thread, it was pointed out that Expat had already disproven the comment about the madrassa.

[IrishMike]

You do good work

[NormsRevenge]

Matthew Mosk from the MD4BUSH debacle ? lol

The Washington ComPost heap keeps delivering stinkers, alright.

[IrishMike]

Obama 08: A Muslim? What do you think?

He only pretends to be a smoker so he can have an excuse for having a cigarette lighter on his person at all times so that he can light his shoes at a moment’s notice.

Just a thought !

[TypeZoNegative]

From what I remember, if you take on the citizenship of any country other than the United States of America, you automatically lose your natural born American citizenship and you cannot be considered natural born if you try to regain it. You can only hope to become a naturalized citizen. And seeing as though Barry didn’t go through the process of becoming a naturalized citizen, not only can he not become President, but he’ll have to give up his senate seat, and also be fined, jailed and deported back to Indonesia.