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?