Posted on 01/19/2007 7:52:42 PM PST by Torie
Obama 'was educated in madrassa'
Tim Reid and Tom Baldwin in Washington
# Senator hid time there, says article
# Clinton distances herself from claims
Barack Obama was given a rude awakening to the cut-throat world of presidential politics yesterday after being accused of hiding four years in which he was educated at a madrassa when a teenager.
The claim, made in the conservative Insight magazine, also revealed the Machiavellian scheming of political activists in a presidential race still nearly two years away.
It was aimed at tarnishing Mr Obama’s image in the week he announced himself as a White House contender. But the article also claimed that the madrassa allegations came from aides to Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama’s main opponent for the Democratic nomination.
This may be wishful thinking on behalf of Republicans. The Clinton camp is determined not to be accused of digging dirt on Mr Obama because they fear such tactics could backfire, given his popularity.
But the Insight allegations represent an exquisite double shot at the Democrats’ two leading White House contenders: it implies that Mr Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, is a closet Islamic extremist, and that Mrs Clinton is so rattled by his candidacy she is using underhand tactics to weaken him.
Mr Obama, who is expected to announce formally his candidacy on February 10, has never been subjected to the hardball tactics of the presidential arena — until yesterday. Last night an aide said that the campaign was working on a formal statement, but added that the claims were “not accurate”.
The online article begins: “Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?” It continues: “This is the question Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Senator Barack Obama.”
Mr Obama’s mother was a white woman from Kansas; his father, a black Kenyan Muslim. He states in his recent biography that he attended a predominately Muslim school when he lived in Jakarta as a teenager.
But the article claims: “In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim.” It says that Mr Obama omitted to say in his memoir, or at any other time, that he attended the school for four years.
Mr Obama, who has spent his adult life in Chicago, calls himself a Christian and says that he believes in God. He attends a local church.
A source close to the Clinton campaign told The Times, a day before the Insight article was published, that they do not want to be seen as attacking Mr Obama or digging for dirt, but that they would be happy for another Democrat contender to criticise him.
How would Obama's election be interpreted in the Muslim world? I've no doubt that the jihadists would claim him as a Muslim and interpret it as a big victory for them.
(Until you are old enough to make up your own mind.)
I wish they would both take a flight over the former Yugoslavia...
OK, but perhaps the 'place' he was speaking of was the Foot of the Cross.
There are truly MANY 'paths' that lead from many places, that finally puts a Believer there.
"I believe that there are many paths to the same place,"
Conservatives, don't be distracted by the Obama mania. IT will be Hillary running, not Obama. Direct all your energy to fighting this committed communist who aspires to become president and to force communism on us all.
The choice of Republican candidate will be the most important choice ever made in the history of the United States. And please don't let it be someone who can't win.
No Bushes. No Doles. Someone strong who doesn't morph into a liberal when he/she gets into office, (like Bush.)
it's only a win for us if we have a conservative CANDIDATE.
Just as EVE was deceived, because SHE had not heard the Word of God.
(God told Adam about that Tree, and THEN He created EVE.)
I hope you post that picture frequently in the future.
Who would believe that the Clinton campaign is using underhanded tactics?
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I hate Clinton, but even if her campaign is responsible for this information it certainly isn't underhanded. This should have been part of all media's basic research on the candidacy of Mr. Hussein. Where he attended high school is relevant information for every political aspirant to the presidency.
I have actually just started following the story and reading many of the items in Indonesian.
There is a lot of arguement now and he has become a hot topic.
First they want to like him because he is non-white and because he is not Bush.
But his extreme liberal policies and his apostasy leave them confused.
It seems to be turning against him in a big way though if you ask me.
Im going to update my blog from time to time and try to translate some of the stuff said about him in the foreign media and foreign blogs.
"I've got your back--with a shiv."
Always is when it applies to the democrats
His stepfather was Muslim as well and evidentally he did spend four years in a madrasa.
No, that was another muslim congressman they elected from Minn.
For certain our treasonous press would love to see an Islamic Republic in the USA... funny since the liberals are the people who would lose the most under the type of society they espouse.
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