Posted on 04/30/2008 6:59:48 PM PDT by LJayne
As Barack Obama's candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate's integrity.
Obama asserted in December, "I've always been a Christian," and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. "The only connection I've had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father's side came from that country [Kenya]. But I've never practiced Islam."
In February, he claimed, "I have never been a Muslim.... other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for four years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion."
"Always" and "never" leave little room for equivocation. But many biographical facts, culled mainly from the American press, suggest that, when growing up, the Democratic candidate for president both saw himself and was seen as a Muslim.
• Obama's Kenyan birth father: In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
• Obama's Indonesian family: His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was also a Muslim. In fact, as 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."
• Obama's Catholic school in Jakarta: 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."
• 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." Haroon Siddiqui of The Toronto Star visited the Jakarta public school Obama attended and found that "Three of his teachers have said he was enrolled as a Muslim." Although Siddiqui cautions that "With the school records missing, eaten by bugs, one has to rely on people's shifting memories," he cites only one retired teacher, Tine Hahiyari, retracting her earlier certainty about Obama's being registered as a Muslim.
• Barack Obama's public school in Jakarta, Koran class: In his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, Obama relates how he got into trouble for making faces during Koran studies. Indeed, Obama still retains knowledge from that class: Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times reports that Obama "recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them [to Kristof] with a first-rate accent."
• Mosque attendance: Obama's half-sister recalled that the family attended the mosque "for big communal events." Watson learned from childhood friends that "Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque." Barker found that "Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers." One Indonesia friend, Zulfin Adi, states that Obama "was Muslim. He went to the mosque. I remember him wearing a sarong" (a garment associated with Muslims).
• Piety: Obama himself says that while living in Indonesia, a Muslim country, he "didn't practice [Islam]." Indonesians differ in their memories of him. One, Rony Amir, describes Obama as "previously quite religious in Islam."
OBAMA'S HAVING been born and raised a Muslim and having left the faith to become a Christian make him neither more nor less qualified to become president of the United States. But if he was born and raised a Muslim and is now hiding that fact, this points to a major deceit, a fundamental misrepresentation about himself that has profound implications about his character and his suitability as president.
The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and is the Taube/Diller distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
In case it wasn’t evident, I posted my comment before I read your earlier one, so I wasn’t responding to that.
Religions define themselves. Typically, Islam teaches that if your father was a Muslim, then you are Muslim. And it teaches that once a Muslim, always a Muslim. By analogy, if someone’s parents baptize him as a Christian, then he is be considered to have been a Christian, and still to be a Christian, though fallen away, even if he subsequently abandons the faith—and all the more so if he went to church with his family and took religion classes as a child.
Certainly under American law, Obama can choose his religion as he pleases. But that wouldn’t stop most devout Muslims from considering him an apostate if he started life as a Muslim and then converted to Christianity as an adult.
Interesting thing about old Muawiyah was that he looked beyond Islam, saw how a state could be organized, and did so without letting the religious elements interfere with top end statecraft, or the acquisition of wealth and power.
Guy was positively Jeffersonian when it came to religion, and Hamiltonian regarding statecraft and government involvement in national finance.
And this was on the part of a man who grew up living in tents, tending camels, and participating in an almost totally illiterate society.
His ideas in government were translated to Spain. Under the Umayyads Spain became the most prosperous, powerful and educated nation on Earth.
I don't think any of us would care to live in those societies, but at the time, they were the best to be had.
Yes; Muawiyah was perhaps my favorite figure from early Islamic history; then there was (much later, of course) the greatest of the Kurds, Saladin.
I wonder if Sean knows about the cousin?
“..that would blow him right out of contention.”
Why do you say that? With all this promotion of national diversity one can only expect that sooner or later America will have a non-Christian, or perhaps even an anti-Christian, occupy the WH. It is questionable that it will be the Muslim BO in 2009, but it is only a matter of time for it to happen in the future.
Well, according to this article,
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2649
his true full name is Barrack Hussein Muhammad Obama.
AN AMERICAN EXPAT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
htpp://latoze.blogspot.com
The above american in southeast asia went to the INDONESIAN SCHOOL OBAMA ATTENDED AGES 6-10, and he went to MUSLIM classes as required by Indonesian Law. GO TO THE WEBSITE AND READ! OBAMA attended MOSQUE WITH HIS STEPFATHER LOLA SOLETORO, and lived as a MUSLIM.
There have been umpteen threads on this, and you’all need to do some research.
CORRECTION ON WEB ADDRESS;
AN AMERICAN EXPAT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
ON FREEREPUBLIC.COM he is “expatguy”
In Indonesia Barack Obama was Barry Soletoro...
Originally his name was Barry Soletoro, it was changed.
Read his Indonesian Childhood ages 6-10
AN AMERICAN EXPAT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
known on FreeRepublic.com as “expatguy”
The most extensive research on BARACK OBAMA on the web.
Actually, it is a standard operating procedure, sanctioned in the Koran, to decieve Infidels.
I do not know whether Obama is a closet Muzzie or not. I do know that he has rightfully earned Democrat nomination because he hates American values even more than Hillary.
The party needs to be clearly displayed for what it is and not disguised by the too clever lyings of the Clintons.
And you?
I bet you would have remembered if you had to pray five times a day to Allah.
Yes and my religious education is still important to me today,...The bible says: ‘raise a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Those principles will apply to any religion, whether right or wrong.
Short version, many Moslems are "soft on Islam".
Indonesia's Moslem population is well known for being "soft".
Short version, many Moslems are "soft on Islam".
Indonesia's Moslem population is well known for being "soft".
I don’t know about that, it’s more expatguy’s expertise. What say you expatguy to muawiyah that most muslims are soft on Islam in Indonesia?
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