Hello:
The internet smear campaign against Barak Obama is going strong. Some of you here have been participants. He may not win. But, if he doesn't, it's not going to be because I didn't set the record straight.
Yup, that's me. Your old record straightener outer.
We are asked to believe that Sen. Obama, who professes to be a practicing Christian and has spoken publicly of his "personal relationship with Jesus Christ," is in fact secretly a Muslim and has lied all along about his true religious affiliation.
No proof is offered by those who make these claims -- no sightings of Barack Obama attending a mosque, no pictures of him reading the Qur'an, praying to Mecca, or observing Islamic holidays with his family. The entire case, such as it is, rests on a confused and error-ridden recitation of Obama's upbringing and purported childhood influences. It also rests on -- or exploits -- a deep fear and mistrust of the Muslim faith.
That anyone, let alone a sitting U.S. senator with designs on the highest office in the land, would conceal being a Muslim for twenty-odd years while going through the outward motions of practicing Christianity (or vice-versa, for that matter) is a truly bizarre accusation. I would be tempted to dismiss it as paranoid lunacy if it weren't so obviously a crass, politically-motivated smear.
Was Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. a "radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia?"
No. Though Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was raised a Muslim, he had lost his faith and become a "confirmed atheist" by the time he attended college, according to his son. Obama's parents separated when Barack was two, his father moving not to Jakarta, but to the United States, where he attended Harvard. Eventually he returned to Kenya.
Did Obama's mother go on to marry another Muslim named Lolo Soetoro who "educated his stepson as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta's Wahabbi schools?"
Yes and no. When Obama's mother remarried, it was indeed to an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro, whom his stepson describes as a "non-practicing" Muslim. But it was his "secular" mother who supervised his education, Obama has written, sending him to both Catholic and Muslim primary schools after the family moved to Jakarta. There is nothing on record to indicate Obama attended a madrassa (Muslim religious school) run by Wahabbists, and in any case it's unlikely his mother would have chosen to expose him to such an extreme form of Islam given her stated abhorrence of religious closed-mindedness and her stated goal of giving him a well-rounded education, including in matters of faith.
The school in question is the Basuki School in Jakarta, which a deputy headmaster described as a "public school" with no particular religious agenda. Obama entered the school at the age of 8 and attended for two years.
Is it true that when Obama was sworn into office he used the Koran (Qur'an) instead of the Bible?
No. Barack Obama placed his right hand on the Bible during his swearing-in ceremony. Whoever made this allegation has confused Obama with Congressman Keith Ellison, who really is a Muslim and was sworn in on January 4, 2007 using a copy of the Qur'an.
Is it true that Obama doesn't recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem and place his hand over his heart while doing so?
No.
excon
PS> If you find any other BS out there, you let me know. I'll fix it.
