ISLAM IN AMERICA: Obama’s religion questionable 
August 30, 2010 by Matthew Jarzen
Evidence of possible Muslim faith as well as Christianity exists
Since the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, issues of race and particularly religion have been dragged kicking and screaming back into the limelight of American political and social conversation.
The issue of religion especially has struck a chord with many Americans, particularly when it comes to Obama’s religious preference.
A recent Time magazine poll revealed that 1 in 4 Americans now believe that Obama is a Muslim — due in large part to the president’s perceived support for the building of the now infamous “Ground Zero Mosque” in New York, two blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.
Whether or not Obama is a Muslim has been a subject for discussion for quite some time. Usually reserved as a subtopic of the “Birther” movement, the issue now has taken on a life of its own — much to the dismay of the president’s liberal defenders.
Naturally, the question that many Americans have is this: Is Obama really a Muslim, and, if so, does it really matter?
Let’s look at the evidence of whether or not the president is Muslim as if this were a court case and pretend that disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong was tasked with proving that Obama is a Christian.
First off, let’s examine Obama himself. His full name — Barack Hussein Obama — is obviously of Muslim origin. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a Kenyan national and also a Muslim.
After his abandonment by his father two years after his birth, Obama was taken by his mother to live in Indonesia with Lolo Soetoro, another Muslim man. In Indonesia, according to the president’s autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama attended an Islamic school and studied the Quran. While in college, he traveled to visit friends in India and Pakistan.
Flash forward to the presidential election of 2008. During an interview on ABC news, Obama said, “You’re absolutely right that John McCain hasn’t talked about my Muslim faith…”
Was this a Freudian slip or a simple mistake? Either way, it left Americans with more questions than answers.
Following his election, Obama’s first interview was to an Arab news network, Al-Arabiya. Obama’s first trip overseas as president was to Turkey and Egypt.
There were also the many issues of Obama’s treatment of Israel — from disrespecting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by completely ignoring the prime minister during his trip to Washington to Obama’s routine criticism of Israeli settlements and the incident regarding the “aid” flotilla that sought to run the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Detractors — especially from the “Birther” fringe — viewed this mistreatment as manifestation of Obama’s preference of Muslims over long-standing allies due in part to what they believed to be his Muslim faith.
Domestically, Obama also appeared to go to great lengths to avoid speaking ill of Muslims — even if they committed or attempted to commit acts of terror. Take the killing of Private First Class William Long in Little Rock, Ark. by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.
The president’s reaction to that was dismissive; he cited other reasons for the shooting. Then came the attack at
Fort Hood with the shooting death of 13 American soldiers by former Army Major-turned-jihadist Nidal Malik Hasan.
Obama’s reaction to this was dismissive, again citing other motivations behind the shooting. Another incident involved one Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253. Even though al-Qaida claimed responsibility, Obama yet again dismissed this as just another disturbed young man. The latest incident occurred when Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, attempted to detonate explosives in Times Square in New York.
Just as in every previous case involving Muslim extremists committing or attempting to commit acts of terror, Obama and his administration were quick to dismiss the obvious religious motivations behind the incidents.
Lastly, we come to the now infamous “Ground Zero Mosque.” After weeks of protest following a controversial ruling allowing for the mosque to be built, many Americans wondered where Obama stood on the issue.
Finally, Obama emerged and announced his support for the constitutional right of people to worship in whatever way they see fit — despite the feelings of opposition held by 63 percent of Americans. In addition, it was during a dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan that this announcement was made.
It was following this announcement that the Time magazine poll was released citing that 1 in 4 Americans now believe the president is a Muslim. Since then, the left —usually the archenemy to anything remotely Christian— went to great lengths to prove and reassure Americans that the president is a Christian.
So, what evidence is there that the president is a Christian?
For 20 years, then-Sen. Barack Obama attended the Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago. The pastor of that church was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a preacher and proponent of the radical Black liberation theology.
It was only until Wright’s inflammatory sermons were uncovered that Obama left the church. Since becoming president, Obama has yet to find a church in Washington, D.C. to attend.
So is Obama Muslim? Well, that’s for you to decide.
Personally, I don’t care either way if the left and the media hold Obama to the same religious litmus test that applied to former Republican governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith.
Honestly, I’m past the point where religion should be a deciding factor for whether or not we elect someone —instead, we should look at the content of their character.
Unfortunately for Obama, that isn’t one of his strongest attributes, either.
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Mathew wrote:
[quote]In Indonesia, according to the president’s autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama attended an Islamic school and studied the Quran[/quote]
He also attended a Catholic school in Indonesia and studied the bible.
Your point?
Hey Mathew, what about the Virginnia Tech and Norther illinois shooters? What about the BTK killer? were they Muslim? Shouls the President have denounced them based on their religion?
Your argument sucks.
People believe Obama is Muslim because he was a practicing Muslim. This matters because Obama is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion– who (under sharia law) is subject to the most severe penalties. Obama’s apostate status clearly has enormous implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.
Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam
http://www.danielpipes.org/5354/confirmed-barack-obama-practiced-islam
In sum: The cited evidence demonstrates that Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque. This precisely substantiates my statement that he “for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father.”
Therefore, what Greg considers a media alsehood is in fact confirmed by evidence as truthful and accurate. The fact that so few understand this about Obama is a testimony to the Obamedia puppets disinformation and denial campaigns.
Denying Obama’s Muslim heritage is in itself a falsehood.
One disastrous effect of Obama’s status as a Muslim apostate was the way it emboldens Islamo-supremacists.
Take the case of Kaddafi; who clearly insists that Obama is a Muslim and hopes “that this black man will take pride in his African and Islamic identity… and that America will establish relations that will serve it well with other peoples, especially the Arabs.”
Clearly, Kaddafi got his wish in Obama’s submissiveness to the Lockerbie bomber release.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/07/26/did-the-obama-administration-push-for-lockerbie-bombers-release/
Kaddafi will celebrated that odious anniversary with Megrahi. Thanks, Hussein.
ALSO THEY FOUND OUT THAT, BARACK OBAMA FALSIFIED HIS SOCIAL SECURITY CARD AND HE HAS TRIED EVERYTHING TO COVER THAT UP PLUS WHERE IS HIS VITAL RECORDS AT THE HOSPITAL HE WAS SUPPOSABLY BORN AT, MY GUESS MORE BLACKS WORK THERE IN THE LAST 2 YEARS THEN EVER TO CREATA FALSE DOCUMENTATION.
YANK HILLARY CLINTON FOR WORKING WITH HIM, SINCE……
WELL YOU KNOW
ISAAC DANIEL SHOFF
DRUG KICKING AND SCREAMING BACK INTO THE SPOTLIGHT not only by political hacks trying to smear a president and his party. It is the Yellow-Rag journalism of writers like Matthew Jarzen and his lazy editor that would rather use sensationalism to sell papers than do the work required to produce a story by means of actual journalism.
Are you joking. It doesn’t matter that if he is Islam or not? You do realize that Islam’s goal is to take over America? Do some freakin’ research on the subject before writing such a benign article. They have taken over Europe, Spain, Turkey just to name a few and are working hard on America now that Obama is in office. Look at the website Islam on Capitol Hill,,,,it says ‘Our time has come”, they said they would have a muslim in the white house in 2008. Now we find out the the Egyptian president admitted that Obama told him in confidence that he was a muslim and was loyal to the muslim agenda (take over America). The only difference between the muslims in suits and the ones with guns is timing and tactic. Look up the video on youtube ‘What Islam is not”
oh wow. the rebel yell is being run by a bunch of morons now and it looks like it’s being read by the same kinds of people.
i guess idiots need a paper geared towards them too.
Barack Hussein obama believes in all religions,his father is a muslim and so on he is also a muslim,if he treats all the americans equally than no problem arises,and rest of the world ,because amercia is super power and it will be in the head lines if any american national is killed or taken hostage by the terrorist.so the president wants to be equally to all the religions.
When it comes to Obama’s Muslim rabbit hole, the #1 place to learn all the key facts and find links to explore deeper is the Historyscoper’s free Obamascope at http://tinyurl.com/obamascope
If Obama’s religion doesn’t matter to you, Jarzen, (as you claim in your article) then why even write about it? How about you choke down that cowardice and actually say what you mean? Do you really think that Obama has been faking his christian faith for over, at least, twenty years because he knew he would become president and had some nefarious plan to impose sharia law? I don’t think you do, Jarzen. I think that you are just another conservative media sensationalist hack, like Glenn Beck, who just wants to intimate crazy ideas to an ignorant reader base using half truths, untruths, and indulging the reader’s imaginations. You know that no one in the intellectual community could ever be persuaded that Obama is a Muslim, so you place dark hanging suggestions in your articles for the uniformed and easily frightened (while distancing your own thoughts on the issues from the matter) in an effort to inspire them to act out against Obama. It is the most craven and corrupt way to try and persuade an audience, and you should be ashamed.
Also, try writing sober for once.
R.C.,
I find it funny as Jarzen points out in the article that the Left who usually despises anything Christian is up in arms trying to prove Obama is a Christian.
So, I ask you, do you have enough evidence to prove that Obama is a Christian?
Let’s just break this down for a second: You can’t be a good president if you happen to be Muslim? Since when?
@Chilidog,
Did the BTK killer or the gunman in Northern Illonois commit their crimes in the name of their religion as the ones that Jarzen points out in their articles did? You seem to forget we are at war with Muslim extremists and if you pretend that they don’t exist by not calling them that, that doesn’t mean they go away.
Your article is full of urban legends that have been debunked thousands of times.
For starters, Obama did not he is a Muslim in the ABC interview:
http://snopes.com/politics/obama/muslimfaith.asp
This is so hill-arry-us. Not the article, or Mr. Jarzen of course, but the comments made. It seems all liberals can argue with is the “I know you are but what am I” strategy. This is typical of liberals when they can’t actually argue the points made, they instead criticize and mock the person saying it. I saw this first hand last semester at the Karl Rove/Howard Dean debate. Karl Rove would use facts and figures to make his point, and all Howard Dean could do is say “nuh uh” and “that’s not true” but never rebut Karl Rove with any substance. Tell me RC, is Howard Dean one of these intellectuals you speak of?
As far as “Gee’s” comment. You say “the article is full of urban legends that have been debunked thousands of times”, but yet your only evidence is a case in which what was said could be left for interpretation, not solid or concrete evidence against Mr. Jarzen’s claims. I for one, being a Christian, would NEVER slip and say “my Muslim faith”. Accidents like that just don’t happen. Much like you would never hear a straight married man slip and say “my husband” as opposed to “my wife”, or a black person saying “my white race”, when they don’t have a trace of white in them. It just doesn’t happen. But of course we could leave that ONE instance you can kind of counter behind and just say Obama did not have his teleprompter guiding him…
As far as the article itself is concerned, it wouldn’t have mattered as much had he run as a muslim, although personally I don’t think now is the time for a muslim president. But it does matter, that if he is truly a muslim, that would make him a blatant liar, also something we don’t need in the White House right now. We all know that his entire campaign was one big lie full of empty promises, but this would take the cake.
But to add..
“The facts are the facts, said Obama, who is a Christian.”
Fact 1: Obama was born a Muslim, in a Muslim country, to a Muslim father, and raised a Muslim.
Fact 2: The only “Christian” church he has ever attended is a white hating, racist church led by an American hating extremist, which also has ties to Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
Fact 3: He has never attended a single church service while in office.
Fact 4: He has ignored and refused to participate in any Christian related national days, but has no problem hosting a dinner for Ramadan, a Muslim holy day, where he also supported the mosque at ground zero, but has yet to weigh in on the rebuilding of the ONLY religious place of worship destroyed on 9/11, which also happens to be a Christian Church.
Fact 5: He has declared support for Muslims regardless of the circumstances..”I WILL STAND WITH THE MUSLIMS SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..”-Audacity of Hope
Fact 6: Bowed to a Saudi king, never done before by an American President.
Fact 7: Said we are not, nor ever have been a Christian nation, but said that we have been influenced by Islam since the beginning.
Fact 8: Mocked the Bible, but praised the koran for it’s content and guidance.
So is Obama Muslim? Well, that’s for you to decide.
It not my decision on the religious faith of an individual, that is a private matter. I just accept his word on that fact, and Obama has stated that he is a Christian. To underhandedly spread a rumor that he is a Muslim is wrong.
The 1/4 American who believe Obama is a Muslim indicates nothing but people being misinformed.
Is okay for people to believe that America declared its independence from France or some other country? Yes, 26%* off American polled didn’t know America declared its independence from England. So, it is up to them to decided.
No it isn’t up to them to decide. They don’t know the facts even though it is easy to check.
The real issues isn’t the presidents religion, but an attempt to dehumanize the president. It is hard to determine where the Islamophobia or proliferation of overt misrepresentation of the facts.
* 7/2: Don’t Know Much About History? (maristpoll marist edu “72-don’t-know-much-about-history”)
Anthony
Obama’s character isquestionable, you say?
Speak for yourself, Mr. Jarzen. Given the typical, boring and by-the-numbers GOP talking points you spew, you are the LAST person to making such statement.
Obama has no character. He is a man full of contradictions whose campaign hitched on nothing more than false and empty promises, and a couple verbs..
This is a really poor article. I’m surprised the Rebel Yell published it, to be honest. I’ll happily entertain criticisms of Obama all day long, and agree with many of them, but just repeating random myths about a political figure in hopes of something “sticking” is just really shoddy opinion writing, not to mention insulting to the reader. Especially when the implication is that to be a Muslim is something inherently inferior, uncouth, and out of place in this country. I hope none of the nice people from the MSA had to read this.
I could go on about the absurdity of equating an African or Arab surname with “Muslim,” but for some reason I doubt that Jarzen ever intended this article to be taken seriously by individuals not stuck in the feedback loop of right-wing populist hysteria.
It’s a sad day in America, not to mention for a university, when our newspapers are filled with hilarious propaganda, and not just our televisions like normal.
Really Jarzen, you should apologize for this article and the disrespect with which you presented it. I would.
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