June 23, 2008
Wall Street Journal: Obama Walks a Fine Line With Muslims
By going to such lengths to prove to everyone that he is not a Muslim, Obama may have caused himself something of a problem:It is inaccurate to call Barack Obama a Muslim. Is it a slur?While reluctance to vote for a Muslim for president is real, it is not clear that all that many believe the rumor that he Obama is a Muslim--and those who are inclined to believe it are not likely to vote for him in any case:
The Obama campaign suggests it is. A new campaign Web site designed to air and rebut potentially damaging Internet rumors reads in one part: "Smear: Barack Obama is a Muslim... Truth: Sen. Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim and is a committed Christian."
The characterization highlights a tricky balance the campaign is trying to strike: to tamp down false rumors -- intended by some to link the Democratic presidential candidate to radical Islam -- without offending Muslims and harming his image of inclusiveness.
Muslim-Americans have made up one of Sen. Obama's most loyal bases of support since he announced his candidacy last year. But lately some Muslims, concentrated in several battleground states, say they are having second thoughts over his campaign's ardent defense of his religious background.
A Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll conducted in March shows the rumors have only stuck with a small portion of mostly conservative, noncollege-educated voters: 79% of respondents said they had heard the rumor that Sen. Obama is a Muslim, but only one in 10 said they believe it. A separate poll from the Pew Forum last September showed the liability of the perception. In the survey, 45% of respondents said they would have reservations about voting for a presidential candidate who is Muslim, compared with 25% for a Mormon candidate and 11% for a Jewish candidate.Till now, it seemed that the Jewish vote was Obama's larger concern, and that he could take Muslim support for granted. That was then.
But recently some Muslim voters interviewed in swing states say they have noticed the disparity between his outreach to them and to other religions. The Obama campaign has embarked on a national effort to win support from devout Christian voters and make known the candidate's Christian faith. He visited a Boca Raton, Fla., synagogue, and he made a pro-Israel group his first stop after claiming enough delegates to secure the nomination earlier this month.Read the whole thing.
Obama is taking some heat for his flip-flop on funding--how he handles this new situation and the response to it should be interesting.
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It is not a RUMOR that obama is a muslim, he in fact was raised a muslim. Whether he is currently a practicing muslim may be another matter. But his half-brother and childhood friends from Indonesia indicate that he was raised a muslim, studied the koran and went to mosque. He can cite the islamic call to prayer in Arab and has said the muslim call to prayer is the prettiest sound on Earth. At the very least, islam has been a strong influence on his life, which is bad enough.
Posted by: Laura at June 23, 2008 11:48 AMLaura, may I please ask you to cite your sources - the same refrain I always made in response to your comments. Obama attended a Muslim school in Indonesia but there are plenty of Jews and non-Catholics who attend Catholic school, but are not "raised Catholic."
Many, probably most Arab Christians can "[re]cite the [I]slamic call to prayer in Arab[ic]"; it's the standard language in which the call is given through the Islamic world and if you grow up hearing it daily multiple times called out from minarets down the street, you will memorize it. It's not long or particularly complex. After the 200th time, you would probably memorize it.
I am not Jewish but I also know the Sh'ma and parts of the Mourners' Kaddish, and find the latter hauntingly sad and beautiful, though my Aramaic is pretty rudimentary. There is nothing wrong with appreciating the beauty of another culture's or religion's practices. I also find the Greek Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Latin Vespers on Catholic Holy Thursday evening to be beautiful. And I am an secularist/rationalist, if it matters (I think not.)
Laura, your apparent venom - not criticism, baseless hatred - at Obama and at Islam categorically weakens whatever points you might want to make. I don't know what else to say.
Posted by: Bruce at June 23, 2008 11:19 PMIt is a fact that he was raised a muslim, according to his childhood friends in Indonesia, he attended mosque, studied the koran. His own mother had him register in that school in Indonesia as a muslim. In an interview with Nickolas Kristoff in the NYTimes, he recited the muslim call to prayer in Arabic. Islam considers anyone born to a line of muslim males, a muslim. So it is Obama followers own blind worship that won't enable them to see the truth.
Posted by: Laura at June 24, 2008 12:13 PMBruce, yes I hate islam and everything it stands for. There is ample reason to hate islam. I shouldn't have to explain, it should be self-evident.
Posted by: Laura at June 24, 2008 12:15 PM