Obama Dogged By Muslim Rumors

Washington Post: Foes Use Candidate's Muslim Ties To Fuel Speculation About His Faith

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Perry Bacon Jr..

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In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world.

Since declaring his candidacy for president in February, Obama, a member of a congregation of the United Church of Christ in Chicago, has had to combat rumors that he is a Muslim or that he had received training in Islam in Indonesia, where he lived from ages 6 to 10. While his father was an atheist and his mother did not practice religion, Obama's stepfather did occasionally attend services at a mosque there.

Despite his denials, rumors and e-mails circulating on the Internet continue to allege that Obama (D-Ill.) is a Muslim, a "Muslim plant" in a conspiracy against America, and that if elected president he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the only Muslim in Congress, when he was sworn in earlier this year.

In campaign appearances, Obama regularly mentions his time living and attending school in Indonesia, and the fact that his paternal grandfather, a Kenyan farmer, was a Muslim. Obama invokes these facts as part of his case that he is prepared to handle foreign policy, despite having been in the Senate for only three years and that he would literally bring a new face to parts of the world where the United States is not popular.

The son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, Obama was born and spent much of his childhood in Hawaii, and he talks more about his multicultural background than he does about the possibility of being the first African American president, in marked contrast to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who mentions in most of her stump speeches the prospect of her becoming the first woman to serve as president.

"A lot of my knowledge about foreign affairs is not what I just studied in school. It's actually having the knowledge of how ordinary people in these other countries live," he said earlier this month in Clarion, Iowa.

"The day I'm inaugurated, I think this country looks at itself differently, but the world also looks at America differently," he told another Iowa crowd. "Because I've got a grandmother who lives in a little village in Africa without running water or electricity; because I grew up for part of my formative years in Southeast Asia in the largest Muslim country on Earth."

While considerable attention during the campaign has focused on the anti-Mormon feelings aroused by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), polls have also shown considerable hostility toward Muslims in politics. It is not clear whether that negative sentiment will affect someone who has lived in a Muslim country but does not practice Islam.

In an August poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 45 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for any office who is Muslim, compared with 25 percent who said that about a Mormon candidate and with 16 percent who said the same for someone who is an evangelical Christian.

In Ellison's case, much of the controversy focused on his decision to take his oath of office with a Koran, one owned by Thomas Jefferson.

"It's good for America to have a president who has diversity at many levels in his background. That would be a benefit in reaching out to the rest of the world, particularly the Islamic world," said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group for Muslims. "But that kind of thing provides talking points for political detractors."

Obama aides sharply disputed the initial stories suggesting that he was a Muslim, and in Iowa, the campaign keeps a letter at its offices, signed by five members of the local clergy, vouching for the candidate's Christian faith. Aware that his religious belief remains an issue, Obama has denied a separate charge: that he does not hold his hand to his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. This rumor stemmed from a photo that was taken while the national anthem was being played.

[newsguy111]

Dear CBS editorial staff: Shame on you for perpetuating rumors that for some bizarre reason found their way on the Washington Post''s front page news. You''ve heard "WWJD." Ask yourself one question: What Would Cronkite Have Done?" I''ll give you hint, not what you did. As a fellow television journalist seeing CBS do this disappoints.
Thank You.

[liberalme]

I think Obama is the most intelligent and honest of any of the candidates. Race has nothing to do with the man.
Bigotry is caused by lack of knowledge and fear of learning.

[kansas1946]

It is about time we elect someone honest and smart to lead the country. Obama is exactly what America needs as President. Let''''s help him get there.




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Posted by newsthought1 at 04:12 AM : Nov 30, 2007
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Exactly, news. I rarely send money to a national candidate, but I have sent money to Obama. Also, I got a couple of t-shirts and buttons. He has some pretty cool stuff on his web-site.

[kansas1946]

Just the typical campaign nonsense. The ditto-heads hear that Obama is a muslim and they repeat it to all of their red-neck friends, and so if you hear it enough, it must be true..right. Of course the idea of turning off football long enough to do a little research on one''s own and find out what is true would just be too much to ask. So, Barack will just have to keep doing what he is doing and hope that most folks are buying the back-stabbing swift-boaters that love the internet because it is anonymous.

[abbe91]

"I think displaying article this is as ignorant as the article itself.
Posted by detroity2k at 08:47 PM : Nov 29, 2007"

I fully agree. Meanwhile, what about Giuliani and the muslims ? ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8d35g9nE0

[famulla-2009]

Sir
I fail to understand one concept that rules the thinking of the religion and the politics. This entire time only link, THE Communists are not religious, this goes for the Communist China now or during the era of Mao. Do you want to tell me that the Chinese are not religious? I doubt. Then the question is who the communists are? Do they live with the politics only and no monetary benefits? I doubt. USSR was once the big power branded the communist. Now it is Russia and I feel I am not right in stating that the communist is only man made phrase. There is nothing that tells me that you have no moral. The moral goes with the religion and religion does prohibit you from earning lawful means to leave.
No matter how many good deeds you have the religion plays a big part in the life.
Democracy is for the, of the, by the people. The Enron etc are totally wrong in line with my definition of moral value and the democracy fails. There are many corporations that have siphoned money in power packed countries. And you call these countries democracy. The is I cannot tie this with the common belief or what has been fed to me?
We are groping with the definition of the political arena and the money that go side by side the laws and the religious beliefs. We are defining this as we fit.
I disagree with what we define and what we preach
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla MBA PhD
P.O.Box 6044
Dar-Es-Salaam
East Africa

[pw2112]

It''s truly a sad time in America when the word "Muslim" generates a response similar to what the word "Communist" did in the 1950''s.
I would like to point out that there are good and bad people on either side of the idealogical fence.
To say "Muslims are this" or "Christians are that" is wrong on so many levels.
We as a nation haven''t even gotten our race relations act together.......now we are dealing with issues of faith.
Strap in folks it''s going to be a scary ride

[whatithink-2009]

Whites say blacks see racism where there is none. Blacks say whites don''t see racism even when it is blatant.

Both are correct.

[inaru-2009]

Lies (rumors=unproven allegations) proved wrong by facts: Senator Barack Hussein Obama, named after his atheist Kenyan father, born in Hawaii of a mother from Kansas, is a Christian, worked for Christian churches as a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago for years. The Post and CBS sunk to a new low. No clicking on any CBS or WA Post link until the blogs report they''ve issued an apology and correction on their front/web pages. Hear that, advertisers? Bye-bye, CBS, WA Post!

MSM hates Obama - he''ll provide cheap/free broadband everywhere, urban and rural, free airwaves for community radio, to hold government and businesses accountable. Forget MSM. Obama will win, with you.

Vote the day you get your Primary Absentee Ballot, check Obama, mail it. Get friends to do the same. Go vote together. Take 3-100 people to caucus, if that''s what your state does. Do it. It feels good to care. Don''t miss your chance; make a difference. Obama makes a good living from writing (made his first/only million for 2 books). He doesn''t need lobbyists. He%u2019s banned lobbyists from his administration (even from his events!) and those he hires from lobbying as long as he''s President. Researchers will have to research, and advise legislators because it''s their duty. Marketing advertisers can move back to Madison Ave. We''ll get our White House, Senate, House, and our Judiciary back to defend our Constitution and Bill of Rights, our Constitutional expert President Obama will see to it. Just do it.

[newsthought1]

Obama is NOT a muslim. But he is down-to-earth, likeable, of good character, and very intelligent. That is why the other candidates are throwing such ridiculous mud- because they know what a strong candidate he is, and they are all desperate.

It is about time we elect someone honest and smart to lead the country. Obama is exactly what America needs as President. Let''s help him get there.

[logger80]

I am so tired of listening to the critisism from Democrats about the Republicans putting an idiot like George Bush in office, when in fact it was the Democrats that put him there by virtue of their inability to run someone less idiotic.

[numeno]

Those who are against Muslims,go and read the newspapers and open your eyes and sleeping brain,These Muslims Arabs running economy of America.If they took out their billion dollars from here then you would be HOBO,you get completely cripple,so mind your language and your racist mind

[numeno]

Those who are against Muslims,go and read the newspapers and open your eyes and sleeping brain,These Muslims Arabs running economy of America.If they took out their billion dollars from here then you would be HOBO,you get completely cripple,so mind your language and your racist mind

[chirumbolo]

Obama is a former PART-TIME State Senator who won a seat in the U.S. Senate.

ONE YEAR AFTER THAT, he began running for President, partly by claiming his background (which includes having a Muslim father and a Muslim step-father) and experience living overseas (which includes living in a Muslim country and attending a Muslim school) uniquely qualified him for the job.

Obama can eat worms as part of his religion for all I care. But it is fair game to accurately vet his background.

[allknighter1]

This is an unnecessary story and a non event. Giving credence to hate mail in the form of a front page story should be below the standard of news for a station like CBS. Why not feature a cover story on the neonazi perspective?!

What further denigrates the idea of this as news is the fact that the bigoted few who cower in fear about a non-christian, or merely open minded, candidate assuming power could never overlook their own passive racism enough to vote for a black candidate in the first place.

Furthermore, this illustrates how poorly our media is working for us. It has now become the job of the blogs to fact-check the media.

Shame on CBS news for running with a false story without doing any fact checking, and shame on the post for running it in the first place.

[rohink-2009]

Bush supporters and Limbaugh listening zombie idiots who are afraid of anyone with an ounce of intelligence trying to run this country. Lord only knows they''''ve worshipped a lying corrupt moron for nearly seven years.

Posted by waynabq

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Oh, and Hillary isn''t a liar or corrupt? Right now Obama is the biggest threat to Hillary, not the Republican canidates. If he should get the nod, then they will go after him, right now his fellow Dems want him out of the way. There is corruption on both sides of the fence, don''t fool yourself.

[waynabq]

Bush supporters and Limbaugh listening zombie idiots who are afraid of anyone with an ounce of intelligence trying to run this country. Lord only knows they''ve worshipped a lying corrupt moron for nearly seven years.

[grazinggoat]

Boy Hillary must really be worried about Obama. I wouldn''''t doubt for a minute that her campaign isn''''t behind this. CBS is doing her biding.
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Posted by rohink at 07:50 PM : Nov 29, 2007

-She must be hearing his breath closing to her neck and passing her. Watch Iowa''s results, and then turn to New Hampshire''s. I would not hate the idea of having Obama co-listing with her or with Edwards as vice-president. It''s really strange how ''a racist'' race started when Obama got officially a shoulder from Oprah! Hilary went begging Babs (or was she imposed Babs?) to shoulder her in the artistic world. We now know what side is Hilary leaning toward... she is not the populist leader she pretends to be. She represents the elitists. I''d rather see her in the Repukons race.... she''d be a better horse there.

-Being a female, myself, I wonder what is pressuring me. I feel that a first black Official President to the US is more urgent than a first Madam President.

[detroity2k-2009]

I think displaying article this is as ignorant as the article itself.

[poopusbuttus]

ALL Muslims need to be beaten until they think like I do.