Excerpt:
"Having placed his heritage and middle name on the table as advantages in dealing with the Muslim world, the question of the downsides of his possible apostasy in the eyes of our Saudi allies, the Iranians, the Pakistanis and other Muslims needs addressing.
Accordingly -- while it's unclear at exactly what point in life Obama forsook the tenets of Islam, are questions pressing the presumptive nominee's positions on such topics as Shari'a in America or Palestinian right of return any less justifiable?
The stakes just don't allow such sophistry."
Ah, but the discussion of all this is somehow "racist", right?
Ah, but the discussion of all this is somehow "racist", right?
Bubba,
ReplyDeleteThat is a really interesting question that has not crossed my mind. While so many people here are trying to decide whether or not Obama is a secret Muslim (which I think is paranoid and insulting to him given his clear statements to the contrary), the very thing that some may find comfort in, that is, that he is not, may cause him problems with Muslims themselves. I would like to know how serious or real a possibility this may be, that he would, from the Muslim side, be viewed as a traitor and an apostate, and how that could impact his ability to the very thing he aspires to do - and that is negotiate with many very conservative Muslim leaders. Do we have any information from the Muslim world that this would be the case?
Here is what Daniel Pipes had to say about this important point:
ReplyDelete"More: family and friends considered him as a child to be Muslim. In 'Obama Debunks Claim About Islamic School,' Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press wrote on January 24, 2007, that
'Obama's mother, divorced from Obama's father, married a man from Indonesia named Lolo Soetoro, and the family relocated to the country from 1967-71. At first, Obama attended the Catholic school, Fransiskus Assisis, where documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim, the religion of his stepfather. The document required that each student choose one of five state-sanctioned religions when registering – Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant.'
Asked about this, Obama communications director Robert Gibbs responded by indicating to Pickler that
'....he wasn't sure why the document had Obama listed as a Muslim. Senator Obama has never been a Muslim.'
Two months later, Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times (available online in a Baltimore Sun reprint) reported that the Obama campaign had retreated from that absolute statement and instead issued a more nuanced one: 'Obama has never been a practicing Muslim.'
The Times looked into the matter further and learned more about his Indonesian interlude:
'His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama's grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended. That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.
The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. 'We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played,' said Zulfin Adi. … Obama's younger sister, Maya Soetoro, said in a statement released by the campaign that the family attended the mosque only 'for big communal events,' not every Friday."
Recalling Obama's time in Indonesia, the Times account contains quotes that Obama 'went to the mosque,' and that he 'was Muslim.'
Summarized,available evidence suggests Obama was born a Muslim to a non-practicing Muslim father and for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father. At some point, he converted to Christianity. It appears false to state, as Obama does, 'I've always been a Christian" and 'I've never practiced Islam.'
The campaign appears to be either ignorant or fabricating when it states that 'Obama never prayed in a mosque.'"
In a counter to the spurious attack by the George Soro's backed Media Matters, Pipes went on to say:
"All this matters, for if Obama once was a Muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed. Were he elected president of the United States, this status, clearly, would have large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.
In sum: 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.'"
I don't think the question is in doubt: Obama IS an apostate, and electing him as President would have serious implications in this area, in addition to all the other dangerous implications an Obama presidency would bring.
At what point in your life did you forsake the tenets of Islam, Bubba?
ReplyDelete