WASHINGTON (AP) - For Barack Obama, it is an ember that he has doused time and again, only to see it flicker anew: links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association. Obama and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet.
And the praise he received Sunday from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan prompted pointed questions — during Tuesday night's presidential debate and also in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland.
During the debate, Obama repeated his denunciation of Farrakhan's views, which have included numerous anti-Semitic comments. And, after being pressed, he rejected Farrakhan's support in the presidential race.
The Democratic candidate says repeatedly that he's a Christian who took the oath of office on a family Bible. Yet on the Internet and on talk radio — and in a campaign introduction for John McCain this week — he is often depicted, falsely, as a Muslim with shadowy ties and his middle name, Hussein, is emphasized as a reminder of Iraq's former leader.
"If anyone is still puzzled about the facts, in fact I have never been a Muslim," he told the Jewish leaders in Cleveland, according to a transcript of the private session.
The photo of Obama wearing Kenyan tribal raiments — taken by an Associated Press photographer during his visit in 2006 to the country where his father was born — resurfaced on the Internet amid unsubstantiated claims that it was being circulated by members of Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. Clinton and her aides said they had nothing to do with it. The Obama campaign accused them of "shameful, offensive fear-mongering."
On Tuesday Republican candidate McCain denounced the introduction he got in Cincinnati that criticized Obama in vivid terms. Talk show host Bill Cunningham referred to Obama three times as "Barack Hussein Obama" and called him a "hack, Chicago-style" politician during the introduction of McCain.
The Obama campaign is closely attuned to the rumors and insinuations. Information on Obama's Christian faith is prominently available on the "Know the facts" page of his Web site. The campaign has distributed flyers to churches in states with presidential contests. And it encourages supporters to flag any attack that may make its way into cyberspace.
"Our campaign is vigilant in quickly responding to any information about Senator Obama that surfaces, be it on the Internet, in the media or from our opponents," spokesman Bill Burton said Wednesday.
If there is confusion — and opportunity for political mischief — it derives at least in part from Obama's rich cultural background. His mother was a white woman from Kansas, his father was Kenyan and he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.
"My grandfather, who was Kenyan, converted to Christianity, then converted to Islam," Obama said Sunday. "My father never practiced; he was basically agnostic. So, other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for four years when I was a child, I have very little connection to the Islamic religion."
Obama has become careful in denouncing the links, lately noting that some rumors about him also have been insulting to Muslims. Jim Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said many Arab Americans are drawn to Obama because of his cultural background.
"It is clear he wants to have a broader relationship with the Muslim world," Zogby said. "He has a biography that connects him to the Muslim world."
Comments
Obama defends himself as a devout Christian “I am a Christian. I am a devout Christian. I’ve been a member of the same church for 20 years. I pray to Jesus every night and try to go to church as much as I can.” (Obama Uses Jesus' Sermon to Bolster Gay Civil Unions - Christian Post.) Okay then my brothers and sisters. Rom. 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall ALL (empahsis added) stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Obama says he's a devout Christian. He may be lying, he may be telling the truth. Let's leave the judging for our Lord Jesus :)
ender says: "Thou shalt not murder does not come with special exception clauses."
I repect where you cme from and understand what you are saying. There is a distinct line that may need to be considered however. For example, in Romans 13 it is clear that God sets up authorities such as the police to protect, defend and institute law and order. Not only that, but sometimes we have to reckon with coming to terms with the worst evil: Would it be a righteous act to watch a murderer systematically kill hundreds of thousands of individuals, one by one and stand by doing nothing or maybe protest and be killed with them? Or would it be more righteous to recognize one's personal responsibility to defend the defenseless? (James & Isaiah).
how would you vote if your christian and the person who might be running for prez(obama) tells you that when jesus gave the sermon on the mount jesus said it was ok for same sex unions. WHO DO YOU VOTE FOR. for me i say not obama.
Perhaps so, but I will obey God's commandments. It took me too long to find God. All things have a price, obedience to God has one. I know it will be worth its price, of other things I can not know.
ender
you're being a fool
murder does not constitiute assasination in this manner
if someone is killing millions of innocent people, he who kills that killer will be acting in defense of the poeple in the right mindset.
If Hitler was ruling the USA, by God i would take a gun and seek out his head with only one shot, and kill him. Because, to let him live would be a crime in and of itself for all mankind. What would Hitler be like today if he survived the war? Any idea how much power he can amass in secret?
From Indonesia,
If we suspect an individual to practice Islam then it should be very simple to verify whether he is indeed a practicing Muslim. Have him personally say in front of live TV that he is in fact an convert from Islam to Christianity HOWEVER LONG TIME AGO and specifically say that the murderous and pedophile Muhammad is a false prophet and the Qur'an, Hadith, Itjithad and Muhammad’s Sunnah are bunch of incoherent text from medieval desert warlord. –or the other way around have him say the Shahadat and renounce Christianity.
Conversion needs to be announced publicly, I believe this should be very easily done. Then usually the local Muslim mob tried to fire bomb Barack Obama’s house or family car since that is the standard operating procedure for this item listed in the Qur’an. Actually slitting their throat is the more standard.
Until that happen Barack Obama is a Muslim based on Indonesian Muslim viewpoint.
Good luck guys,
ttruthfulwitness
I was born shortly before JFK was assassinated, so I can't say that I support or opposed him. There was a time when I would've supported the assassination of Hitler, but now I can not. Thou shalt not murder does not come with special exception clauses. Perhaps without the genocide he attempted, the founding of Israel would not have found the necessary US support. I don't know. But I can not call myself a Christian and pick and choose which of God's laws to obey.
What??? You think we could get enough oil from anywhere else, if we didn't have the support of Saudi Arabia, this country would be in a world of hurt, you think $3 a gallon a gas is high now, if we wern't friends with Saudi arabia we would prolly be looking at upwards of $10 a gallon and forget about out economy when it hit $8 the economy would collapse, So just continue screaming about how bush caters to the Saudi Royal family and such because I guarantee that who ever take his place will have to do the same thing.
JHS "WHAT ABOUT THE BUSH FAMILY WHO HAS MADE MILLIONS WITH THEIR DEALING WITH THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY, AND I DON'T HEAR REPUBLICANS COMPLAIN ABOUT THAT. "
Indeed, I have been trying to point that out for a long time. Its OK by the US for a country to be autocratic if they are an ally of the US such as the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussan and the corrupt autocratic royal family of Saudi Arabia. When allied dictators such as Saddam then oppose the interests of the US, they did become our enemy. Recall the photos of donald rumsfeld chumming up with saddam in the 1980 as saddam was gassing the Kurds- it was not big problem because he was a friend of the US. The US sold him weapons systems, he sold the US oil- he was a business partner of the US, just as the Saudi Royla family is now and the Shah of Iran was. Americans generally dont want to know this side of American foreign policy. Learn about US abuses in the ME for decades, and one will learn why 9-11 occured.
holito8
"When Christians are fooled it is a dreadful thing, we are suppose to be a light in the world, not a stump. "
fooled as by bush. By all accounts based on what I read on these posts by Christians, Christians should be opposed to bush for all the death and destruction he has created in Iraq.
flagged myself for typo
The Quality of the Person Can be more Important than the Experience
No prior job is training for the presidency exists, its almost all learned on the job. bush brought in all kinds of experience- cheney, rumsfeld, wolfowitz, perle, Negroponte, powell, bolton, feith, rice, roves to name a few experienced people. Look where that experience got the US- a disaster in Iraq resulting in the deaths and injury of perhaps a million people, the destruction of Iraq,over a trillion of dollars of additional US debt and counting from the Iraq debacle which has the US in Iraq for a long, long time that costs the average American family thousands of dollars per year. The Iraq debacle has created huge problems in Afghanistan. Had resources not been diverted to Iraq (which was not a threat to the US), Afghanistan might be a success story today instead of the disaster its becoming. bush may go down as the first US president to lose two wars. No other countries around the world are going to contribute much to those war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan because of US arrogance, incompetence and bullying. The Iraq debacle is the worst foreign policy mistake in US history.......so much for all that experience.
Who we really need as president is someone like Sen. Obama that is intelligent, has good management and communication skills that can put a good team together, none of which bush is or has done. So far Obama has out witted all the other candidates with his superior campaign organization- he has not run out of money, he has had a good and consistent campaign strategy, he has not had to change course, he has not had to reshuffle his campaign staff- both clinton and mccain have had problems with all of those things. This tells me that Obama would make the better president.
Obama has more experience than Lincoln had and he turned out to be one of the greatest presidents of all time. Look at all the experience Nixon had, we know how that turned out.
Whats important is the person, not necessarily the experience. Obama has many, many qualities that make great leaders. He will be an effective presence on the world stage. He might even be able to get other countries to help us out in Iraq and Afghanistan after the failed bush admin. is long gone to the ash heap of history.
So you got the Job with no experience?
Nobody commented on what kunokiko said! It was really good too! That is just too bad...
Wiccan said, "For the record, Christianity has plenty of people who abuse it for their own agenda. Does that make you abandon Christianity? No, because you don't align yourself with those who do that. Obama's pastor is buddies with Farakkan; Obama has publicly denounced that and Farakkan's views. But that does not make his church as a whole a bad place to be. "
NO we don't abandon Christianity because some people abuse it, but we do leave the church if the pastor abuses his position. And sure, just because some (okay maybe a lot) of the things the pastor does is wrong doesn't make the whole church bad, but it is not Christian, and it is racist, so Obama should move to a normal church, if he really is Christian.
10+ years and still going strong!! NOTHING but high praise for my work ethic...
PRAISE THE LORD!!
holito8
All I am saying is that if you believe Sen. Obama is not qualified for the job, then by all means don't vote for him! If you believe he doesn't have the characteristics you want in a president, then don't vote for him!
I'm speaking to those who are stooping to the lowest common denominator by fearmongering and race-baiting - that is SO NOT modeling Christ's love!
And to answer your question: yes, I am in a VERY PRESTIGIOUS job that, on paper, I would not have normally qualified for because I don't have a juris doctor degree!! I had a KILLER interview, though.... :)