OBAMA AND HIS RELIGION

November 16, 2008

Issues had been raised over the religion of President Barack Obama. During the early stage of his campaign, he declared that he had never been a Muslim. Extreme and destructive comments were fired against Obama which resulted to political arguments between pro and anti Obama. Up to this date, the issue of his true religion is still on the hot seat. I am giving you a brief bibliography of Barack Obama to help you analyze the true religion of the most powerful man in the land.  Here it goes:

The Senator from Illinois defeated Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton and others in the Democratic Primary and Republican John McCain in the national election on Nov. 4th, 2008. His campaign’s great organizational skills and the candidates own uplifting oratory and appeal to voter’s hopes, along with his steady and calm demeanor, ushered in a new era of politics that saw millions of new voters added to the country’s electorate. Obama earned 53% of the popular vote to McCain’s 46% and won an overwhelming Electoral College vote of 364 to 163 with Missouri’s 11 votes still undecided. Barack Obama now becomes the President of the United States of America and probably the most powerful man in the world.

Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. When he was two years old, his parents divorced. His father eventually returned to Kenya, and he saw his son only once more before his death in 1982. 

In his early childhood while growing up with his mother and step-father the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. When Obama was ten he returned to Hawaii under the care of his grandparents, and later his mother, for the better educational opportunities.       

Upon finishing high school, Barack studied for two years at Occidental College before transferring to Columbia University. There he majored in political science, with a specialization in international relations. 

Upon graduation, he worked for a year at newsletter publisher Business International and then moved to Chicago, where he took up community organizing on the city’s South Side. It was during his time spent here that he became a Christian. He left Chicago for three years to study law at Harvard University where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude. 

While working one summer at a corporate law firm in 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson, then an associate attorney at the firm; and married her in 1992. They have two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha.

Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, leader in the Illinois state Senate and as a newly elected United States Senator. At the 2004 National Democratic Convention he gave the Keynote Address and has since received wide acclaim and notoriety.

Obama serves on the important Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees legislation and funding for the environment and public works projects throughout the country, including the national transportation bill. He also serves on the Veteran’s Affairs Committee where he is focused on investigating the disability pay discrepancies that have left thousands of Illinois veterans without the benefits they earned. Senator Obama will also serve on the Foreign Relations Committee. 

That was his bibliography. Let me just give you some more facts about Obama.

Obama once said:

 “My father was from Kenya, and a lot of people in his village were Muslim. He didn’t practice Islam. Truth is he wasn’t very religious. He met my mother. My mother was a Christian from Kansas, and they married and then divorced. I was raised by my mother. So, I’ve always been a Christian. The only connection I’ve had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from that country. But I’ve never practiced Islam. … For a while, I lived in Indonesia because my mother was teaching there. And that’s a Muslim country. And I went to school. But I didn’t practice. But what I do think it does is it gives me insight into how these folks think, and part of how I think we can create a better relationship with the Middle East and that would help make us safer is if we can understand how they think about issues.

Facts of Obama’s childhood:

Obama’s Kenyan birth father: In Islam, religion passes from the father to the child. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936–1982) was a Muslim who named his boy Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Only Muslim children are named “Hussein”.

Obama’s Indonesian family: His stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was also a Muslim. In fact, as Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng explained to the New York Times: “My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.” An Indonesian publication, the Banjarmasin Post reports a former classmate, Rony Amir, recalling that “All the relatives of Barry’s father were very devoted Muslims.”

The Catholic school: The Associated Press reports that “documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim” while at a Catholic school during first through third grades. The Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was “listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school.” A blogger who goes by “An American Expat in Southeast Asia” found that “Barack Hussein Obama was registered under the name ‘Barry Soetoro’ serial number 203 and entered the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. … Barry’s religion was listed as Islam.”

The public school: The Los Angeles Times learned from Indonesians familiar with Obama when he lived in Jakarta that he “was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended.” The Toronto Star visited the Jakarta public school Obama attended and found that “Three of his teachers have said he was enrolled as a Muslim.” Although it cautions that “With the school records missing, eaten by bugs, one has to rely on people’s shifting memories,” It cites only one retired teacher, Tine Hahiyari, retracting her earlier certainty about Obama’s being registered as a Muslim.

Koran class: In his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, Obama relates how he got into trouble for making faces during Koranic studies, thereby revealing he was a Muslim, for Indonesian students in his day attended religious classes according to their faith. Indeed, Obama still retains knowledge from that class: The New York Times, reports that Obama “recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent.”

Mosque attendance: Obama’s half-sister recalled that the family attended the mosque “for big communal events.” Watson learned from childhood friends that “Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque.” Barker found that “Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers.” One Indonesia friend, Zulfin Adi, states that Obama “was Muslim. He went to the mosque. I remember him wearing a sarong” (a garment associated with Muslims).

Piety: Obama himself says that while living in Indonesia, a Muslim country, he “didn’t practice [Islam],” implicitly acknowledging a Muslim identity. Indonesians differ in their memories of him. One, Rony Amir, describes Obama as “previously quite religious in Islam.”

Obama’s having been born and raised a Muslim and having left the faith to become a Christian make him neither more nor less qualified President of the United States. But if he was born and raised a Muslim and is now hiding that fact, this points to a major deceit, a fundamental misrepresentation about himself that has profound implications about his character and his suitability as president.