Again with the madrassa nonsense?

October 13, 2007

Way back in January, Insight magazine, a project of Sun Myung Moon’s far-right Washington Times, published an item asking, “Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?” Even by conservative standards, it was a ridiculous attack with no foundation in reality.

Fox News and several conservative blogs pounced on the story, but even they eventually backpedaled. The story was debunked, repeatedly, by news outlets large and small, and the baseless smear quickly faded away.

Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin report that the story didn’t disappear altogether.

[R]ather than vanish, the whispered smear campaign appears to have gone underground, and in its purest form: Obama himself, according to a pair of widely circulated anonymous e-mails, is a Muslim.

“Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background,” warns an e-mail titled “Who Is Barack Obama,” that was circulating in South Carolina political circles this summer and sent to Politico by a South Carolina Democrat.

“The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out; what better way to start than at the highest level?”

“Please forward to everyone you know,” it ended.

The other widely forwarded e-mail is titled “Can a good Muslim become a good American” and answers that question in the negative, before concluding: “And Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, wants to be our president!!!”

Smith and Martin note that right-wing voices like Ed Rogers, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage “buttress” the misinformation, and the campaign has to work at setting the record straight.

Obama’s aides are aware of the theme, but it’s far harder to respond to faceless whispers than to open assertions.

“We’ve got to be vigilant to knock down any untruth out there about us,” said spokesman Bill Burton. […]

For many people, the Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail is among the first things they “learn” about a man who was virtually unknown until recently, and the campaign of whispers threatens to play a quiet role in defining him.

What is it about South Carolina and vicious rumors?

If Bush is supposed to be this country’s example of a “Good Christian” then a Good Christian can’t be a Good American and definitely shouldn’t be President.

White people would be amusing if they weren’t so damn destructive.

  • South Carolina’s rumors have a habit of causing grief on a massive scale. Remember—the secessionist movement began in South Carolina; so did the Civil War. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if an Obama victory in November 2008 led to another uprising—but I’ll still vote for the guy….

  • That’s nothing. President Bush is a coke addict and still is. Plus the nazis after WWII continued their experiments with the aid of Jeb bush, grand pa they managed to make a clone to be raised to become president one day…to carry on a fascist dictatorship.

    Rush Limbaugh flew by himself to a tiny island know for child prostitution for two weeks and returned with a suitcase full of Viagra. True verifiable story. Suitcase contents verified by customs.

    What Muslim ever vowed to destroy America?…much less from the inside?…Muhammad Ali? Can these people be any more filled with shit than they are?

  • The accusations made against Muslims in the “Can a Muslim be a good American?” e-mail mirror almost to the letter the kind of accusations made by the “know-nothings” of the 19th century against Catholics, e.g. that Catholics cannot be good Americans because their primary allegiance is to the Pope, a foreign potentate.

    Comforting to know there are still all these folks with 19th-century mentalities around, eh?

  • “And Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, wants to be our president!!!”

    Note the use of three exclamation points.

  • I continue to get occasional comments from conservatives at Liberal Values saying things such as that Obama can’t win because Americans won’t vote for a Muslim. I don’t know if these people actually believe this, or if they think that by posting comments like this around the blogosphere they will fool people into thinking this even if they know its not true.

  • Their stated beliefs have become an outline of their hypocrisy, their leader is an embarrassing incompetent and their grandest plans are in ruins. What do they have left besides slander and innuendo?

  • You’d think the right wing would want to prop him up vs. Hillary since in no way shape or form would they believe he’d have a chance to win the Presidency as a “non-white.” Wouldn’t they want him to get the nomination.

  • What is it about South Carolina and vicious rumors?

    15 generations of hillbilly incest can have a major effect on the lack of depth in the gene pool.

  • Best thing about Obama criticism of this sort (and it really often is of this sort) is that it make the critics looks worse than Obama.

    Don’t think I can say the same about HRC criticism. Not to the same degree, anyway.

  • If you read conservative blogs like RedState and Captain’s Quarters you’ll see Obama called “Barry Hussein Obama” all the time. It is hardly a South Carolina phenomena. And for Erick at Redstate to denounce it is hilarious since the editors at RedState do it ALL THE TIME.

    As a nice liberal from South Carolina, I’d appreciate it if you could knock of the hillbilly comments. There are just as many racist a**holes in NYC than there are in South Carolina — more probably.

  • There are just as many racist a**holes in NYC than there are in South Carolina — more probably.

    Perhaps we should define our terms, if we’re talking racist a**holes in absolute numbers or per capita.

  • Dan says, “Don’t forget that South Carolina started the Civil War and nearly started another civil war 30 years previous. They’ve got issues down there.”

    ———————
    I’ll bet anything that Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo would have rather been arrested in South Carolina than NYC. Spare everyone down here the lectures on how “backward” we are until you get your own house in order.

  • It isn’t just South Carolina. This sub-rosa rumor campaign is Rethug stock and trade all over. Now that the Rethugs have started wearing their racist, homophobic, nativist, anti-Semitic, values on their sleeves, a whispering campaign about an uppity nigger is just business as usual.

    There is no bottom to the idiocy of presidential politics any longer. Why anyone, especially Obama, thought that a non-white had any chance in the mean, nasty, vitriolic, debased, bigoted, process of becoming president is a mystery to me. Only two states have ever elected a black senator: Illinois and Massachusetts. In the current toxic political atmosphere, when bigotry, blind prejudice, and general stupidity dominate the political discourse, an attractive guy like Obama has no shot. Just as there are many in this benighted country who will never vote for a woman, there are probably more who will never vote for a black. That’s the simple truth. We are a wretched lot.

  • “What is it about South Carolina and vicious rumors?”

    What is it about Republicans and vicious rumors?

  • Y’know, I need to look harder at this Islam thing.

    There must be something to it.

    Obama has been going to United Church of Christ for 20 years but he went to a Muslim madrassa for just one year when he was barely out of diapers and yet he’s declared a devout Muslim.

    That is one ‘mazing religion that can’t be shaken after 20 years of exposure to the Gospel.
    When oh when will our Lord and Savior be able to open Obama’s eyes and his heart if attending a Christian church for 20 years hasn’t been enough? The poor man is lost forever, I tell you! Let us pray.

  • Obama has been going to United Church of Christ for 20 years but he went to a Muslim madrassa for just one year when he was barely out of diapers and yet he’s declared a devout Muslim.

    He didn’t attend a madrassa at all. Though it’s strange to think that not to long ago the fact that he went to a RC school would have been enough to set the twits a-twittering.

  • A Muslim Imam came to speak at my church this past Sunday. A man of wisdom and peace, he was born in Africa, and highly educated in Paris and in the US. If everyone in this country could hear him speak (and actually listened), they would not only better understand Islam, but become better people. I learned a lot from him. Wish he would write a book.

    These rumors about Obama are baseless, but if he were a Muslim, so what? I would judge him for on his actions and what he says, not what someone says about him. Islam is a religion of peace.

    And for the record, I’m afraid of the “Christians” running our country right now. Their actions show where their priorities lie: in war, in division, in fear. Not Christ-like at all.

  • TAiO,

    The “one year in a madrassa” was a hot link to an article explaining that he said Muslim prayers in a PUBLIC school for one year. Everyone had to, regardless of faith.

    You know… just like the conservatives want to do here, hoping to convert the Jews, Muslims and other assorted heathen.

    Clearly they think that it worked for Obama. One wonders why the three years of Catholic school prior were so impotent in protecting him from Islam’s spiritual tendrils. Like I said, it’s quite a testimonial to the appeal of Islam and a damning evaluation of the utter helplessness of American conservatives’ faith-of-choice, Christianity. At least, that’s the picture they’re painting.

  • The “one year in a madrassa” was a hot link to an article explaining that he said Muslim prayers in a PUBLIC school for one year. Everyone had to, regardless of faith.

    From the last paragraph of your response I see what you’re trying to say here but the article threw off my Snarkometer. In addition, if this is what you’re referring to then everyone did not have to perform Shalat:

    When Obama attended 4th grade in 1971, Muslim children spent two hours a week studying Islam, and Christian children spent those two hours learning about the Christian religion.

    Yikes! Kids in a foreign country, studying their own religion. And this is certainly the last thing the Talevan (or Taliban) wants:

    At holidays, the school made a practice of teaching students about different religions. Students from all religions celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree and carols. They celebrated the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha by handing out a sacrificed goat to the neighborhood’s needy.

    Egads! Learning about various religions rather than the importance of cleaving to the one true faith and bitch slapping the non-believers.

    But I’m not arguing with what seems to be your main point: The Talevan is a big barrel o’ bigots.

  • Wow. I followed the Chicago Tribune link. I like this guy a lot. He sounds like the right person to be truly a “world leader” (can we use that phrase anymore after Bush has made such a mockery of it?).

    He spent a couple years in Catholic school (and survived!). He went for a year to PUBLIC school in an Islamic country, one that doesn’t have any separation of church and state, so it included religious classes. He chose to be a liberal Protestant as an adult. His classmates included Hindus. He was born in Hawaii amongst Polynesians and Japanese. The guy has lived around the world and been around all kinds of different people, religions, and cultures, since birth. He understands the world. He’s like the polar opposite of Mr. The-World-Ends-At-The-Texas-Border.

    Jeez, if he doesn’t win the nomination, here’s our next Secretary of State, Ambassador to the U.N., something on the international stage, he’d be brilliant.

  • 25 in war, in division, in fear. Not Christ-like at all.

    .. actually what Christ said was
    “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” ( Luke 12:49-51 )

    not entirely relevant, but if we are to misunderstand Islam, let us at least understand our own Christianity. The Word is a Sword, not a ploughshare.

    It may be more relevant than we know, however. Obama’s religious beliefs and upbringing would have been trumped up by various interested groups and hailed as a hallmark of diversity in a candidate not that many years ago, but now, though we may assert that we are not involved in a religious war, the media and as always seems to follow, public sentiment seems to indicate otherwise.

  • obama took the shahid [the oaths] at age 3-4 and repeated them every time he prayed at any mosque including the one on the 2nd floor of his school -he is forever a muslim – he prayed everyday at natural high noon at school -he remains a sunni muslim and will always be unless he appears before a sharia court[court of imans] and denouces the religion -his sister and friends all acknowlege he went to the mosques- there are” pillars of faith” in islam -one of them is jihad- u need to learn about islam –

  • “obama took the shahid [the oaths] at age 3-4 and repeated them every time he prayed at any mosque including the one on the 2nd floor of his school -he is forever a muslim – he prayed everyday at natural high noon at school -he remains a sunni muslim and will always be unless he appears before a sharia court[court of imans] and denouces the religion -his sister and friends all acknowlege he went to the mosques- there are” pillars of faith” in islam -one of them is jihad- u need to learn about islam -”

    First of all, you have no idea whether Obama ever took the Shahadahteen (not “shahid”). Also, the Shahadahteen are not “oaths”, but professions of faith.

    Secondly, one is a Muslim if they believe in Islam’s articles of faith and practices the obligatory acts of worship. Obama very clearly does neither. Apostasizing from Islam does not require “appearing in a shariah court and denouncing Islam”, not practicing or believing Islam makes someone a non-Muslim. Some particularly strict authorities (al-Qaeda types) consider participating in secular government an act of apostasy, so wrap your head around that, conspiracy theorist.

    Also the word is Imam, not Iman (Imam means “leader”, Iman means “faith”, and is also the name of David Bowie’s wife). Furthermore, the pillars of Islam are the profession of faith, the five daily prayers, the zakah charity, the fast of Ramadhan, and the Hajj to Makkah.

    It is you who needs to learn about Islam.

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