About a month ago, some unhinged right-wing bloggers started a dangerous meme: Barack Obama’s “loyalties” may lie with Islam, instead of the United States. It was malicious and disgusting. And now right-wing news outlets are running with it.
Insight magazine, a project of Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, published an item in its new issue, 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?” Insight quoted unnamed sources who said Obama “was a Muslim, but he concealed it.” The magazine went on to suggest that the school Obama attended as a small child may have been financed by Saudis and taught students “a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims.”
As if this weren’t moronic enough, Fox News, picked up the Insight article this morning and ran with it.
Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy pointed out that madrassas are “financed by Saudis” and “teach this Wahhabism which pretty much hates us,” then declared, “The big question is: was that on the curriculum back then?” Later, a caller to the show questioned whether Obama’s schooling means that “maybe he doesn’t consider terrorists the enemy.” Fox anchor Brian Kilmeade responded, “Well, we’ll see about that.”
The Fox hosts failed to correct the false claim that Obama is Muslim. One caller, referring to Obama, said, “I think a Muslim would be fine in the presidency, better than Hillary. At least you know what the Muslims are up to.” Anchor Gretchen Carlson responded, “We want to be clear, too, that this isn’t all Muslims, of course, we would only be concerned about the kind that want to blow us up.”
I foolishly thought I couldn’t think less of these clowns. I stand corrected.
I hesitate to even respond to such slanderous nonsense, but TP sets the record straight for anyone who might be confused by the right’s idiocy.
Obama is Christian, a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ since 1988.
As a child, Obama spent four years in Indonesia with his mother and step-father, both of whom were non-practicing Muslims. Between ages 6 and 8, Obama attended a local Muslim school in Jakarta; after that, he was enrolled in a Roman Catholic school. In his book Dreams Of My Father (p.142), Obama writes:
“In Indonesia, I’d spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I’d pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended.”
In his more recent book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes (p.274), “Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors, and clerks.”
Keep in mind, the right’s smear may backfire. For one thing, it suggests they apparently consider Obama a serious contender for 2008. For another, fabricating obviously-false claims about Obama’s faith tends to disgust the more sensible among us. I’m reminded of a fascinating post from last month written by conservative Republican Juliette Ochieng.
I’m tired of it all. I’m tired of the insinuations about Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) because his dead father was a Muslim. I’m tired of the insinuations about his middle name — Hussein — and the racist/bigoted insinuations that I’ve seen on the Right that flow from there. […]
Is that how the Right wants to portray itself? … Vote for the person who stands for what you believe in — and leave the bigotry at home.
I doubt the right will take it, but that’s good advice.
