Malik Obama needs to Get With the Program!

[jordan179]

At first I disbelieved the rumors that Barack Obama was raised Muslim. Even after my fiancee began saying that she suspected this, I assumed that she was just being an alarmist.

But, apparently, Barack really was raised Muslim

Comments

[captain_button]

The linked article says that Malik first met his brother in 1985 when he was 24.

Why is what he said (about how Obama was raised) of special value on the question, if he wasn't there?

I'm also wondering if they are full brothers or half brothers, but I digress.

[rinku]

Half-brothers, the article says.

[captain_button]

So it does. I thought I'd carefully looked for that before I posted. Don't know how I missed it. Thanks.

[jordan179]

Why is what he said (about how Obama was raised) of special value on the question, if he wasn't there?

I'm guessing Obama told him. Or told his Muslim relatives, in which case perhaps Obama lied.

I'm also wondering if they are full brothers or half brothers ...

Half-brothers.

[geah]

Obama went to that wacky church for 20 years. I'd say that makes him a Christian extremist, not a Muslim.

[level_head]

Fair enough. The Black Liberation Theology is aptly described as "extremist" in that the subjugation and elimination of white people is one of their tenets. Even if Barack Obama has the intestinal fortitude to withstand decades of such hatred without it affecting him, it still doesn't explain his decision to have his wife and children also immersed in that environment

[mindstalk]

"Even though Barack Obama is technically Muslim by the rules of that religion, having been born to a practicing Muslim father"

if by practicing Muslim you mean atheist or agnostic

[level_head]

There is no provision in the Muslim faith for leaving it, to the best of my knowledge. And the "family histories" are rather vague on the point; certainly his mother was non-religious and that's made pretty clear.

In any event, his stepfather was also a Muslim, and attended mosques on Fridays with young Barack Obama in tow.

He is "technically Muslim" byu the rules of that religion, as I said, and I don't think that's going to be a big deal, as I also said.

Snopes should be very careful to address the claims that were made. There were many wrong statements in the email -- and some "rebuttals" by Snopes to claims that it did not make. For example, the letter did not claim that "the elder Obama" was a radical Muslim.

===|==============/ Level Head

[rinku]

I kind of doubt he was, only because this would be a pretty hard thing to hide, and I don't think he's stupid enough to try to hide something that could have been so easily disproved. It's possible his brother meant raised in the Muslim way (which is true because he grew up in Indonesia, which is the state religion there).

I'm hoping that if he's a closet anything, he's a closet atheist, like most presidents are.

[rinku]

I think our last genuinely Christian president was probably Reagan, I have a hard time believing that either of the Bush Presidents or the Clinton president where Christians.

Re: Terrorist Fist Jab?

[mosinging1986]

Gee, if he would simply have told the whole truth from the start, we wouldn't have all this confusion.

Funny how that works, ain't it?

Re: Terrorist Fist Jab?

[mosinging1986]

Riiiiiiiiiight. All this stuff that is coming out about him now is being made up out of whole cloth. Ok.

[mosinging1986]

There is something within Islamic teaching about allowing children under a certain age to convert without being treated as an apostate. (I'm not sure how that all works, but that is my understanding of it.)

What the exact truth is here, I am not sure. But it sure does make things interesting.

It all gives me a headache.

[cutelildrow]

Talking with my dad-inlaw (who lived in Saudi for four years, and talked a lot with Saudis) he said that he vaguely remembered that a child born Muslim has to go through some kind of confirmation at about nine or so years of age to be considered an adult Muslim, and he also said that you could choose without fearing death. Or so his Muslim collegues said...

I'm too tired to try research it. It's been a very bad day.

[mosinging1986]

Thanks. Something tells me the more information you learn about it, the crazier it all gets.

Hope things improve for you!