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Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background (The answer is "yes")
Insight Magazine ^ | 1/17/2007

Posted on 01/19/2007 8:22:03 AM PST by Rutles4Ever

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?

This is the question Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Sen. Barack Obama.

An investigation of Mr. Obama by political opponents within the Democratic Party has discovered that Mr. Obama was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia. Sources close to the background check, which has not yet been released, said Mr. Obama, 45, spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia.

"He was a Muslim, but he concealed it," the source said. "His opponents within the Democrats hope this will become a major issue in the campaign."

When contacted by Insight, Mr. Obama’s press secretary said he would consult with “his boss” and call back. He did not.

Sources said the background check, conducted by researchers connected to Senator Clinton, disclosed details of Mr. Obama's Muslim past. The sources said the Clinton camp concluded the Illinois Democrat concealed his prior Muslim faith and education.

"The background investigation will provide major ammunition to his opponents," the source said. "The idea is to show Obama as deceptive."

In two best-selling autobiographies—"The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" and "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"—Mr. Obama, born in Honolulu where his parents met, mentions but does not expand on his Muslim background, alluding only to his attendance at a "predominantly Muslim school."

The sources said the young Obama was given the name Hussein by his Muslim father, which the Illinois Democrat rarely uses in public.

His father was black and came from Kenya. Mr. Obama’s mother, the daughter of a farmer, came from Wichita, Kansas. Mr. Obama's parents divorced when he was two years old. His father returned to Kenya.

Later, Mr. Obama's mother married an Indonesian student and the family moved to Jakarta. Mr. Obama returned to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his maternal grandparents.

The sources said the background check concerned Mr. Obama's years in Jakarta. In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a Madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim. Although Indonesia is regarded as a moderate Muslim state, the U.S. intelligence community has determined that today most of these schools are financed by the Saudi Arabian government and they teach a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims.

Although the background check has not confirmed that the specific Madrassa Mr. Obama attended was espousing Wahhabism, the sources said his Democratic opponents believe this to be the case—and are seeking to prove it. The sources said the opponents are searching for evidence that Mr. Obama is still a Muslim or has ties to Islam.

Mr. Obama attends services at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago’s South Side. However, he is not known to be a regular parishioner.

"Obama's education began a life-long relationship with Islam as a faith and Muslims as a community," the source said. "This has been a relationship that contains numerous question marks."

The sources said Mr. Obama spent at least four years in a Muslim school in Indonesia. They said when Mr. Obama was 10, his mother and her second husband separated. She and her son returned to Hawaii.

"Then the official biography begins," the source said. "Obama never returned to Kenya to see relatives or family until it became politically expedient."

In both of his autobiographies, Mr. Obama characterizes himself as a Christian—although he describes his upbringing as mostly secular.

In “The Audacity of Hope,” Mr. Obama says, "I was not raised in a religious household." He describes his mother as secular, but says she had copies of the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita in their home.

Mr. Obama says his father was "raised a Muslim, but by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist...." Mr. Obama also describes his father as largely absent from his life. He says his Indonesian stepfather was "skeptical" about religion and "saw religion as not particularly useful in the practical business of making one's way in the world ...."

In the book, Mr. Obama briefly addresses his education in Indonesia. "During the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school; in both cases, my mother was less concerned with me learning the catechism or puzzling out the meaning of the muezzin's call to evening prayer than she was with whether I was properly learning my multiplication tables."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: clinton; democrats; fourth; hillary; islam; islamiclawmaker; madrassa; manchuriancandidate; obama; obama2008; rop
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To: Rutles4Ever
No one cares if he is Muslin or Christian as a US Senator or President.

But, one billion true believers are bound by the Koran to kill the bastard for offending the religion of peace.

21 posted on 01/19/2007 8:42:40 AM PST by LowNslow (Retired CWO)
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To: Rutles4Ever

Well. We've all speculated on where all those sleeper cells might be hiding. I guess Hillary just uncovered one.

Go get 'em, Hillary!

[See, we don't have to lift a finger. Osama Obama (whatever) will be swatted down by his own party.]


22 posted on 01/19/2007 8:43:39 AM PST by samtheman
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To: GQuagmire
This is the question Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Sen. Barack Obama.

This is the answer.
23 posted on 01/19/2007 8:44:27 AM PST by Beckwith (The dhimmicrats and liberal media have chosen sides and they've sided with the Jihadists.)
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To: Volunteer
Good point. Likely though, the first Republican candidate who mentions that Hussein was raised as a Muslim will be accused of "intolerance."
24 posted on 01/19/2007 8:44:34 AM PST by Enterprise (Drop pork bombs on the Islamofascist wankers. Praise the Lord and pass the hammunition.)
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To: WhistlingPastTheGraveyard

"I think Evan Bayh is her man, anyway"
Keeping in mind that 15 years later the American public now knows Hildabeast, so that she shouldn't make it past Iowa, wouldn't an Evan "Cadaver" Bayh running mate be a good thing?
Next to him, eathtone algore is like Robin Williams . . .


25 posted on 01/19/2007 8:46:26 AM PST by tumblindice ("I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." Karl Marx. Or Groucho.)
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To: HawaiianGecko

It's not a matter of what he was taught. I agree, it may have been innocuous -- whatever. What matters is that if he was Muslim, and now proclaims to be Christian, as such a prolific figure as President of the United States, he becomes the poster boy for Islamic apostacy. Any number of nutball clerics would issues fatwas against him, which would not only endanger him, but given the desire to use WMD, everyone else in Washington D.C. The risk is already there today for whoever's president - I understand that. But these Islamofascists have a very special hatred for turncoats, and that includes anyone who converts out of Islam. Maybe I'm flat out wrong about this, but it seems to put him between "Barack" and a hard place.


26 posted on 01/19/2007 8:46:59 AM PST by Rutles4Ever (Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna)
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To: HawaiianGecko

And that's just his Senate votes. It doesn't address his much more radical behavior in the IL.

I think the positions of his "church" should be fair game as well. They're really little more than a tax-free political activist group with Sunday morning meetings.


27 posted on 01/19/2007 8:47:17 AM PST by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for. It matters who takes office.)
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To: concerned about politics

No they won't. The rank and file of the democratic party are not America-hating fanatics. Most of them are just bound by old family loyalties. And they don't pay enough attention to see or understand that they're being duped by the party of endless deception.

Most of the democrats I know (which is pretty much everybody I know) regard Islam as a rather serious threat. They just don't have the first clue what to do about it.

This information will effectively end Hussein Obama's national ambitions. Especially if the information is disseminated by the Hillary campaign and given significant media attention.


28 posted on 01/19/2007 8:47:28 AM PST by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: tumblindice

I think you're severely underestimating Bayh.


29 posted on 01/19/2007 8:50:57 AM PST by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: Rutles4Ever

You are right and it's particularly true because Islam is decentralized. Any imam or mullah can issue a fatwa and somebody will follow it.

Salman Rushdie had it easy.

I suppose it isn't a sufficient reason to oppose Obama if he were a good candidate, but it does underscore the fact that he has zero experience. The Muslim world hasn't heard of him.


30 posted on 01/19/2007 8:52:05 AM PST by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for. It matters who takes office.)
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To: Rutles4Ever

There is much more than the issue of apostacy to consider in regard to Obama's Muslim upbringing. I think the fact that the Koran states that it is alright to lie and cheat a kafir, is of far greater concern.

Anyway, now that Hillary has raised the issue, the question for us is, "Why did Obama try to cover up his Muslim roots?"


31 posted on 01/19/2007 8:53:51 AM PST by Eva
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To: WhistlingPastTheGraveyard

Mebbe, but the few times I've seen him it was a lot like watching paint dry.


32 posted on 01/19/2007 8:54:26 AM PST by tumblindice ("A modest little person, with much to be modest about.")
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To: Rutles4Ever

What's amusing about all of this. . . is the utter huff ALL the Democrats would now be in if a REPUBLICAN had spread this information. . .

Hypocrisy, the Democratic Party has is down, cold. . . .


33 posted on 01/19/2007 8:54:49 AM PST by Salgak (Acme Lasers presents: The Energizer Border: I dare you to try and cross it. . .)
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To: tumblindice

She doesn't need to get past Iowa. Viltax is running. He won't win it, but he'll draw enough votes away to make the media listen to the Clinton camp's directive to ignore the Iowa results.


34 posted on 01/19/2007 8:55:48 AM PST by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for. It matters who takes office.)
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To: GQuagmire

You bring the popcorn and I'll bring chips and Pepsi...


35 posted on 01/19/2007 8:56:48 AM PST by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL.)
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To: GQuagmire

Yep, team Hillary going after the opposition behind the scenes. God help us if she is in the White House.


36 posted on 01/19/2007 8:57:53 AM PST by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
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To: albie
If Obama makes just one appearance as a guest judge on "American Idol", that's it he's in.

"SOCK IT TO ME???"

37 posted on 01/19/2007 8:59:20 AM PST by weegee (The Left is worried that '24' will have the same effect as LBJ's 'Daisy' mushroom ad.)
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To: Rutles4Ever
What really gets me about this is we here at FR have been talking about Obama being Muslim and being raised Muslim for a long while now..It takes Hillary's aids to find this out from the Internet and the MSM will report it that they uncovered this about Obama...I don't know about other web sites but I am almost sure the other have been saying the same thing we have...Now if the media will only report what Hillary is...Commie..
38 posted on 01/19/2007 8:59:24 AM PST by Beth528
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To: AmishDude

Good point. I forgot she has the MSM in her pocket.
And she's going to cut Obama's n**s.


39 posted on 01/19/2007 8:59:48 AM PST by tumblindice (I won't attend her funeral, but I'll send a nice letter saying I approve of it.)
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To: Rutles4Ever

Given his voting record, he's has no religious affiliation whatsover. He's a perfect liberal and that's what they're voting for. Hill is in for a backfire the size of her bottom.


40 posted on 01/19/2007 8:59:54 AM PST by timsbella (Mark Steyn for Prime Minister of Canada! (Steve's won my vote in the meantime))
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