Curious sentence. What's he trying to say here? That obama speaks arabic? Or that obama is an arab?
And what does he mean by stop trying to scare folks by giving them an Arabic name as if it's some sort of a disease...
obama CHOSE call himself BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA to identify with his Kenyan father.
READING BWTEEN THE LINES. LINK.
The question no one wants to answer - particularly Mr. Obama and his supporters, is, "Why do you think he has an Arabic name? Why does his father have an Arabic name? Why does every ancestor on his father's side have an Arabic name?"
The answer is obvious: They have Arabic names because his father's side of the family tree is Arabic.
And the 'reverend' Wright knows it!
Your analogy doesn’t fit.
My grandmother was born a Canadian Methodist in 1906, Ontario. She was raised Christian by her parents, lived a Christian life and died a Christian at the age of 91.
Her mother named her Leila, a common Arabic name.
Her mother had no ties to the Arabic world, but liked the sound of the name.
There are children on my street that have Arabic names, and yet they go to Christian churches and have no contact with the Arabic world.
In America, people are commonly given names that do not fit with their nationality, their religion or their culture. Many black families name their children these Arabic names without realizing any connection between a name and a Middle Eastern culture. They use these names and believe that they are part of an African-American culture.
Obama did not name himself. His parents did. But, in using his given name is not dishonoring anyone. If he didn’t use his given name many would say, “What his he trying to hide! We know what his first name truly is!” He is using the name given to him by birth, a decision he had no say in.
You are trying to divine the meaning of his given name. Do you know what his mother’s thoughts were when she named him that name? Tell me if you can why he named one of his daughters Natasha. When he did so, was he honoring a Russian culture?
I gave my daughter a French name, and it was the first name of a significant teacher in my life. This teacher’s first name was Andrea and she was Jewish with Russian ancestry. Our family is neither French, Russian or Jewish. There is no cultural significance in the giving of this name. There is only the significance that my husband and I liked the name and I remember my teacher fondly when I smile at my daughter.
Sometimes a name is just a name.
Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”
Moreover, Mr. Obama’s own grandfather in Kenya was a Muslim. Mr. Obama never met his grandfather and says he isn’t sure if his grandfather’s two wives were simultaneous or consecutive, or even if he was Sunni or Shiite. (O.K., maybe Mr. Obama should just give up on Alabama.)...