“I’ve Always Been A Christian . . . I’ve Never Practised Islam”
Poor Barack Obama. He is the President of the United States of America. And he has a middle name that people tend to associate with a Muslim. So President Barack Hussein Obama has been fighting a perception battle to tell fellow Americans (and the world) that he is not a Muslim. Now a recent poll shows that more Americans believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim today than a year ago, and less Americans think he is a Christian today compared to 2009. This despite Barack Hussein Obama stating as far back as end 2007/early 2008 that “I’ve always been a Christian … I’ve never practised Islam.”
The Pew Research Center Poll
Recently the non-partisan Pew Research Center released the findings of a poll it conducted on President Barack Obama. The results show that:
(1) 18% of Americans believes that Barack Obama is a Muslim. A similar poll conducted in March 2009 recorded that 11% of American thought Barack Obama is a Muslim at that time. So the general public perception that Barack Obama is a Muslim has gone up in one year.
(2) 34% of Americans polled believes that Barack Obama is a Christian. This is a drop from the 48% who thought Barack Obama is a Christian in the March 2009 poll.
This poll by the Pew Research Center was conducted shortly after President Barack Obama’s recent comments on the right of Muslims to build a mosque near New York City’s Ground Zero, site of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Towers.
The Persistent Rumors
President Barack Obama has been fighting what he called “a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly.” He referred specifically to 2 rumors concerning himself. The first rumor is that he was not born in Hawaii, but in Kenya. And the second rumor is that he is not a Christian, but a Muslim.
Reaction From President Barack Obama
Speaking on “NBC Nightly News” the other day, President Barack Obama said: “The facts are the facts.” Then he added: “I’m not gonna be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating on out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn’t get much done.”
Referring to the rumor that his birthplace was Kenya rather than Hawaii, Barack Obama said: “I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”
Then referring to his middle name “Hussein”, President Barack Obama dug deep into history to his first campaign for a Senate seat, saying: “There were those who said I couldn’t win as US senator because I had a funny name. Yet, we ended up winning that Senate seat in Illinois because I trusted in the American people’s capacity to get beyond all this nonsense.”
Previous Statements By Barack Obama
In an interview with CNN in 2008, Barack Obama said that he has ”never been a person of the Muslim faith.” During the course of that Senate campaign, Barack Obama sought to clarify his religious affiliation, saying: “My father was from Kenya, and a lot of people in his village were Muslim. He didn’t practice Islam. Truth is he wasn’t very religious. He met my mother. My mother was a Christian from Kansas, and they married and then divorced. I was raised by my mother. So, I’ve always been a Christian. The only connection I’ve had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from that country. But I’ve never practiced Islam. … For a while, I lived in Indonesia because my mother was teaching there. And that’s a Muslim country. And I went to school. But I didn’t practice. But what I do think it does is it gives me insight into how these folks think, and part of how I think we can create a better relationship with the Middle East and that would help make us safer is if we can understand how they think about issues.”
Here is another statement by Barack Obama in early 2008: ”Let’s make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance [to the American flag] and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I’m presiding.”
No Smoke Without Fire?
So why are there persistent rumors that President Barack Obama is a Muslim? Perhaps it was because of his choice of words, when he said previously: “I’ve never practised Islam”. Does that mean he was a non-practising Muslim? President Barack Obama has stated many times that he is a Christian. But investigative reports by the international media reporters showed that in Indonesia, he was listed as “Muslim” and “Indonesian citizen” in his school records.
One 2007 report said concerning Barack Obama’s education in Indonesia: “He was entered into the Roman Catholic, Franciscus Assisi Primary School, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 1, 1968, registered under the name Barry Soetoro, an Indonesian citizen whose religion was listed as Islam. Catholic schools accept non-Catholics worldwide… Three years later, in 1971, Obama enrolled in the Besuki Primary School, a government school, as Barry Soetoro, Muslim.”
As to how Barack Obama came to be known as Barry Soetoro, another 2007 report said: ”Obama’s mother, divorced from Obama’s father, married a man from Indonesia named Lolo Soetoro, and the family relocated to the country from 1967-71. At first, Obama attended the Catholic school, Fransiskus Assisis, where documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim, the religion of his stepfather. The document required that each student choose one of five state-sanctioned religions when registering – Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant.”
Why was Barack Obama aka Barry Soetoro listed as a Muslim in school records? Asked about this, Barack Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said then that he wasn’t sure why the document had Barack Obama listed as a Muslim, but he added: “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim.”
Think About It
Why should there be continuing rumors about President Barack Obama’s religion and whether he was born in Hawaii or not? With so much smoke, is there a fire somewhere? If not, what can President Barack Obama do, that he had not already done, to clear the air?
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