http://afp.google.com/article/.....sFji9gafnw

I bring this up because Ron Paul was mercilessly attacked because some 9/11 “Truthers” and white supremacists backed him, and Don Black (a notorious white racist) gave Paul a $500 donation. As such, despite the fact the Dr. Paul repudiated all the views of these people, he was still smeared via guilt by association (even if such association never really existed in the first place). Again, Obama gets a free pass by the media.

as-salaamu ‘alaikum. Amir you wrote,

“The issue is whether he is telling the truth when he says he has ‘never’ prayed in a mosque or been a Muslim when, according to the reports above, his early childhood was very similar to that of most ‘cultural Muslims’.”

Most of us could probably care less about that as well. If he is lying we all know why and if he isn’t well then no harm done.

-Saifuddin

Maybe at one time he might have kinda-sorta been plugged into a mosque but not really. At best he was someone being raised in a Muslim culture. As he was young it is hard to gage if he took to any of the religious goings on. There is good chance he is being honest as he may have been totally indifferent to the proceedings. Looking back on those years as an adult Christian he may just see those years as a “non-religious” part of his life. Going to prays is one thing; actually understanding what is going on is something else–especially for a young boy. Caring about the proceeding is yet more quantum leaps up.

Hate to get Clintonian here and argue about the meaning of the word “is” or other forms of the verb to be. You really do need to define what “Muslim” means in this case. How many times do you have to enter a Mosque before you get the membership card? Is one visit enough? Is a toddler scampering around the rugs or squirming in his mother arms in any real sense a practitioner of the faith? Would you take Koranic interpretation from a five year old seriously?

It does speak volumes that the parents sent Barak to a Catholic school. Why not a Muslim School for a Muslim boy? Maybe mom put down dad’s religion to keep the peace with dad’s family, maybe she did consider young Barak as Muslim while young Barak had totally different ideas. Hard to say what the parents were thinking of at the time.

Obama now identifies as Christian, it is the religion of his adulthood. To quote a very good thing he has put away childish things and strives to be a righteous in the sight of the Lord. His first and only serious religious experience was and is as a Christian and it came as an adult. More than likely his first serious prayers were Christian ones. As for what he may have been doing in that mosque all those many years ago–well who really knows. One can be at prayers whist not really praying at all. Again we are talking about a very young boy; who knows what was going through his head all those years ago? He really could be telling a kind of truth here, he never did pray back then as his head was filled with little boy distractions.
Of all the bricks being tossed at Obama, this Manchurian Muslim nonsense is the most suspect. The charge reeks of Rovian Slime. There is plenty of other charges that are much more weighty-like his utter lack of foreign policy experience. He has been slagging the Union vote and been insulting Democratic grand poohbahs right and left. He has gone a tear of right-wing talking points and rampant fear mongering. He was absolutely flat and wrong footed on his comments about Benizir Bhutto’s death, etc, etc, etc. You can really beef up your blog with posts about Obama screwing the political pooch in one way or another- I know I have. There are more and better examples of Barak Obama shading the truth, prevaricating and perhaps lieing than this meme of “is he or isn’t our Muslim baby” Let it go, this meme is a will of the wisp, a phantom, there is no there there.