Obamamisia/Muslim smear
Overview
There have been repeated claims that Barack Obama is in some way a Muslim. These claims are completely false, and appear to be part of a smear campaign designed to shave away support for Obama's 2008 presidential bid.
There have also been repeated attempts to associate Obama with prominent "enemy" figures and paint him as a closet terrorist:
- emphasizing Obama's middle name of "Hussein" so as to evoke an association with the late Saddam Hussein, whom the Bush administration has consistently painted as an arch-terrorist
- mis-spelling his last name as Osama so as to evoke an association with accused 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden
These accusations, though completely contrary to the American ideal of tolerance, seem to resonate with some people who are apparently willing to grab at any excuse, no matter how shallow, to dislike Obama – possibly as a way of avoiding an admission of racism.
The "Madrassa" Claim
In January 2007, Fox News ran stories claiming that the Clinton campaign had discovered that Obama was educated in an Indonesian madrassa (Muslim religious school). Obama did attend a local public school (not a madrassa) in Jakarta between the ages of 6 and 8; after that, he was enrolled in a Roman Catholic school. He did not appear to take his religious studies seriously in either school.
The Descent Claim
In 2008, Edward Luttwak published an article in the Wall Street Journal arguing that Obama would be considered an apostate Muslim by Islamic law due to his father being born Muslim, and concludes that this could be bad for foreign relations. This story was gleefully repeated by others (e.g. James Taranto), but it is also false. See commentary on the Luttwak article for more information.
Despite its falsehood, this accusation appears to remain credible to many people, e.g. pro-McCain rallyers who admitted to believing that Obama is a terrorist because "he has the bloodlines for it".
Links
Filed Links
Video
- 2007-02-21 FOX ATTACKS OBAMA: compilation of snips from Fox News, showing the many fair-and-balanced ways in which Fox has sought to undermine Obama's candidacy. Also includes some bits of the CNN report which revealed that the Jakarta school Obama attended was just a regular public school, preferring no religion. More here.
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