Difference between revisions of "Obama's Religion"

Revision as of 03:42, May 30, 2017

This article examines the evidence concerning the former U.S. President Barack Obama's religion.

Evidence in favor of Obama being a Muslim

Opinion polls taken in 2010 and 2012 showed that one in five Americans conclude that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim.^[1][2] The following is a partial list of examples suggesting that Obama is a Muslim:

Then-Senator Obama wearing traditional African garb, a gift from his hosts while visiting Kenya^[3] Obama was disappointed that even in his parental homeland, the native Kenyans seemed to extend "white privilege" to tourists and visitors.

• In one of his rare speeches from the Oval Office, on Dec. 6, 2015 Obama devoted much of his 14-minute presentation to promoting Islam to the American people.
• Obama declared in prepared remarks, "The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country - I know, because I am one of them."^[4][5]
• In early 2016, Obama refused to attend both of the Christian funeral services for Justice Antonin Scalia and the former First Lady Nancy Reagan.^[6] Islam is unique among belief systems in disfavoring entry into a church.
• When Obama recited the Gettysburg Address, he used a draft that omitted the words "under God," even though historical evidence is that Lincoln inserted and spoke those words.^[7]
• Obama's wife Michelle does not accompany him to Muslim nations because Sharia law would require her to wear a head covering as the wife of a Muslim man in a Muslim nation; on a presidential trip she was with him until France, but then returned home.
• From ages six to 10, Obama lived in the Islamic country of Indonesia, where he attended a Catholic school and later a pubic school. Fewer than 1% of Muslims convert to Christianity in areas with high concentrations of Muslims.^[8][9] Although Obama attended a Catholic school while in Indonesia, he was a part of the Muslim society there.^[10] But high Muslim retention rates are in areas with high concentrations of Muslims. In the United States, the retention rate for those raised a Muslim is 76%.^[11] In addition, Obama spent most of his childhood in multicultural Hawaii. Presently, Hawaii has 5,000 or so Muslims — less than 1 percent of the state’s population.^[12]

• Obama's middle name (Hussein) references Husayn, who was the grandson of Muhammad.^[13][14] Only after Obama became politically ambitious did he declare himself to be a Christian, yet he never replaced his Muslim name "Hussein" with a Christian one as some do when they undergo a religious conversion. For example, when the Italian journalist Magdi Allam recently converted to Christianity, he took a new name: "Cristiano".^[15] When Saul became a Christian, he changed his name to "Paul"; when the famous boxer Cassius Clay converted to Islam, he took the Muslim name of Muhammad Ali. "It is common for those converting to a new religion to change their name on conversion"^[16] or adopt a Christian name at baptism.^[17] Obama also used his middle name when sworn in as President. However, even if he were actually a Muslim, he would not necessarily have to change his name according to Muslim tradition.^[18]
• Obama said that "John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith,"^[19] in an interview with George Stephanopoulos. George Stephanopoulos—who had previously been a high-ranking Democrat in the Clinton Administration—then suggested that Obama change his answer to refer instead to "Christian faith."^[20]
• He has said that "Islam can be compatible with the modern world."^[21]
• Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset," and recited "with a first-class Arabic accent" the opening lines: Allah is Supreme! ... I witness that there is no god but Allah ...."^[22]
• Obama's unusual selection of Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator most sympathetic to Muslim positions in the Middle East, to be Secretary of Defense despite intense objections by both political parties. Iranian State Press approves of the choice.^[23]
• Obama seems to emotionally hold a Muslim view about Israel, in contrast with Americans who have been educated as Obama has. Obama never visited Israel during his first term as president despite repeated criticisms of his failure to do so, he oddly waited many days before even mentioning the rocket attacks on Israel in late 2012, and he appears very uncomfortable even discussing issues related to Israel on television.
• Liberals at the New York Times and the Huffington Post fawn over the Indonesian ring that Obama has worn since long before his marriage to Michelle Obama.^[24][25] It has been reported that this ring has Islamic inscriptions.^[26]
• Obama stated that the Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was co-written by Alex Haley, inspired him in his youth.^[27]
• It was reported in 2008 that then state Senator Obama hired several staffers belonging to the Nation of Islam. ^[28]
• Obama raised nearly $1 million and campaigned for a Kenyan presidential candidate who had a written agreement with Muslim leaders promising to convert Kenya to an Islamic state that bans Christianity.^[29]
• Obama's claims of conversion to Christianity arose after he became politically ambitious, lacking a date of conversion or baptism.^[30]
• In 2007, while Obama was a candidate, the White House military office assigned him the Secret Service code name "Renegade".^[31] "Renegade" conventionally describes someone who goes against normal conventions of behavior, but its first usage was to describe someone who has turned from their religion. It is a word derived from the Spanish renegado, which originally meant "Christian turned Muslim."^[32]
• In the book Obama,"Renegade" his friends say that "he actually really wasn't much of a churchgoer." ^[33]
• On the 2008 campaign trail, Obama was reading "The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria,^[34] which was a general discussion of US foreign policy that was on the non-fiction best-seller lists for weeks.^[35] Although Zakaria had Muslim ancestors, he is a non-Muslim educated at Yale with a Ph.D. from Harvard.
• Contrary to Christianity, the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya allows adherents to deny they are Muslim if it would be dangerous not to.
• Obama uses the Pakistani pronunciation for "Pakistan" rather than the common American one.^[36]
• Obama was thoroughly exposed to Christianity as an adult in Chicago prior to attending law school, yet no one at law school saw him display any interest in converting. Obama unabashedly explained how he became "churched" in a 2007 speech: "It's around that time [while working as an organizer for the Developing Communities Project (DCP) of the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) in Chicago] that some pastors I was working with came around and asked if I was a member of a church. 'If you're organizing churches,' they said, 'it might be helpful if you went to a church once in a while.' And I thought, 'I guess that makes sense.'"^[37]

"I really endorse and support the policies that he has adopted,"
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said of President Barack Obama
as reported by the
Washington Post.^[38]

• Obama is mentioned as helping to organize the 1995 Million Man March led by black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan from the Nation of Islam.^[39]
• Obama visited "more than one mosque" in Kenya while on a political trip there but did not visit any churches, although there are a large proportion of churches and even a National Temple in Kenya.^[40]
• Obama enjoyed a bigger increase in voter support in 2008 (compared to 2004) by Muslims than by any other voting group, including blacks;^[41] "Muslim turnout in the U.S. elections reached 95 percent, the highest Muslim turnout in U.S. history."^[42]
• Obama rarely attends church or has church services in the White House. "President-elect Barack Hussein Obama has yet to attend [Sunday] church services since winning the White House earlier ..., a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors."^[43][44]
• In 2009, Justice John Roberts failed to administer the oath of office correctly while Obama placed his hand on a Bible. To avoid any claims that Obama was not the real President because of mis-stating the oath, Roberts dropped by the White House to re-administering the oath the next day, but no Bible was used for that private re-do of the oath. In 2013, the oath was administered properly while Obamas hand was on a Bible.
• At the G-20 summit in April 2009, Obama bowed deeply to Saudi King Abdullah, a Muslim who is also the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.^[45]
  

  President Obama bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia - April 2009
  Obama later stated, "We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect."^{[46] [47]} The White House denied it was a bow, and President Trump was put in the same situation when the King presented him with a medal.^[48]
• Obama required that a religiously affiliated college take the extraordinary action of concealing with wood the monogram "IHS", which represents the name of Jesus, during a speech by Obama there^{[49][Dead link]}
• In 2006, Obama gave an irreverent speech about using the Bible in public policy. It resembled a stand-up comedy act, with Obama making fun of the books of the Torah, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount and other key Biblical passages.^[50]
• In 2012, Obama participated in a $40,000 per plate fundraiser on Holy Thursday, which many devout Christians would find to be inappropriate.
• On September 25, 2012, in his address to United Nations General Assembly, Obama said that "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."^[51] This outrageous comment was predictably ignored by the lamestream media, but rightly highlighted by Conservative commentators.^[52]
• Obama's spiritual mentor of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright explained in an interview "that Barack Obama was steeped in Islam when he first met him," ^[53] and said he “made it comfortable” for Obama to accept Christianity without having renounce his Islamic background.^[54]
• Obamacare has a provision enabling groups that have a religious objection to the individual mandate and who have forfeited the benefits of Social Security (such as the Amish) to claim a religious conscience opt-out of the individual mandate.^[55] Muslims would not be eligible for a religious exemption from the individual mandate,^[56] although other online commentators speculate that Muslims would be eligible for a religious exemption.^[57]
• Obama further impedes the Christian faith on gay rights, telling military chaplains a statutory provision that would allow military chaplains to opt-out of performing gay marriages is “unnecessary and ill-advised,” but he signed the bill into law anyway.^[58]
• On more than one occasion, Obama verbally attacks the economic livelihood of Las Vegas for unknown reasons, and Obama has also criticized state lotteries despite being heavily favored by most Democrats. The reason may be that gambling is forbidden in the Koran.^[59]
• Obama supports a military invasion of Syria. This would involve working with the insurgency, which includes Al'Qaeda. Al'Qaeda killed over 3,000 Americans on our own soil, and was the main enemy in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush years.

Obama tries to downplay his Islamic background by claiming that his Kenyan Muslim birth father was a "confirmed atheist" before Obama was born, but in fact less than 1% of Kenyans are atheists, agnostics, or non-religious.^[60] There is no discussion of his step-father. For most of his childhood, Obama was lived with his maternal grandparents who were Methodists. There is apparently no evidence of any Christian activities or local church participation by Obama while he was a student in Massachusetts from 1988 to 1991. Finally, Obama abruptly left his radical Christian church in Chicago in 2008, when it became politically controversial, without first finding another church to join. On April 7, 2009, Obama toured a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.^[61]

Counterexamples to Obama being a Muslim

Main article: Counterexamples to Obama being a Muslim

While campaigning for president in 2008, the rumor led Obama to publicly state that he was Christian in an interview he gave to Christianity Today magazine.^[62] Obama asserted, "I am a Christian and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. I didn't 'fall out in church' as they say, but there was a very strong awakening in me of the importance of these issues in my life. I didn't want to walk alone on this journey. Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.

There is one thing that I want to mention that I think is important. Part of what we've been seeing during the course of this campaign is some scurrilous e-mails that have been sent out, denying my faith, talking about me being a Muslim, suggesting that I got sworn in at the U.S. Senate with a Qu'ran in my hand or that I don't pledge allegiance to the flag. I think it's really important for your readers to know that I have been a member of the same church for almost 20 years, and I have never practiced Islam. I am respectful of the religion, but it's not my own. One of the things that's very important in this day and age is that we don't use religion as a political tool and certainly that we don't lie about religion as a way to score political points. I just thought it was important to get that in there to dispel rumors that have been over the Internet. We've done so repeatedly, but obviously it's a political tactic of somebody to try to provide this misinformation."^[62]

Obama is a welcomed member of the United Church of Christ. In 2007, the UCC magazine quoted him as saying:

You come to church in the first place precisely because you are of this world, not apart from it, Obama wrote. You need to embrace Christ precisely because you have sins to wash away, because you are human and need an ally in this difficult journey. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity UCC on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago one day and affirm my Christian faith.^[63]

Obama also discussed his religious views in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast.^[64]

The Obama family has attended several Protestant churches since moving to Washington, D.C., in 2009, including Shiloh Baptist Church and St. John's Episcopal Church. The Obamas also worship at Evergreen Chapel at Camp David, but are not habitual church-goers.^[65][66][67]

Donald Trump, who later was elected U.S. President, investigated both the rumor that Obama was born outside the United States and that he was a Muslim. He concluded that the rumors were started by Obama's 2008 primary opponents and that they were false.^[68]

There are direct refutations of the claims made above by those seeking to spread the "Obama is a Muslim" rumor.

Public eating of pork and drinking of alcohol

Very few Muslims eat pork and drink alcohol as the Koran does not permit it.

Many Muslims drink beer, but there is a misconception that the Koran forbids it. In fact, only some alcoholic drinks are prohibited in Islam. (Koran 2:173; 2:219; 5:90-91; 6:118-119,121). The Koran forbids the eating of pork (Koran 2:173).

Barack Obama has been seen eating Spam,^[69] which is most popular in Hawaii where Obama grew up,^[70] and which Muslims are not allowed to eat.^[71][72]

Pictures of Obama drinking alcohol can be found HERE and HERE.

Homosexuality

Obama and the Obama administration have aggressively promoted the homosexual agenda via public policy and public statements. People spread the rumor that candidate Obama was a Muslim to create a fear that he would advance a Muslim agenda as President. The fact that he went on to advocate same-sex marriage and homosexuals in the military shows that the fear was unfounded.

As in the Bible, the Koran has anti-homosexuality passages (Koran 7:80-81; 26:165) and so does the Hadith. Among Islamic scholars, there is a consensus that homosexuality is unnatural and sinful. There are Islamic countries that have anti-homosexuality laws, as do some States in the United States.

Liberal Christianity and liberalism

The first section of this article states without support, "Obama's background and outlook are Muslim, and fewer than 1% of Muslims convert to Christianity." In fact, during Obama's formative years, he was raised by his maternal grandparents, who were Methodist. He was never a Muslim, the percentage of Muslims who convert to Christianity is not relevant. Obama was raised with a liberal and Christian outlook, not a Muslim one.

For 20 years, Obama attended the United Church of Christ which taught liberation theology. His daughter was baptized in this church. Barack Obama left the congregation in Chicago and rarely attended any church while in D.C., out of concerns that security precautions would inconvenience the other worshipers.

Obama took the backup oath of office without a Bible

For the planned 2009 public ceremonial swearing in Obama used a Bible. However, the Chief Justice misstated the oath, and dropped by the White House to administer it a second time just to remove any questions. In 2013, "President Obama is putting a symbolic twist on a time-honored tradition, taking the oath of office for his second term with his hand placed not on a single Bible, but two -- one owned by Martin Luther King Jr. and one by Abraham Lincoln. "^[73] Contrary to fake news rumors, he did not use a Koran.

Liberal Christianity and religious syncretism and universalism

For many years, Obama attended a church which practiced liberal Christianity. The Reverend Jeremy Wright was pastor of that church.

Obama is a liberal. Liberals often practice religious syncretism and are often universalists (or near universalists) who believe that there are many religious roads to heaven and few if any people go to Hell.

Absence at Scalia's and Nancy Reagan's funerals

The first section of this article did not say that President Obama was invited to attend the Scalia or Nancy Reagan funerals. President Obama did pay tribute to the legacy of Nancy Reagan in his weekly television address of March 12, 2016.^[74] Barack and Michelle Obama also issued an official statement of condolences.^[75] Regarding Scalia, President Obama issued a proclaimation that flags should be flown at half-staff.^[76] President Obama also issued a statement^[77] and attended a memorial service held at the Supreme Court, with Vice President Biden attending the official funeral the next day.^[78]

Obama's absence at the funerals of Antonin Scalia and Nancy Reagan might be explained by his antipathy towards conservatives and not antipathy to those who call themselves Christians. Or it could be explained by his desire not to disrupt the funerals with the added security that the Secret Service brings to any Presidential event. Also, to preserve continuity of government, the President, Vice President and the cabinet avoid attending the same public events to reduce creating terrorism targets. In any case, the kind words he said upon their passing is not evidence of President Obama being a Muslim.

Attended other funerals

On September 30, 2016, Obama traveled to Israel and attended the funeral of former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres who was Jewish.^[79]

Obama attended the funeral of Senator Daniel Inouye who was a United Methodist (Some United Methodists practice theological liberalism while others are religious conservatives).^[80] While the Scalia and Reagan funerals may not be a counter-example to the Muslim rumor, the Peres and Inouye funeral are.

When a racist shot up the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed eight people, President Obama traveled to Charleston to deliver the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney who was among those killed.^[81]

President Obama traveled to Joplin, Missouri, to speak at a memorial service for those who died in a storm.^[82]

Views on Israel

The first section this article makes the vague subjective claim that "Obama seems to emotionally hold a Muslim view about Israel." All of President Obama's public foreign policy statements were carefully vetted and delivered without emotion. President Obama visited Israel on March 20, 2013 and September 30, 2016.

Praying five times a day

Devout Muslims pray five times a day.^[83] No Secret Service agents have reported that he prayed toward Mecca while in the White House.

Obama and the month of Ramadan

Every year during the month of Ramadan devout Muslims fast from dawn until sundown and during this time they abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations.^[84] No former Secret Service agents have reported that Obama observes Ramadan.

Atheist organizations

Liberal Christians and atheists sometimes work together on various public policy issues (see: Atheism and liberal Christianity alliances).

There is significant conflict between atheism and Islam and Islamic governments imprison/censure atheists and Islamic zealots kill atheists (see: Atheism vs. Islam). Muslims generally have a very low opinion of atheism. The Obama administration is the first administration to meet with an atheist group. It meet with the Secular Coalition for America which is a coalition which represents the American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.^[85]

Pilgrimage to Mecca

Devote Muslims travel to Mecca on a religious pilgrimage. Only Muslims are allowed access to the holy sites in Mecca. Despite all of the power and access of the Presidency, Obama never attempted to travel to Mecca.

Obama, Muslims and dogs

Muslims commonly (though not all Muslims) have a very low opinion of dogs and consider them impure due to their interpretation of the Koran. For example, the International Business Times reported in 2014: "Owning a dog in Iran could result in 74 lashes under a new law passed by the Iranian government." ^[86] Obama's family owns a dog.

Possible closet atheist/agnostic

There are several reasons to doubt that Obama is an atheist. Very few Africans or African Americans are atheists, for example, and even fewer still who come from a Muslim background as Obama did. He has displayed none of the common characteristics of atheists, such as evolution syndrome, a "wannabe" desire to be accepted intellectually, belief in an Old Earth, obesity, or a lack of ambition. His favorite science fiction movies show no propensity towards atheism.^[87]

Barack Obama has a reputation of being an arrogant narcissist who essentially worships himself.^[88]

Obama isn't especially religious

Barack Obama isn't particularly religious. As noted above, he was the first president to host an atheist organization at the White House.

Obama is a narcissist who essentially often worships himself.^[89] His first campaign was rightly criticized for making Obama into some messiah-like figure. Atheists are known for being very arrogant (see: Atheism and arrogance). Obama is known for being arrogant (see: Barack Obama and liberal elitism). On the other hand, the traits of arrogance and narcissism are not exclusive to atheists.

According to survey data, 11% of people say Obama's not religious and 14% that they just don't know.^[90] And of course, in the United States, where many people are religious (especially African Americans who are very commonly Obama supporters), Obama supporters are more likely to say he is religious. If Obama is very religious, he is doing a good job of hiding it.

Furthermore, Obama's lack of religiosity/devoutness is not surprising as this is frequently a characteristic of people who attend liberal Christianity type churches like Obama has done. Liberal churches are bleeding members profusely due to people's lack of commitment to the Christian faith.

To compound matters, Obama's mother, Ann Durham, was a secular humanist which is a type of atheist.

Purported worldviews of parents and grandparents

Obama's birth father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr,, was an ex-Muslim who became an Anglican at the young age of six years old.^[91] He later became an atheist. Barack Obama declared in a Time magazine article entitled "My spiritual journey": "My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition."

Kenya is the home country of Barack Hussein Obama Sr., but Obama Sr. had virtually no influence on the raising of his son. Obama's mother remarried, and ultimately, Obama was raised by his maternal grandparents. In Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father, he describes his great-grandparents as "stern Methodist parents who did not believe in drinking, playing cards, or dancing.".

According to both Obama's father's sister and Obama, Obama's father became a Christian when he was six years old. Obama's father attended an Anglican missionary school according to Obama's father's sister, when he became a Christian.^[92]

Since colonial times and to this day, schools run my Christian missionaries in Africa have had a reputation of having the best schools in various areas of Africa and some Muslim parents send their children to these school in order to receive a better education.^[93][94] There have been Muslim children who attend these schools who have become Christians.^[95] Kenyan Muslims can wear hijab at Christian schools - court], BBC</ref> As far as evidence that Obama's father received a strong education as a youth, Obama's father is a Harvard University graduate and Harvard is a difficult school to gain admission to.

As far as Kenya, a 2015 study estimates some 70,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.^[96]

In a Al Jazeera interview the prominent Muslim cleric Ahmad Al Qataani indicated the number of Muslims in Africa diminished greatly in the last century and that 6 million African Muslims were converting to Christianity every year.^[97]

The Muslim cleric Ahmad Al Qataani specifically declared:

John L. Allen, Jr., editor of the Catholic news website Crux, wrote:

Many people, but certainly not all, follow the steps of their parents when it comes to their religious faith or their lack thereof. Admittedly though the retention rate for people raised on atheist household is low in the United Sates (around 30%) so Obama's parents' atheism is not as big of a factor as many people might suppose (see: Atheism and its retention rate in individuals).

American atheists donate less to charity per capita than religious people (see: Atheism and charity). Obama had a poor track record when it came to donating to charity before becoming a public figure (see: Barack Obama and uncharitableness). On the other hand, liberals donate less to charity per capita than conservatives and Obama is a liberal (see: Liberals and uncharitableness).

Summary of argument that Obama is a closet atheist/agnostic

Given that Obama isn't particularly religious, his parents' irreligion and the toxicity of being an atheist in terms of electability to a political office in the United States (see: Views on atheists), there have been accusations that Obama is a closet atheist/closet agnostic.^[100][101]

See also

• Debate:Is Obama a Muslim?
• Muslim agenda of the Obama administration
• Mystery:Why Do Some Oppose the Likelihood that Obama Is Muslim?
• Islam and Tolerance

External links

• Montage: Obama Praises Islam

References

External links

• Montage: Obama Praises Islam