The Muslim thing

I've hesitated to comment on the rumors and reports of Obama's Islamic background, because I don't want to be accused of anti-Muslim prejudice. The "madrassa" smear, transmitted via a viral email, angered me, just as it angered most thinking people.

For the record, I would have no problem voting for a presidential candidate of that faith. Keith Ellison of Minnesota has done some very impressive things in his brief time, and might one day make a good choice for the Democratic nomination.

But, as many others have noted, we now face a problem of fibbing, not faith.

Recent statements by Obama's Kenyan half-brother Malik have elevated this controversy from the realm of rumor to...well, to something more than rumor. Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly), the story broke in the Israeli media:

As the Jerusalem Post reports, "Barack Obama's half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.

Let me repeat a few previously-stated views. I think that most politicians are less religious than they pretend, and I suspect that Barack Obama falls into this category. However, the public likes a candidate to display a certain degree of piety. Thus, Obama chose a church that would help his ambitions. (He was thinking locally then, not nationally).

Still -- did he ever self-identify as a Muslim when young? He was registered as a Muslim while attending a public school in Indonesia. In his book Dreams From My Father he describes attending Koran class, which was not compulsory. (Indonesia has a mixed population.) Reports conflict as to whether or not he took a serious attitude toward his youthful instructions in the faith.

Does this religious conundrum impact the controversy over Barack Obama's birth certificate?

Quite a few people (I am not among them) doubt the authenticity of the recently-released birth document. Most of these people incorrectly think that Obama was born outside the United States and thus has no right to run for president. As a previous post has demonstrated, Obama would qualify to run for the presidency even if he had been born in his father's homeland.

And yet...

And yet the campaign did show a surprising reticence to divulge the birth certificate. When one finally appeared, it was an official computerized abstract issued in 2007, not a photocopy of the original 1961 document. The 2007 stamp, though visible, is on the reverse. The proportional font testifies to the use of a computer, and thus, to a modern origin. An actual certificate produced during that period would display typewritten or handwritten entries on a pre-printed form.

So we are dealing with an abstract, not a fake. Many states and provinces issue these abstracts, which suffice for most legal purposes. Unfortunately, they often display less information.

Why haven't we seen the original?

The abstract does not mention religion. In all likelihood, a 1961 Hawaii birth certificate would have had a space for "religion." (Other states required this information.) I think it very possible that Barack Obama's religion would have been marked as "Muslim," since that faith is patrilineal and his mother was an agnostic or atheist.

Obama's grandfather in Kenya was a noted convert to Islam. As mentioned previously, Barack Obama Sr. was irreligious. In the early 1960s, however, people still tended to identify themselves by the faith in which they were raised, even if they no longer practiced it. For example, my mother called herself a Catholic when filling out forms, even though she wouldn't enter a church at anything less than gunpoint.

In 1961, when the birth certificate was being filled out, the elder Obama probably would have answered "Muslim" when asked to state his religion.

Again, I see nothing wrong in this heritage. Obama is at fault only if he has misrepresented his background for political expedience.

Notice how the Obots no longer slam Hillary for the "as far as I know" remark? Truth is, we don't know.