How strong is Obama's connection to Islam?

Nothing about Obama in this story disturbs me. I think it portrays him rather sympathetically. Most all it says here makes me like him more.

However, his campaign's reaction does disturb me. These bits from the above:



And then, following the story:


This response, or rather, the variation between the responses, feels iffy to me. They also exude defensiveness, which kind of just adds to a sense of supicion.

IMO there's nothing suspicious even about the version recounted by the LAT. But the way that the campaign simultaneously strenuously denies the (non-)issue and uses wordings that then seem ambiguous or contradictory again, just makes it seem like there's something up here.

Considering the LAT quotes Obama's former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers and two childhood friends, one "describ[ing] himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends", it also seems bad form to try to sort of just dismiss their words ("Burton said .. the friends were recalling events "that are 40 years old and subject to four decades of other information.")

I can see why they're worried - "Obama was a Muslim", even if we're talking about a friggin' kid here, and there's nothing inherently wrong with a Muslim or former Muslim American in the first place, will make a nice piece of nasty ad-work for the Republican side if he'd make it to the general elections. Just their response seems.. Kerry-esque. I'm afraid we'll hear about this thread again.

He HAS no "connection" to Islam. He use it to advance his distorted self serving mission.

Got that a little backwards, don't you Woiyo?

It's the GOP which keeps trying to emphasize the "Hussein" in Obama's name.

I bet has has one of the jihad bandanna's at home.

I'm not a big Obama fan. I've read his book, listened to some of his speechs....I thought his remarks a couple months ago where he said he thought that people were looking to him because they wanted something different, but he himself didn't feel that he was the difference was right on.

Conservatives are funny. They are skittish about anything that is different, all while expounding about how the differences in it's people are what has made the USA such a great country. Conservatives have an especially hard time accepting that anyone who is not exactly like them could be a good American. They see exposure to anything out of their comfort zone as suspect. Consider the whole odd reaction to Cheney's daughter. Very odd.

I hope all the current crop of contenders are people who have been exposed to many kinds of experiences and cultures, I hope they have traveled and studied/learned a vast amount of things about how the world is. I hope they grew up around people who were not like their family-- people who ate different things and sang different songs and read different books. I hope they see the world through open eyes.

Joe( Of course then they be exactly like me)Nation

You think that because you are an idiot!

Do you by any chance know any Irish Catholics with the name "Hussein"?

I love it.

First a right winger calls me an idiot for saying the GOP is jumping on Obama's middle name.

The very next post a conservative poster hints that his middle name means Obama must be Muslim.

No, I think it means his parents were idiots. Carry on...

You might benefit by taking a college course on the History of Islam.

My father was Catholic, my mother was Episcopalian. I was baptized Catholic, raised Episcopalian, but sometimes went to the Catholic Church with my father. I went to Catholic summer camp. Just about all my relatives are Catholic.

I'm well aware of switching back and forth between faiths, and what that means, and how harmless it really is. It mostly seems to be about sticking with the people in your community.

As far as I am concerned, if Obama feels he is Christian, as he seems to have felt for a very long time, then he's Christian. And there does not seem to be any time in his varied life where he ever gave up his his Christian links. For instance, he went to a Muslim school, but as soon as a Christian school opened-albeit one which accepted all faiths-he went to that one.

Ina predominantly Muslim country, no less.