Was Obama Ever a Muslim?

by Francisco Gonzalez ~ October 3, 2008

In the heat of the campaign for the Democrat nomination, reports began surfacing that Obama had attended a radical Islamic “madrassa” school, as a child in Indonesia. In January 2007, Obama’s chief spokesperson, Robert Gibbs, denied this charge. He said that Obama was raised “in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother.” He clarified further, “To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago.”

Yet, in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, just a few days before a March 16, 2007 story about the possibility of Obama’s “Muslim past,” the Obama campaign worded things slightly differently, saying: “Obama has never been a practicing Muslim.” According to Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times, “The statement added that as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood’s Islamic center” during his childhood in Indonesia.

The L.A. Times story continues: “His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers [in Indonesia], along with two people who were identified by Obama’s grade school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended. That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.”

“The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. “We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and prayed,” said Zulfin Adi, who describes himself as among Obama’s closest childhood friends.” (L.A. Times)

The clarification of Obama’s campaign that he has never been a practicing Muslim was indeed a careful clarification. Judging from all accrued evidence – from Barack Obama’s two books, his own statements (both personal and political), and from the records uncovered by credible journalists – the fact remains that Obama was born a Muslim and given a Muslim name: Barack Hussein Obama. The facts also seem to verify that he has never been a practicing Muslim.