We in the West are now, and for the foreseeable future, at war with Sharia-based (a/k/a “radical Islam”), so it’s wrong that any of us allow political correctness to get in the way of our examining uncomfortable truths.
The fact is that rumors have been rampant that Barrack Hussein Obama was reared a Muslim and attended a radical Madrassa in Indonesia, so it's important to separate rumors from fact.
The question isn't whether that's a politically motivated smear, but only whether it is true, but is Insight Magazine's recent claims (that Barack Obama Jr attended a Wahabi madrassa) valid, or not?
Certainly Barack Obama has taken great care to conceal his Muslim background (his father and setp-father were both Muslims). He’s quick to point out that, "I was once a Muslim, but I also attended Catholic school."
Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas, who’d met as students at the University of Hawaii.
When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced.
His father separated from Ann Dunham, and they later divorced. Barack Obama Sr., then returned to Kenya. His mother then re-married, this time to Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.
Obama's political operatives have attempted to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. It seems that his father, who left the family when Barack Jr., was just two had little influence upon his son, as the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.
It was actually Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, who introduced his stepson to Islam.
Insight magazine has claimed that Osama was enrolled in a Wahabi madrassa in Jakarta. Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. CNN however, recently did a pretty thorough investigation of this charge and they've claimed that they've found that Barack Obama Jr. went to a private school with a large Muslim student body, but not a Wahabi madrassa. CNN went to the school, talked to people there, they even found an old classmate of Obama’s and showed pictures of Obama and his former teaches at the school. So, unless Insight comes up with something to show otherwise, I owuld agree that the charge that Obama attended a Wahabi madrassa is unsupportable.The school Obama attended was founded in 1934 by the Dutch and is in a wealthy part of town there.
Many have speculated that since it's politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background, but the fact is that he joined Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ well before he embarked on his political career.On religion, Barack Obama's said, "I was drawn to the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change. [...] In the history of these struggles, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world. [...] It was because of these newfound understandings–that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved–that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized. It came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth."
While his religious background is not clear-cut, his political pedigree certainly is.
Sen. Obama’s political background is clearly “secular-progressive” and accordingly, very liberal. He opposes the death penalty and school vouchers, supports race/gender-based preferences, gun control, and the right to partial-birth abortions.
Human Events notes that Obama has a 100% rating from Americans for Democratic Action, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women, the NAACP and the National Education Association.
He says he believes that marriage should be a union of one man and one woman, but voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006.
While an Illinois state senator, Obama voted “present” on a bill that would keep pornographic books and video stores 1,000 feet away from schools and churches. In 1999, he voted against a requirement to make schools filter internet pornography from school computers.
As a state senator he also voted “present” twice on a bill that would ban partial-birth abortion and was absent on a third vote. In 2001, he voted “present” on a parental notification bill and in 2002 he voted against a bill to protect babies that survived failed abortions.
While there's nothing to suggest that Barack Obama IS a "radical Muslim," there's also very little to suggest that he is at all "bi-partisan" and a "new kind of politician," unless, by "new politician," one means a died-in the wool Liberal extremist who trys to sound as moderate as possible.