Obama…Muslim or Apostate or Not? Minority Report, RedState and Instapundit know something that Danial Pipes doesn’t? Or is it all just semantics?

Followed a link from Instapundit: AT REDSTATE, debunking another Obama-is-a-Muslim story.. Hmmm this might be interesting.

I lead off with this snippet from the Red State Article that was itself just a snippet from the original article that was published on the Minority Report.

The fact is, Sen Obama is toast, based on substance and issues. When we allow fools like these purveyors of hate the freedom of spreading lies about our opposition, we also allow our political opponents the right to spread lies in return. RedState: With “Friends” Like This — Credibility On The Net

Exactly right! Minority Report gets it exactly right when it takes to task the sorry post that lied about what Axelrod Said. He did NOT say that Barack was a Muslim. This sentence was made up by the offending “conservative blog”.

A Muslim who is also half Hawaiian Christian white-boy.”

But…Minority Report might want to restrain a bit from the Barack is a Muslim is a hoax bit. It may not be quite the hoax you think it is.

However, when “conservatives” on the internet perpetrate a hoax to damage the Democratic nominee, they are in fact damaging their own side in the political debate

The hoax being that Barack is a Muslim. But what if he is? Not by choice but by technicality? I give you snippet from an excellent article by Daniel Pipes. Pay attention in particular to the highlighted text in bold.

Does any of the above information from the Chicago Tribune article refute my analysis, as MMfA contends? It raises questions about two details in the Los Angeles Times account (the accuracy of the Catholic school’s registration form and the reliability of Zulfan Adi as a source on Obama). But on the larger issue of Obama’s religious practices during his Jakarta years, it confirms the Times account. Note in particular three excerpts from Barker’s article:

“Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia” – implying he was an irregularly practicing Muslim.

“Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers, a few neighbors said” – confirming that he did pray in the mosque.

“Obama’s 3^rd-grade teacher at the Catholic school, who lived near the family [said that] ‘Rarely, Barry went to the mosque with Lolo’” – confirming that Obama attended mosque services.

All this matters, for if Obama once was a Muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed. Were he elected president of the United States, this status, clearly, would have large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.

In sum: Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque. This precisely substantiates my statement that he “for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father.”

Why do technicalities matter? Because Barack was so adamant about never being a Muslim all of this calls into question his integrity…he is supposed to be different. eh? From Daniel Pipes again.

As Barack Obama’s candidacy comes under increasing scrutiny, his account of his religious upbringing deserves careful attention for what it tells us about the candidate’s integrity.

Obama asserted in December, “I’ve always been a Christian,” and he has adamantly denied ever having been a Muslim. “The only connection I’ve had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from that country [Kenya]. But I’ve never practiced Islam.” In February, he claimed: “I have never been a Muslim. … other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for 4 years when I was a child [Indonesia, 1967-71] I have very little connection to the Islamic religion.”

Never is a pretty strong word. Never use it unless it is true. Minority Report would have better served its readers by pointing out the incongruities of Barack’s past than to take him at his word. Minority Report’s is exactly right that we shouldn’t be making up facts as we go. But we also shouldn’t be ignoring them either. Especially when they show Barack to be a person who lies to the same degree of the blog Minority Report originally and rightfully took to task.

Just the facts.

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