Senator Hillary Clinton’s admission that it took President Lyndon Johnson to bring Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil-rights dream to fruition is the slightest racial slander in this presidential campaign.
The Obama campaign released a recording from a Nevadan’s answering machine of a anonymous robocall criticizing Obama for taking money from special interests, while repeating, four times, his rarely used middle name: “Hussein,” reports Politico.com.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/
The call concludes: “You just can’t take a chance on Barack Hussein Obama.”
I received a forwarded e-mail from a family member today warning of Obama’s multicultural upbringing.
The vitriol criticizes the Muslim faith of his father and the atheist stance of his mother. It claims his Christian faith is a front. That he will not pledge allegiance to the flag and that he took his oath as an Illinois Senator on the Koran. The libel cites that he attended a Wahabi madrassa in Indonesia and warns of jihad once he is in office.
Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-ng, addressed faith in an interview with the New York Times magazine (1/20/08).
Q: Your mom has been described as an atheist.
A: I wouldn’t have called her an atheist. She was an agnostic. She basically gave us all the good books — the Bible, the Hindu Upanishads and the Buddhist scripture, the Tao Te Ching — and wanted us to recognize that everyone has something beautiful to contribute.
Q: You didn’t mention the Koran in that list, although Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world.
A: I should have mentioned the Koran. Mom didn’t really emphasize the Koran, but we read little parts of it. We did listen to morning prayers in Indonesia.
Q: Are you worried about mentioning Islam because it has already been evoked by negative campaigners trying to tarnish your brother?
A: I’m not worried. I don’t want to deny Islam. I think it’s obviously very important that we have an understand of Islam, a better understanding. At the same time, it has been erroneously attached to my brother. The man has been a Christian for 20 years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/magazine/20wwln-Q4-t.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
Barack, himself, has continually felt the need to clear the air about his faith, most recently in the MSNBC debates in Nevada. Sure, he panders; he is a politician. But at least he doesn’t claim to have fireside chats with the Christian God like W.
I’m not a theologian, but I want my leaders to have an eclectic view on religion, especially in the volatile, multicultural world we live in.
The slanderous e-mail cites snopes.com as its fact-checking source. Snopes.com with the slogan “rumor has it” rates “He is a radical Muslim that will not recite the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ ” and ”He was sworn into office on the Koran” as false. The e-mail writer didn’t even find favorable frauds to cite.
Rep. Keith Ellison, Democrat from Minn., was the first Muslim to be elected to Congress last November. He took his oath of office on Thomas Jefferson’s Koran and look at the abomination since: Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has invited him on Middle East peace-keeping missions.
But according to the logic of this hate-filled e-mail, Ellison is likely just waiting for Obama to take office and call the shots in a new jihad.
What a complete, disgusting joke. What ever happened to tolerance?
The fact that this e-mail reached my inbox on Martin Luther King Jr. Day proves irony and the need to continue to fight against hate-speech.
Have a good day, haters.
G
