Obama; Not muslim? You sure? (voters, interview, president, McCain)

[sanrene]

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/06...=1&oref=slogin

“I was a little Jakarta street kid,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in his office (excerpts are on my blog, Nicholas D. Kristof - Opinion - New York Times Blog). He once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school, but a president is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics — and more likely to be aware of their nationalism — if he once studied the Koran with them.

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Just come on out and admit it Obama. What is there to be ashamed of?

[tluv00]

"In foreign policy as well, Mr. Obama would bring to the White House an important experience that most other candidates lack: he has actually lived abroad. He spent four years as a child in Indonesia and attended schools in the Indonesian language, which he still speaks."

Same article. He was attending school in Indonesia so he followed their curriculum. I know plenty of people who went to school overseas, attended local schools, were taught under their curriculum and still maintained their own religious identity (and I am not an Obama supporter either).

[Habsburg]

Originally Posted by sanrene

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/06...=1&oref=slogin



Just come on out and admit it Obama. What is there to be ashamed of?

I think Gregorian chants sound really pretty, but I'm not Catholic.

[newtoli]

This is way old news. He also studied at a Catholic school in Jakarta.

[blacknight04]

The McCain supporters are really getting desperate!!

[sanrene]

No, it's because no one in the press has really pinned him down with these inconsistencies.

Reciting the call to prayer, in perfect tone and accent is more than just "oh, he went to school there, that's all".

[tluv00]

Originally Posted by sanrene

No, it's because no one in the press has really pinned him down with these inconsistencies.

Reciting the call to prayer, in perfect tone and accent is more than just "oh, he went to school there, that's all".

Or it's an example of a very good memory. I haven't been to church since I was 10 nor do I follow any religion......yet I can recite the Lord's Prayer. So what?

[karfar]

I'm not sure why it matters if he's muslim or not.

[manny1031]

Originally Posted by sanrene

No, it's because no one in the press has really pinned him down with these inconsistencies.

Reciting the call to prayer, in perfect tone and accent is more than just "oh, he went to school there, that's all".

There's absolutely no inconsistency. As a young kid, he lived in Indonesia, a country that is 88% muslim and that has 200 million muslims. He probably heard the prayers quite frequently. It's also easier to pick up a language (particularly the "tone and accent) as a young kid than as an adult. Let's get off this completely and utterly irrelevant issue of whether he's a muslim or christian. Who cares. What's more important are the issues. And like you, I disagree with him on some issues.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by karfar

I'm not sure why it matters if he's muslim or not.

Because we dont want to bow to more govt pressures and do as they say. We dont ever want to pull out a prayer rug 4 times a day.