False Obama Muslim Rumor Spread Quickly And Widely Throughout The Internet

The false rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim spread quickly and widely throughout the internet. Obama has launched a website, FightTheSmears.com, to help combat this falsehood, along with others that crop up on the internet. The Washington Post today has an extensive article detailing how the rumor first appeared. An Obama supporter and scholar, Danielle Allen, received an email calling Obama a Muslim, and having met the Senator while working as a dean at the University of Chicago, and knowing the claim to be baseless, she was determined to discover how it started and how one could stop it.

The e-mail landed in Danielle Allen's queue one winter morning as she was studying in her office at the Institute for Advanced Study, the renowned haven for some of the nation's most brilliant minds. The missive began: "THIS DEFINITELY WARRANTS LOOKING INTO."

Laid out before Allen, a razor-sharp, 36-year-old political theorist, was what purported to be a biographical sketch of Barack Obama that has become one of the most effective -- and baseless -- Internet attacks of the 2008 presidential season. The anonymous chain e-mail makes the false claim that Obama is concealing a radical Islamic background. By the time it reached Allen on Jan. 11, 2008, it had spread with viral efficiency for more than a year...

...As an Obama supporter -- she had met the senator while she worked as a dean at the University of Chicago -- it made her angry. And curious.

"I started thinking, 'How does one stop it?' "

The man Allen found who takes credit for the first posting of an article falsely asserting Obama is a Muslim is a man named Andy Martin.

Martin, a former political opponent of Obama's, is the publisher of an Internet newspaper who sends e-mails to his mailing list almost daily. He said in an interview that he first began questioning Obama's religious background after hearing his famous keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In an Aug. 10, 2004, article, which he posted on Web sites and e-mailed to bloggers, he said that Obama had concealed his Muslim heritage. "I feel sad having to expose Barack Obama," Martin wrote in an accompanying press release, "but the man is a complete fraud. The truth is going to surprise, and disappoint, and outrage many people who were drawn to him. He has lied to the American people, and he has sought to misrepresent his own heritage." Martin's article did not suggest an association between Obama and radical Islam.

Martin was trying to launch a Senate bid against Obama when he says he first ran the Democrat's name by a contact in London. "They said he must be a Muslim. That was interesting to me because it was an angle that nobody had covered. We started looking. As a candidate you learn how to harness the Internet. You end up really learning how to work the street. I sort of picked this story up as a sideline." Martin said the primary basis for his belief was simple -- Obama's father was a Muslim. In a defamation lawsuit he filed against the New York Times and others several months ago, Martin says that Obama "eventually became a Christian" but that "as a matter of Islamic law began life as a Muslim" due to his father's religion.

Read the full report from the Washington Post.

Comments

[scurryscurryandyshere]

Why does noone ever attack Obama for being an atheist for most of his life? That's actually true, and... oops, I answered my own question.

[Chillinout]

Atheist? No.

Agnostic? Maybe.

[kevenseven]

Is being a-religious the same as being an agnostic?

[alexaii]

Sorry to have to break it to you, but his mother was an atheist.

[Durango]

In America we are supposed to have freedom of conscience and are allowed to believe whatever we choose.

Obama's, or your religious beliefs and my religious beliefs are nobodies business.

It is between you and your God. Or Supreme Being or what ever. It is PERSONAL.

All this wearing your religion on your sleeve is just so much hypocrisy. See what Jesus said about praying in public.

In America we are all free to believe what we choose.

That is what is known as FREEDOM.

Something that apparently many folks have no clue about.

[artsandminds]

So being a Muslim is not sticking so now he is an atheist. Considering how the religious have been in power over the last eight years, it seems to me America can't handle another minute of their hypocritical for of governance. God save us from your followers!

[alexaii]

I think he's still an atheist.

[metogamekun]

Personally I would be happy to vote for an atheist --- a smart, well qualified, sincere, honest, empathetic, peaceful person does not need to belong to a religion to be worthy of my vote.

I vote for the person, not the god that that person does or does not pray to.

[ihavenobias]

In addition to Obama's Fight The Smear site, here is another great resource to fight the smears that includes commentary, videos and articles: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6410712

There is also some interesting info on McCain too.

[fudgebuster]

who cares if he's a muslim? what does that have to do with anything? what religion is McCain? and who cares? this stuff make me want to puke.

[BabsfromKS]

methinks, McC is god less

[Thinkbolt]

Youthinks wrong.

[Chillinout]

Depending on who he is talking to, he is either a Catholic or an Episcopalian. You pick.

He has even flip flopped on his own religion.

[CaptainVideo]

McCain worships Mars, the god of war.

[Thinkbolt]

I care if he's Muslim. I care a great deal. (I know he isn't, but if he were, I'd want to know it.) We have enough trouble with religious Christians in government. The LAST thing we need is for Islam to gain influence over the White House. I know you'll call me every name in the book, but I don't care. I don't want Islam in our government, at any level. Period. Do you? Do you REALLY?

[artsandminds]

It is NOT the religion that is the problem but the person, religion is a scapegoat. I am a Christian and find your comments regarding Muslims offensive (and flagged as such). Considering how Jews and Christians have been in control for so long and have done such damage I can't imagine any religion doing worse.

[tbrnotb]

Hey Thinkbolt...that's it....just keep the ball rolling. Keep the idea and the discussion alive. I don't want an evagelical as the president, either.

Keep the rumor and innuendos coming. Maybe the godless McBush will seem more palatable.

[StillIRise]

We do have Muslims in our government, and surprisingly, the sky has not fallen. What if we didn't know what the religious or faith practices of our government leaders were? What if we simply judged them on the integrity of their leadership and the substance of their character? The problem in our government is not that we have "religious Christians" in leadership roles, including our President. In this particular administration, we have people who have USED religion to manipulate the religious among the electorate, and people who have worn religion on their sleeves, but do not carry the principles of Chrisitianity in their hearts. Consequently, we've ended up with an illegal war, lies and corruption from people who are Christian only in name. If anything, this should warn us that one's self-proclaimed religious affiliation does not necessarily reveal one's character, and therefore, religion shouldn't matter at all in choosing our government leaders, no more than color should.

[Ramirez]

From the EDWARD N. LUTTWAK op-ed in NYT:
***

...As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12luttwak.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

[Cynth]

The assertions in this *op ed* have already been widely debunked by experts in this matter. And we know that NYT op ed pieces have been consistently reliable sources of information lately... [sarcasm] Just ask Kristol.

There are "low information voters" and "misinformation voters"...

[Ramirez]

Okay, just what DOES Muslim law say about this?
Since this discription of Muslim law has been debunked. By experts in this matter.

[Alonzo]

That anyone would take this " Obama is a Muslim" business seriously is a measure of just how mindless some American voters can be. A successful Democracy requires informed voters, but so much of media time that should be spent on serious policy discussion is taken with responding to the idiocy of the millions of ignoramuses among us - like those who believe Obama to be a Muslim. Pat them on the head, and they will follow a bigot anywhere.

[goldman]

WHY IS OBAMA ASHAMED OF BEING OF MUSLIM BACKGROUND??? THATS THE QUESTION. IT IS ONE OF THE LARGEST RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD.

[Damon]

This is where it becomes silly, a child, even born muslim (which is not the case of Barack since he was born in Hawaî and was raised by his christian mother and his grand parents, and barely knew his father, I repeat) is not a muslim; to be a muslim, you have to accept that religion, to be involved, participate and live according to the rules and tradition of that religion; You can't be forced to be a muslim the same way you cant' be forced to be christian if you never had anything to do with that religion. Barack never went to a muslim school, muslim church and never lived according to the muslim tradition; he was born in Hawaï, was raised by a single christian mother and his grand parents and went to public school, he's never been in touch with any muslim thing, so how can he be a muslim when he even never knew something about muslim religion ? Except the fact that his father came from a muslim country but never really practiced or lived according to the muslim religion himself, Barack never had anything to do with the muslim religion. This is completely stupid and horribly silly; it is like saying that just because you were born from a murder father, you're a murder yourself because you're the son of a murder

My mother is catholic, my father was catholic, am I catholic even if I don't go to church, don't practice that religion

[Cookie100]

Nope. In the Jewish and Muslim faiths it's your mom. Whatever she is you are. If you mom isn't Jewish and you dad is, you're not Jewish.

[TimeJumper]

Allow me to impart a little advice, believe only half of what you read and nothing of what is said verbally, seriously. We Americans have a tendency to be deceived by the proverbial snake oil salesmen, but instead of peddling their wares from the back of a wagon, they bombard us with their articles of misinformation, half truths and innuendos.
I believe that the NYT has in its upper left corner, "All the news that's fit to print". That does not translate into “All the news that is creditable”. Although you were gracious enough to provide a link to Luttwak’s 5 May NYT op-ed, you overlooked the other piece by Clark Hoyt, the NYT ombudsman that followed on 1 June.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01pubed.html?pagewanted=1&sq=muslim%20obama&st=nyt&scp=11
As Doctor Franklin once said, “Half a truth is often a great lie”.

[metogamekun]

Thanks for this link. I believe I had read it before, but couldn't remember where. Hopefully this is all that is needed to squash some of the outrageous comments here.

[StarkRavingNakedEmperor]

Nobody truly believes Mr O is a Muslim!! This is just another phony canard and a racist fig leaf. Bubba Joe sez: "Gee, whiz Martha! Look-ey here! Says that guy running for president is a Muslim! We're at war with the Muslims, aint we?--too bad, guess I just cant vote for him now. Heh, heh!" (When the one and only reason he cant vote for Obama is because he is scared of his skin tone!) I actually have much more respect for those bigots who have the balls to just come out and say it!! "I just can't vote for a black person!"

[hannitysux]

Unfortunately some do believe...like my crazy uncle. Last Thanksgiving we were talking politics (I am an Independent, he is a "Rush Limbaugh" Republican) He took me aside and said, as seriously as a heart attack, "Obama is a Muslim, his middle name is Hussein. It's in the Koran that the Muslims goal are to kill all Christians." I told him he wasn't a Muslim but so what if he was? David Koresh was a Christian, does that make all Christians like him? He is a devout Christian, It totally runs his life. Personally I think all religions should be wiped off the face of the earth. He also believes in Armageddon and thinks Obama running for President is all part of it. I told him if Armageddon is Gods will, why was he fighting it?

[gevan]

Can the internets spread rumours like John McCain's Panamanian roots or his marrital infidelities or his going over to the enemy in 1967?

[CaptainVideo]

How about a chain letter stating that McCain was not born in the United States. (True)
Therefore he is not eligible to be President of the United States. (False)?

This would be a have truth worthy of the right-wing noise machine.

[meanguy]

gevan, obviously 'they' can and do...and you ARE part of the problem

[awcbuddy8]

Why do liberals care if he is possibly a muslim?

[fudgebuster]

why does anybody care about his religion? isn't it enough for most believers to just be ok with the fact that he belongs to some religion?

i'm an athiest... and i don't have a problem with the fact that my mother is a Catholic.

if there is a god then he must be up there throwing his guts out.

[CaptainVideo]

Because middle America will not vote for a Muslim as President. If he were a Muslim he would be unelectable. And liberals, or at least most of them, want Obama to win.

[awcbuddy8]

So? If people don't want to vote for a muslim then they don't have to vote for a muslim.

[StillIRise]

Liberals don't care. Racists do. And they're found in every political and ideological demographic.

[forpeace]

*

..........and why if he is a Muslim?

Why do you people talk about Muslims like it is a disease?? If it is a disease, so are all other religions.

The real Disease is your state of mind and your Ignorance.

Frankly dear, I do not give a damn if Obama is a Muslim or not, what I care for is if he is a good President or not.

Just look at the history, religion is the cause of MOST misseries on earth!

Ignorance is Blessing!!!!!!

*

[SGreen]

First ,Obama's father converted to Christianity right before marrying Ann, his mother.

Second, like Christians, one is not born Muslim. One has to go through a series of initiation rituals as mandatory process to submit one's soul to Allah and be accepted as a Muslim. I know this because I am a Muslim.

Third, in all the official documents from childhood to this day, it says Obama is Christian. He was born and raised in a Christian family.

Fourth, Muslims are proud of their religion. By tradition, one cannot be Muslim in secrecy. One must pronounce your faith in public ceremony, don't touch alcohol or cigarette in your whole life, read prayers from Koran 3 times daily, visit Mosque every Friday at noon and do the prayer in mass.

For further information, see my post below.

[Ramirez]

There is no evidence that 0bama father converted to Christianity, especially considering that after their short two-year marriage he returned to Kenya and worked for the government. He died in a traffic accident in 1982, leaving behind three wives.

Obama's mother remarried. She chose another Muslim, Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo, who worked as an official of the Director General's office in the TNI Topography division of the Indonesian Army. Soetoro took Ann Dunham and young Obama to Indonesia, the most densely populated Islamic country in the world.

[CaptainVideo]

Neither his father nor his stepfather was a practicing Muslim.

During part of his stay in Indonesia he went to a Catholic school, which is the ONLY religious school he attended while in Indonesia. A Muslim father would not send his son to a Catholic schoo.

[SGreen]

(1) Of course, the most important point is that one is never born a Muslim or else Obama's sister Maya would be a practicing Muslim. Secondly, his agnostic mother didn't impose any religion upon him except celebrating Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter and American holiday like Thanksgiving. When he returned to Hawaii to live with his grand parents, he started going to Church with them. But when he was at Occidental College, CA and Columbia University, he rarely went to church. There was a sort of gap in his faith. When he returned to Chicago, then he joined Trinity as a regular church goer.
Where are the Islamic initiation rituals? His adaption of his father's name was just to fill the lack of father in his life. It is not a Muslim to take father's name in entirety. .There is not a single Islamic ritual carried out by the Obamas to initiate him into a Muslim..

(2) There is evidence about Obama's father's conversion into Christian in the church record and in the marriage document..

(3) Obama went to a Catholic school in Indonesia for 3 1/2 years.

(4) His mother's 2nd marriage to Soetoro, a kind of atheist and non-practicing Muslim himself, has nothing to do with Obama or Ann's religious belief.. Ann never converted into any religion. And their wedding was held in a Christin church, not in a Muslim Mosque. That speaks a volume.

[Durango]

Err Ahh Mmm

The most DENSELY populated Muslim country in the world is probably India.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. But I doubt it is as dense in population as India.

But I must say, judging from your posts on this topic.

Neither India nor Indonesia are nearly as dense as YOU!

[wmbear]

THE RUMOR SPREAD BECAUSE...

The fact that Obama has a Middle-Eastern/African-sounding name made it plausible in the dumbed-down minds of many people that he was a Muslim. Foreign-sounding name like Barack Hussein Obama? That settles it. Gotta be a Muslim!

I kid you not. The illogic involved in that conclusion reflects the way many people -- especially conservatives -- actually think. Sounds true, don't confuse me with facts....

[StillIRise]

Actually, IMO, with all due respect, Huckabee is a scarier name than Obama.

[RedNane]

This of course is just another item to keep us from the real problems and issues in this election. I received this the first time last July from a group of mormons . My first thought was HEY did they want me to vote for Mittens? Next about three months later the message came again from a group of jewish friends.
Anything slimy that arrives in my mail box gets an evaluation from www.snopes.com.
Some messages are of course sent by pure hatred and there is always someone dumb enough to pass on the message.
My response? I reply to all include the snopes page and let the person know just what I think of irresponsible forwards.

[danoj]

It spread so quickly because his name is Barrack Obama which sounds Muslim. Kind of A no brainer there.

[jennbeez]

Dumb me. I thought it was the Hussein for a middle name part.

It's delicious irony that Bush is such a rotten horrible disaster of a president that people will happily vote for a political newcomer- a black guy with a Muslim sounding name for prez.

He's got my vote!

[benedict15]

Depends on your ear. "Barack Obama" sounds Jewish to me (my ear doesn't recognize very much Arabic). Doesn't "B'r'k" mean "Blessed" in Hebrew (just vowel points in Hebrew and Arabic). Israel had a very good PM named B'r'k. U.S. had a presidential counselor and first WW big shot named "Bernard Baruch" which translated is "Blessed Bear" who I am sure was Jewish. The real question is whether Barack is a dog person or a cat person. We Americans like dog people, like FDR (Fala, a scottish terrier), Nixon (Checkers, a fund raiser), Johnson , (beagle -- held up by ears) and Clinton (a brown Lab). We are indifferent about cat people.

[dzymzlzy]

I'm so tired of people using the word Muslim as an insult. And there is to be no religious test for president anyway.

[CaptainVideo]

According to the Constitution there is no religious test in the sense that a person cannot be disqualified from becoming President on the basis of his religion, or lack thereof.

But there is nothing in the Constitution that forbids people from voting for or against a candidate on the basis of his religion.

[Manni]

And who gave such a bad name to being one?

Eh?

[danoj]

Don't think saying Muslim is insulting anyone. Only images we Americans see of muslims are the ones where they are going all crazy burning our flag, raiding an embassy, or blowing up women and children. What are people supposed to think given what is shown to us?

[LawSource]

FIGHT THE “SMEAR” Artist Trying to Divide America WITH LIES!!

ANDY MARTIN is THE MAIN MAN THAT STARTED THE Muslim Smear Campaign Against Sen. Obama After He Lost a Senate Bid against Obama. ANDY MARTIN is Also An Anti-Semite…..

LET ANDY MARTIN KNOW that HE IS A SCUM-BAG

CONTACT INFO:

E-Mail Adress: [e-mail]

E-mail us at: [e-mail]
Write us at:
Andy Martin
Executive Editor & Publisher
Contrarian Commentary
30 E. Huron Street, Suite 4406
Chicago, IL 60611-4723
U.S.A
Media contact: Andy Martin at [phone]

Anti-Semite Andy Martin….

CLICK> http://mediamatters.org/items/200703290011

[jupitor]

Thanks for the CLICK it was great! The comments was really funny! Oh crap, we've been over this so much, it's now a laughing matter, people! Throw what you can at him, and see if some thing sticks! who coined that phrase? Oh well, I wish some one would tell these idiots this has been throwen at him, and it didn't stick already. Move on! Can we pleasse have some thing about issue's they stand on. You know how many Gotcha articles there is out there that have been written and rewritten this last couple of month? BOREING FOLKS! Same ol Same Ol! Please, move on!

[SanityClaus]

Fascinating article. Be sure and also listen to the audio interview with Dr. Allen there at WashPo.

The money quote for me came from the reporter's interview with one of the Freepers who was an early advocate of the smear campaign, a teacher (!) named Donna Shaw:

"Shaw says she has done extensive online research about Obama but believes many of the initial sites that provided "proof" of his Muslim background have been removed from the Internet: "Everything about his Muslim background was readily available on the Web in 2004. But they were all cleared from the Internet before he ran for Senate." Shaw says she's always had a hankering for politics. Probably, she muses, that's because her father served for a spell as a New Jersey state assemblyman. He was driven out, she notes without a hint of irony, when he became the victim of a 1950s smear campaign that wrongly accused him of being a communist."

[Damon]

This is complete bulshiet and non sense, Barack's father has never been a muslim, he was agnostic.
And even if his father was a muslim, that doesn't make him a born muslim, he's never been a muslim.

At every election the smear campaign hit a particular candidate, we've already seen in 2004 with John Kerry, even in 1992 (I was young but I still remember) with Bill Clinton, the same old folks spreading the same old false information to distort the reality and compromise a candidate.

People receiving such emails should search and learn by themselves, they shouldn't so easily swallow this stupid and false information. So the fact that a candidate is black, from a Kenyan father makes him automatically a muslim ? That's the dumbest thing one can believe. I have friends from Africa (Benin, Ivory Coast...) here in NY, are they muslims too ? That's really stupid...

[going2ireland]

Unfortunately those who will believe this without doing their own research are, for the most part, the older generation, such as my Mom. She believes the email - after all, it was sent to her by one of her dearest friends and her friend would not lie to her.

I have tried to teach my Mom how to do research on the internet. But she just can't grasp how to maneuver the internet. So, for a while, I would do the research for her and send her the link. You would think that would help, right? No. She still believed the email because "it was sent to her by one of her dearest friends and her friend would not lie to her".

There are those people who, no matter what, you will never change them. All we can do is throw our hands up in the air in exasperation.

[Annette]

That,s a problem. Have you suggested to your mom that some one could have lied to her friend?