Sarah Obama, Obama's Step-Grandmother, Christian Conversion Target Claim Kenyan Relatives

According to the wire service AFP, Obama's Kenyan step-grandmother is getting some unwanted attention from a Christian church that is trying to convert the Muslim 87-year old:

The Seventh Day Adventist church in the western town of Kisumu had invited 87-year-old Sarah Obama -- a Muslim -- to a function on Saturday, where she was allegedly to be baptised...

"I regret the attempt by the Christian religion to force her to convert," Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, the organising secretary of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, told AFP.

"Why only her? Why not before Obama became president? Didn't they see her before he became president? We are ready to protect our religion," he said.

Sarah Obama has been making international headlines since Barack Obama visited his step-grandmother in Kenya while he was a US Senator. Sarah Obama attended her step-grandson's inauguration in Washington, DC this January. In the interview below, Sarah talks about the aspirations she has for Obama days after he was elected President.

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Comments

[NelsonC]

07:46 PM on 04/20/2009

I invite the members of that church to completely forsake their religion and join my own. I'll offer them free cookies to give up everything they once believed.
I imagine they won't be offended by that idea, since they seem to regard a person's religion to be as disposable as the latest fashion trend.

[SCMagnolia]

06:18 PM on 04/20/2009

To the staffer at HuffPo who posted this piece: SHE IS HIS GRANDMOTHER, NOT HIS STEP-GRANDMOTHER.

Can we at least wait a few years before the revising of African/African-American history by others (who'd prefer it as they see it, rather than how it is) begins again in this country?

Thanks

[hoobit]

01:26 AM on 04/21/2009

[I believe POTUS Obama's paternal grandfather (as did his father) married multiple times - Sarah is his (step-)grandmother by marriage, not by blood. His father, BHO Sr., was the child of his father's second wife, Akuma. Sarah would be POTUS Obama's step-grandmother; his grandfather's third wife. cite: http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/special/family_tree.html ]

[hoobit]

01:48 AM on 04/21/2009

Ooops, one too many "his'" in the sentence: His father, BHO Sr., was the child of his father's second wife, Akuma.

It probably should read: BHO Sr. (POTUS Obama's father) was the child of Akuma and POTUS Obama's paternal grandfather; Akuma was the second wife of BHO Sr's father (BHO Jr's paternal grandfather.)

[moevaughn]

06:15 PM on 04/20/2009

maybe she's interested in becoming a 7th Day Adventist. What's wrong with that? I'm not a religious person myself, but I have friends who are Adventists and they are wonderful people. They are vegetarians, and maybe Sarah Obama is a vegetarian herself. That would be great -- best thing anyone can do to help reverse climate change.

[Hapakanaka]

07:00 PM on 04/20/2009

And maybe she isn't?

[Xanforter]

07:22 PM on 04/20/2009

Maybe she wants to be an atheist? Maybe she wants to believe in Zeus?

Maybe she wants to believe in the other 13,000+ "gods" created by humans in the past.

[MizLiz]

05:49 PM on 04/20/2009

What a gross insult. WHY do Christians think it's okay to disrespect someone's religion and culture? this is just disgusting. If people want to learn about a religion, they'll go on their own. They don't need to be pushed and coerced.

[HC4BO]

05:42 PM on 04/20/2009

They are forcing conversions now ... ?

If that is true, isn't that oppression ?

[mitsie]

05:17 PM on 04/20/2009

God bless her and leave her alone, this is a private matter, not for the gd press

[poster1122]

03:58 PM on 04/20/2009

I'm not sure where this accusation of someone trying to "force" her to convert is coming from. Per the article, a group of missionaries invited her to one of their events. She declined. End of story.

[JEP57]

05:22 PM on 04/20/2009

I believe this article is all about taking a swing at Christianity in general. I'm sure there was no "force" involved. That's a word that a sheikh was quoted using.

[moevaughn]

07:15 PM on 04/20/2009

have to agree with both of you. I know 7th Day Adventists, and they are not at all the "forcing" kind. Also they are a rare Christian group that takes "Do not kill" so seriously that they are vegetarians. They have a wonderful vegetarian hospital in California (Loma Linda), where a friend (Buddhist) of mine went to have her baby.

[hoobit]

03:29 PM on 04/20/2009

Were you aware that GWB gave *priority status* to faith-based groups/organizations for funding from USAID to carry out their work *overseas*? By law, they all have a 'leg up' in getting *gov't* funding to promote their 'world view' (ie - to spread *their* 'message' to the heathen of the world so they'll be enlightened and join up in the 'cause.')

GWB, in his infinite "Crusader's mentality" and resultant blackest of black hearts, has more to answer to the American (and world's) people for than torturing prisoners, illegally wiretapping citizens, ignoring the US Constitution, etc., etc, etc. His deliberate promoting of one religion ("Christianity") over another, is something for which I will never be able to forgive him; the damaged he and his cohorts caused by that little stunt is huge!

What, did he think no one overseas would notice that the 'help' they were being offered by the US was *tightly bound* by chains of christianity [lower case "c" on purpose]? Other nations had every right to proclaim the US was trying to rid the world of Islam (and/or any *other* religion, too); GWB ensured that that was the case. Lord, but it's going to take an awful lot of hard work to convince other nations that we in the US aren't ALL such religion-centered and imbecilic fanatics.

[BlondeLebanese]

04:04 PM on 04/20/2009

Amen!

[MizLiz]

05:50 PM on 04/20/2009

Thanks for explaining this so clearly. Just one more reason to be grateful his time is done.

[LiberalIncarnate]

03:14 PM on 04/20/2009

Let's set a trap so she can be baptized a Christian. I got news for you. This isn't magic. Water doesn't do it, no matter where it comes from. You either believe or you don't.

[dj5850]

02:52 PM on 04/20/2009

Please, miss me with all these "relatives" coming out of the woodwork. Obama doesn't know these people, according to what I've read about his father, he randomly produced children often.

[Sirdi]

02:58 PM on 04/20/2009

Read. I doubt it.
He won.
Get over it, rwt...

[Libfemdem]

02:50 PM on 04/20/2009

I used to work for a Seventh day Adventist. They spend there whole lives trying to "convert" people.
He was a missionary(read brainwasher) and once he was saying how they prefer children because they "are more apt to change their beliefs, to be influenced"
When I commented I didn't think it was right to try to change peoples beliefs he insisted " They are all the better for it"

Organized religion is EVIL!!

[JulieSA]

04:56 PM on 04/20/2009

All of it is evil? I was raised to respect other people's spiritual belief systems.

[Libfemdem]

04:59 PM on 04/20/2009

You can believe what you want.
My problem is when you start telling other people what to believe.

[bubbuh]

02:42 PM on 04/20/2009

God bothering bushwa splatters folk from every direction.

[levibatgirl]

02:33 PM on 04/20/2009

If attempts were made to convert those so called 'christians' to another religion, the tro//s would be shi++ing bricks sideways.

[pflickner]

02:26 PM on 04/20/2009

And people wonder why I renounce religion...

[hmsbeagle]

02:05 PM on 04/20/2009

Leave her alone .
and yes I grew up in Kenya and saw many missionaries come to convert us ,did not work my family were and are into science but this Jomo kenyatta quote is true

"When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened our eyes, they had the land and we had the Bible," Jomo Kenyatta

[lilacluvr]

02:20 PM on 04/20/2009

And then the Republican Social Conservatives wonder why the Americans have caught on to the exact samet thing that happened during the Bush years.

[laborgrunt]

02:39 PM on 04/20/2009

Wow that is a very true qoute by Jomo Kenyatta. Thanks for posting it.