The International Herald TribuneMay 18th, 2008 - 07:46:44

www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/11/opinion/edluttwak.php

Abridged:

But it is a mistake to conflate [Obama's] African identity with his Muslim heritage. Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.

As the son of the Muslim father, Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as 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, 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. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered - as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy - but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Obama's case.)

It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran's Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities.

For example, in Iran in 1994 the intervention of Pope John Paul II and others won a Christian convert a last-minute reprieve, but the man was abducted and killed shortly after his release. Likewise, in 2006 in Afghanistan, a Christian convert had to be declared insane to prevent his execution, and he was still forced to flee to Italy.

Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama - not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law - another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: It prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing. At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards.

More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Obama's conversion to Christianity once it became widely known - as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.

That an Obama presidency would cause such complications in our dealings with the Islamic world is not likely to be a major factor with American voters, and the implication is not that it should be.

But of all the well-meaning desires projected on Obama, the hope that he would decisively improve relations with the world's Muslims is the least realistic.

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Barack Obama and Islamic apostasyMay 18th, 2008 - 07:50:50

by Robert Spencer

Abridged:

After some earlier controversy over the accuracy and provenance of stories about this, in a story entitled 'Obama Says Voters Curious on His Faith,' AP (thanks to all who sent this in) matter-of-factly notes that Presidential candidate Barack Obama was a Muslim when he was a child:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday he does not think voters have a litmus test on religion, whether evangelical Christianity or his childhood years in the Muslim faith.

'If your name is Barack Hussein Obama, you can expect it, some of that. I think the majority of voters know that I'm a member of the United Church of Christ, and that I take my faith seriously,' Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

It is certainly true that Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, ordered that apostates from Islam be put to death. Although this is frequently denied, his statement 'Whoever changes his religion, kill him' (من بدل دينه فاقتلوه) appears in numerous authoritative Islamic sources, including Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, An-Nasai, the Muwatta of Imam Malik, Tayalisi, Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Hibban, the Sunan al-Kubraa, Bayhaqi, Abu Ya'laa, Humaidi, Abd al-Razzaq, and Ibn Abi Shaybah....

www.jihadwatch.org/archives/015222.php

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tonny from belgiumMay 18th, 2008 - 08:23:38

The article itself related of false accusations by evangelists against Obama .These very same accusations are repeated by the republican dirty trick department under that very same article .The mechanism is to repeat absurd accusations endlessly knowing very well that if you repeat the same lie over and over again..eventually some mud will stick,there will always be some weak characters that think that some truth resides in these rumours .That kind of nazi techniques were used against the jews by Goebbels during more than a decade,until the majority of the german people submitted to it were convinced the jews were some kind of plague,a sub human species .The same repulsive technique is now also used against the palestinians.And of course any democrat candidate that can be dangerous to the republican aspirations .This kind of campaign does not emanate from the deluded minds of individuals.They find their origins in carefully crafted guidelinesf rom propaganda departments operating on the fringes of the neocons and republican party .It'sashame but it isunavoidable .Just hoping that more and more americans will be disgusted by these tecniques and will find their ways to the true manner of debating politics,discussing programs for future wellbeing of the population .
Problem is that in my eyes I see no progress inside the republican party in studying the tremendous problems that humanity is facing in the next decade .About climate change,putting the lives of your children in the balance nothing is said at all.Even now,asthe effects of global warming start to unfold,idiots like Rush Limbaugh, not hindered by any knowledge of the subject ,continue to castigate those of the republicans that hesitantly start to admit the reality of it .McCain is isolated in his own party by the more conservative lunatics that are willing to sacrifice your future and that of your children in the name of corporate greed.

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TO SP4May 18th, 2008 - 12:39:53

You have the educational qualities of a drunken maggot. I presume you are are one of these self-educated proletariat imbeciles who tries to bypass the college system he cannot qualify to enter, by reading all about it in a book.

If you think that Cherry Blossom Obama, a deviant from a Chimpanzee`s tea party is more intelligent and better educated than all the other world leaders put together, then please make an appointment for a head scan - I think you may have a brain tumour. Be quick, these things can be fatal.

As for your Presidents ! Every single one of them since FDR has been either a performing brainless clown, a revolting sex pervert, a downright crook, or a big headed self opinionated, misguided jerk.

I mean, Jimmy Carter EVEN looked like Stan Laurel and your existing national embarrassment you have the audacity to actually call PRESIDENT, is like some escaped dwarf from Snow White`s fairy grotto.

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wake upMay 18th, 2008 - 12:42:47

the best person for president would be jeb bush.
all in the family

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hankMay 18th, 2008 - 12:44:59

looks like sp4 has diarrhea of the mouth again

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SP4: InterestingMay 18th, 2008 - 16:06:21

Not the article - it has no reference to any insults as to Barak's heittage, so what are they basing this useless piece on?

Not Tonny - The fact is, it is democrats who have trotted out Baraks race and religous affiliations, the republicans (we chose our candidate, by a democratic vote - not with so-called 'superdelegates') so that Hillary can win. There is plenty of time though, and we are going to pick his religous affiliations, whichever one he is pimping at the moment anyways, apart as much as we want.

It is now, the democrats, who are the race/religous baiters/

Not the posters above - I never posted anything to begin with. Honestly, where do you freaks come from???

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fix your own countryMay 18th, 2008 - 16:10:46

'These very same accusations are repeated by the republican dirty trick department under that very same article '

And CNN, The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Independent, etc... Someone should close these papers down for saying bad things about Obama, right?

'that if you repeat the same lie over and over again..eventually some mud will stick'

Or if you mindlessly call something a 'lie' that the mindless will believe it is a lie. Look at the sources.

' .The same repulsive technique is now also used against the palestinians'

Their behavior has nothing to do with anything, Right?

'They find their origins in carefully crafted guidelinesf rom propaganda departments operating on the fringes of the neocons and republican party '

Yeah, the neocon propaganda department at the New York times and the Independent. The guardian also reported on this? Are they working for the 'neo-cons' as well?

'about climate change'

Please...

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SP4: well no one knows more about mudMay 18th, 2008 - 16:32:44

..than the libnazi press corps. Just look at the mud they have thrown at Bush for seven years. They ignored the dem/lib votes FOR Iraq. They gaged story after story of Hillary's greasy campaign funds laundering scheme. They gagged the vote-for-sale story of Mr. Penn and his traveling influence peddling scheme.

Instead, they play to the strenght of the Bush-Hate crowd, instead of informing the public. This is why they are losing readers and viewers, in droves. They have nurtured every myth, concoted false documents about Bush, compromised every possible point they could, and even were complicit in convicting an innocent man, Lou Libby6 who, by public proclamation, never outed Val Plame.

Yep, the Libnazi Church wants an Inquisition.

What they are getting is a reformation.

No matter if Obama wins, or loses, the complexion of the dem party will be different forwever. Gone are the pseudo-hipsters of the Clinton/flower child generation. After all, they 'stopped thinking about tomorrow!'

In - the Gen x'ers! Yep, there is a reformation in the party and they are giving it an enema. Hillary is being washed out. Even if she wins, these are the heir apparants.

Next: The republicans.

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TO SP4May 18th, 2008 - 16:38:27

Never took the bait did you ?

Like a good Republican and ardent supporter of our next President - McCain. You`re not all that bad really ESS PEE, just a bit too tolerant of of political parties that behave like idiots.

Nominations by a respectable and distinguished party like the Republicans are democracy at it`s best. There is no better example of expediting democracy than to ask the people.

Nominations by the Democrats are in-party fiddles made in back rooms, with no account taken of the wishes of their millions of supporters. That is why they end up with two ridiculous bums who flagrantly care nothing about people and look completely alien to the political scene.

I cannot imagine the grass root Democrat supporters voting for two indescribable and totally unworthy examples like Ms.Clinton and Obama as Presidential candidates. My mind will not contort that far without blowing a fuse.

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