69 million page views

Children and Religion

Reader comment on item: Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam

Submitted by Tyler (Japan), Oct 26, 2008 at 20:28

Does attending mosque "rarely" really make somebody a muslim? I went to Germany once, am I German? I've been to a temple, so am I Jewish? You claim that "for some years [Obama] had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father." But if Obama rarely attended mosque (and let us stress the rarity, as all the citations of him going to mosque mention its infrequency), and if his step-father was himself barely muslim (as he was described as a free spirit), who or what would raise Obama in a muslim world?

Obama may have grown up for a while in a place where Islam exists. That doesn't make him muslim, nor does attending a mosque every now and then. Any religion is very active, and Obama is an active christian, not muslim.

As for your implication that it would hurt Obama's experience with the Middle East, I think you're just plain wrong. I think Obama, given that he has had a diverse background, would be more able to bring peace to the middle east. Only extremists would see Obama as needing to be 'executed': these are the terrorists that are trying to execute all Americans, so nothing would really change among them. Besides, do you really think McCain, who thinks they "have a special place in hell" would be any more welcome in the middle east?

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2023 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)