The truth about the Barack Obama Muslim rumor



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_Muslim_rumor

The Barack Obama Muslim rumor is a false rumor saying that United
States Senator Barack Obama was raised a Muslim or is secretly a
Muslim as an adult. It has been circulating, mainly on the Internet
especially through e-mail messages, since 2004. In 2007 it was
mentioned in the main-stream media as well. Some commentators have
suggested that this rumor might have a negative effect on Obama's
2008
presidental campaign.
Christopher Hayes, writing in The Nation, traced the rumor back to a
press conference given in 2004 by Republican activist Andy Martin in
which he made several charges against Obama, who had just entered
national attention with his speech at the Democratic party national
convention. Among the charges was one that said he was a secret
Muslim
who was hiding that fact in order to win the political support of
Jews
and Christians. Hayes reported that this rumor has circulated on the
Internet since that time.[1]
In January 2007, Insight, a conservative online magazine, reported
that supporters of 2008 American Democratic Party presidential
candidate Senator Hillary Clinton had given them information that
rival candidate Obama was educated in a radical anti-American Muslim
school while growing up in Indonesia. This rumor was picked up by Fox
News, but denied by both Clinton and Obama.[2] CNN sent a reporter to
visit the school Obama had attended as a child and reported that it
was a public school for people of all faiths, not a radical Muslim
school.[3]
The debunked allegations were repeated six months later by radio
commentator Michael Savage, who said on his nationally-syndicated
show
that Obama was "indoctrinated" by a "Muslim madrassa in
Indonesia."[4]
In November 2007, the New York Times reported that voters in Iowa
were
receiving e-mail messages saying that Obama was a Muslim and anti-
American. His campaign organization responded with a letter signed by
three Iowa ministers, a nun and a church elder, which said, "Senator
Obama is a committed Christian who found Christ long before entering
politics and has been outspoken about his faith ever since."[5] In
the
same month, the New York Post reported that flyers repeating the
rumor
were being put on cars in South Carolina and that other rumors were
being spread about other candidates, both Republican and Democratic.
[6]

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