May 07, 2008

Pipes : Is Obama Lying About a Muslim Childhood?

Earlier in the campaign, questions were raised as to whether Barack Obama was raised as a Muslim as a child. Obama seemed to have put the questions to rest by stating unequivocally that he has always been a Christian and was never raised as a Muslim. Daniel Pipes collects a substantial amount of evidence that Barack has been less than forthcoming on this issue:

Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press reports that "documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim" while at a Catholic school during first through third grades. Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was "listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school." A blogger who goes by "An American Expat in Southeast Asia" found that "Barack Hussein Obama was registered under the name ‘Barry Soetoro' serial number 203 and entered the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. … Barry's religion was listed as Islam."

Obama has already distanced himself from his early religious training in the Muslim school, as well as the later religious influence of his chosen pastor and mentor of 20 years. In both cases, Obama is now claiming that he sat there, said what he was supposed to say at the time and did what he was supposed to do at the time, but didn't really buy in to any of it. Obama went through the motions, as he always has, to get where he needed to go.

The idea that Barack is some sort of "Manchurian Candidate" who will sell us out to al Qaeda as some sort of grand international conspiracy is pretty silly, but that's not the true concern here. The true concern, which is bolstered by everything we've learned about him over the past twelve months, is that Barack Obama is a social and political chameleon, capable of presenting whatever identity he needs to at a given point in time. No one, save perhaps his closest confidantes, can seriously claim to know what is to be found in the heart and soul of Barack Obama. Unfortunately, far too few voters seem to really care who Obama is. He has brown skin, and he gives a good speech, and that is apparently enough.