". . . BORN a Muslim. . ."

Submitted by Elaine (United States), Feb 20, 2008 at 21:51

What kind of insinuation or pure slander is this? No child is ever "born" a (fill in the blank for religion or avocation or whatever) They learn a religion and/or are raised in it and/or choose it. Not only can a child just coming out of a womb, NOT be a (Muslim/Christian/whatever), regardless of their parent's choices, they also can't be said to be a (Muslim/Christian/whatever) after taking a couple of hours a week of schooling while they were only 8 and 9 years old, for goodness sakes!

He didn't "convert" from Islam, if he didn't ever practice it, only studied it, and even if you consider going to a mosque "practicing" it--then when you haven't done that since 9 years of age, what ...are you piecing together? His father was reportedly an atheist and left them early on & his stepfather allowed him schooling in Muslim religion AND the Christian one!

I learned a little about other religions while growing up and in college and since, and am not (x, y, z religion) for merely studying any of them or attending a fundamentalist church of a friend or a Jewish or Buddhist temple of another. . . If his friends and he went to a mosque a few times, when he was an 8 or 9 year old child, admittedly not in any "serious" practice, then what's the point here---you've taken this information and made it something it's not, sheerly for the slander effect that hysterical anti-Muslims might conjure up... Be fair---Obama has genuine problems that we should not vote for him on, but being some "covert" radical Muslim, is not one of them!!

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".