Islam is Obama's "Birth Right" According to Islam and Muslims

Submitted by Wana 88 (United States), Sep 4, 2008 at 18:11

I beg to disagree having lived in the Muslim world. Everywhere I have lived and traveled, it was an automatic fact/assumption, all in the name of family/tribal honor, that you were Muslim if your father was, and irrespective of whether or not you were born in a Muslim majority region like the M.E. today. Furthermore, if your mother is a Jew or a Christian (the people of the book), choosing her religion, in the eyes of the umma, isn't an option either but is considered an act so reprehensible that you could face the wrath of not only extended family ,but also of other, unrelated, Muslims.

As for recitation of the "shahadah" --the first pillar of Islam-- as a criteria for becoming a "Muslim," that is primarily reserved for converts to the faith. No Muslim child goes through some sort of process/ceremony --like a baptism--in which he/she has to publicly recite this. And, while the shahadah is supposed to be whispered into the ear of a Muslim child at birth, there are many children born to Muslim parent(s), whose parents were either ignorant of this "tradition" or chose/ forgot to do so. But that wasn't a big deal precisely because the social/cultural PERCEPTION is that this child is a Muslim. There is no choice in this matter as it is considered your "birth right." To abandon this "right" isn't an option even within mainstream circles. This is just how it is...maybe in Bosnia things are a bit different...

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