THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 5, January 7, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CONFIRMED: BARAK PRACTICED ISLAM
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
A DISPUTE OVER BARAK OBAMA'S MUSLIM BACKGROUND: LIBERAL CRITICISM OF DANIEL PIPES' ANALYSIS -- PIPES
DEFENDS HIS POSITION & CITES EVIDENCE TO PROVE HIS CLAIM THAT OBAMA, AS A CHILD, PRACTICED ISLAM --
RELEVANCE OF THE MATTER TO THE ELECTION OF THE U.S. PRESIDENT
FULL STORY:
In a recent analysis, "Was Barack Obama a Muslim?" I surveyed available evidence and found it suggests "Obama was
born a Muslim to a non-practicing Muslim father and, for some years, had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the
auspices of his Indonesian step-father." In response, David Brock's organization, Media Matters for America (MMfA),
which calls itself a "progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing,
and correcting Conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," has criticized one of my sources of information.
MMfA contends "Daniel Pipes relied on disputed LA Times article to revive Obama-Muslim falsehood," that
"key aspects" of a March 16, 2007, Los Angeles Times article I quoted were later challenged by another
newspaper account, "History of Schooling Distorted," by Kim Barker in the Chicago Tribune on March 25.
Falsehood? That's a strong word.
To assess MMfA's claim, let's review its preferred article and examine what Barker has to say on four topics related to
Obama's Indonesian years, 1967-1971:
His attendance at a Catholic school;
His attendance at a public school;
His step-father, Lolo Soetoro;
His friend, Zulfan Adi.
BARAK OBAMA'S ATTENDANCE AT A CATHOLIC SCHOOL
To start with, about the Catholic school, Fransiskus Strada Asisia, which Obama attended 1967-1970 (words in square
brackets are added by me):
Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers, neighbors, and friends show that Obama was not a regular
practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia, despite being listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic
school, Strada Asisia, where he attended 1st through 3rd grades. At the time, the school most likely registered children
based on the religion of their fathers, said [Israella Pareira] Darmawan, Obama's former [1st-grade] teacher. Because
Soetoro was a Muslim, Obama was listed as a Muslim, she said.
The enrollment form from the Catholic school, which has been cited as evidence that Obama was a Muslim in Indonesia
[including by the Los Angeles Times], also was rife with errors. It listed Obama as an Indonesian, listed his
previous school incorrectly, and failed to list his mother, Ann, at all.
BARAK OBAMA WITH HIS PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSMATES IN INDONESIA
About Obama's time at a public elementary school, 1970-1971, variously known as the Sekolah Dasar Nasional Menteng
No. 1 or the Basuki school, Barker writes:
"When Obama attended 4th grade in 1971, Muslim children
spent two hours a week studying Islam, and Christian
children spent those two hours learning about the Christian
religion."
During a recent visit to this public school, Barker found:
"Weekly religious classes are required for all students,
whether Muslims, Christians or Hindus, under the
government curriculum. A new shiny mosque is in the
corner of the courtyard."
"The Muslims learn about Islam, prayer, and religious activity," said Hardi Priyono, the Vice Principal for Curriculum. "And
for the Christians, during the religious class, they also have a special room teaching Christianity. It's always been like that."
About Obama's step-father, Lolo Soetoro and his religiosity, Barker writes:
"In their first neighborhood, Obama occasionally
followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday
prayers, a few neighbors said. But Soetoro usually
was too busy working, first for the Indonesian army
and later for a Western oil company."
"Sometimes Lolo went to the mosque to pray, but he rarely socialized with people," said Fermina Katarina Sinaga, Obama's
3rd-grade teacher at the Catholic school, who lived near the family. "Rarely, Barry [a nickname for Barack] went to the
mosque with Lolo."
Barker learned from his friends and family that Lolo Soetoro, who died in 1987, was "much more of a free spirit than a devout
Muslim" and "hardly the image of a pious Muslim."
His nephew, Sonny Trisulo, 49, said Soetoro always liked women and alcohol. One of his health problems was a failing liver.
"He loved drinking, was a smart and warm person, the naughtiest one in the family," Trisulo recalled.
BARAK OBAMA'S FRIEND, ZULFAN ADI
As for Zulfan Adi, cited in the Los Angeles Times piece:
"Zulfan Adi, a former neighborhood playmate of Obama's
who has been cited in news reports as saying Obama
regularly attended Friday prayers with Soetoro, told the
Tribune he was not certain about that when
pressed about his recollections. He only knew Obama for
a few months, during 1970, when his family moved to the
neighborhood."
Does any of the above information from the Chicago Tribune article refute my analysis, as MMfA contends? It
raises questions about two details in the Los Angeles Times account (the accuracy of the Catholic school's
registration form and the reliability of Zulfan Adi as a source on Obama). But on the larger issue of Obama's religious
practices during his Jakarta years, it confirms the Times account. Note in particular three excerpts from Barker's
article:
"Interviews with dozens of former classmates, teachers,
neighbors and friends show that Obama was not a regular
practicing Muslim when he was in Indonesia" – implying
he was an irregularly practicing Muslim.
"Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque
for Friday prayers, a few neighbors said" – confirming that
he did pray in the mosque.
"Obama's 3rd-grade teacher at the Catholic school, who
lived near the family [said that] ‘Rarely, Barry went to the
mosque with Lolo'" – confirming that Obama attended
mosque services.
All this matters, for, if Obama once was a Muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim
converted to another religion who must be executed. Were he elected President of the United States, this status, clearly,
would have large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.
In sum: Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque.
This precisely substantiates my statement that he "for some years, had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the
auspices of his Indonesian step-father."
Therefore, what MMfA calls the "Obama-Muslim falsehood" is in fact confirmed by both articles as truthful and accurate.
Calling this a falsehood is, in itself, a falsehood.
© Daniel Pipes 2008
Originally Published in Front Page Magazine, January 7. 2008
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, January 7, 2008
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5354
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition:
Elections, PACs, & Political Parties
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
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Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
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Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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