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To my friends, family, and anyone out there interested in truth...
There is a tragically ill-informed email making the rounds. The fact that someone I know actually emailed this to a family member of mine just made me sick. I had to respond.
In this day and age, you wouldn't think that people would believe everything they get by email and then mindlessly forward it, but it seems to happen. Frankly, I had an 8th grader write a much better, more comprehensive, factual paper. And I notice that no one wanted to claim their work--my student also knew to put his name on his paper.
So below is the original email (written in black), and I have added researched corrections (in red) with citations.
Heather
Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to black Muslim Barack Hussein Obama Sr. of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, (the late Barack Obama Sr. was a Muslim-raised but non-religious Kenyan economist) and White (no caps needed, for emphasis or other; colors don't need to be capitalized) atheist, (actually a Secular Humanist meaning "non-religious." This group works to separate Church and state, a goal astutely implemented by the religious founders of our country, http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0804/0804obamafaith.htm)Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya (not exactly a sloucher though; his father "stopped by" Harvard to grab a PhD first. Then he returned to Kenya, Wikipedia.)
His mother married Lolo Soetoro, a Muslim as well, moving to Jakarta with young Obama, when he was six years old. Within six months he had learned to speak the Indonesian language Obama spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school" in Jakarta . (Obama attended Catholic school and public school [I don't know the statistics of the number of Muslims or Catholics in that public school, but then again, I don't know that statistic for L.A. public schools either] from ages 6 to 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. So is he less of an American due to the fact that, by the ripe old age of 10, he was educated in Jakarta and had a predominantly public and Catholic education? You know Kennedy must be rolling over in his grave.)
Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. (so... just how did this person "uncover" this tidbit when I cannot find one encyclopedia entry or reliable biography to confirm it? In fact, here's what I did find--a quote by Obama: "...that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)
Mitigating that information, by saying that for two years, he attended a Catholic school. (I'm trying very hard to ignore incomplete sentences and other grammatical hazards.)
Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a radical Muslim who migrated from Kenya to Jakarta, Indonesia . He met Obama's mother, Ann Dunhamat the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Obama's spin- meisters are now attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam, came from his father and that influence was only temporary, which is true. (Great sentence. Okay, I have to say it... The author's lack of an antecedent for "which is true" makes him/her sound like a complete idiot.) Obama Sr. returned to Kenya immediately following the divorce and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. But, Lolo Soetoro, Ann Dunham's second husband, educated his stepson Barack Hussein Obama, as a good Muslim by enrolling him in one of Jakarta 's Wahabbi schools. (When? For how long? Or is this referring to what was actually the public school? Barack was enrolled in an expensive prep school in Hawaii from 5th through 12th grades. All of his college work--Occidental, Columbia, Harvard Law School--was accomplished in the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama) Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists, who are now waging Jihad on the industrialized world. (Thanks for the history lesson, but are we really supposed to take a leap with these random connections?) Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States , Obama joined the United Church of Christ, "to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim." (Again, citations are critical. Could this in any way possibly be the author's assumption rather than recorded fact? I did not find it recorded anywhere.)
PASS THIS AROUND FOLKS !!!
Sure will! And I hope anyone else who passes this on includes my clarifications, any other citations worthy of note, and/or corrections. Otherwise, this email distinctly smells of prejudice against Muslims, hysteria, and perverse Republican propaganda.
I hope we've all learned a lesson about word choice, error by omission, and media slant.
Any questions class?
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When I got this I tried to take away my bias toward Obama (Yes, I'm an Obama groupie. Yes, I squeal with joy every time I get an email from him/his exploratory committee). So I tried to take away those feelings and make sure I wasn't just annoyed at an email that seemed to present some credible evidence against him. But no, this email doesn't do that. It is made up, and draws conclusions that are, at best, uneducated, and at worst, flat out racist and innaccurate.
You can find Obama's discussion with ABC News here - http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2823943&page=1. They did some actual research (i.e. visited the school in question) and found that there is no basis to this information.
Can we please have a clean campaign? For once I would love to listen to what the candidates think of the issues, without this crap being thrown at us every 2 minutes.
