Last week, Charles Johnson of LGF asked an intriguing question concerning Barack Hussein Obama. "How would the world’s 249 gazillion Muslims react to having an American president who is also a Muslim apostate?"
Both Charles Johnson and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch have highlighted the fact that apostasy in Islam is often times punishable by death in many Islamic countries. But one of the problems that apostates face though (other than death threats) is being able to convince an Islamic court than they are in fact no longer Muslims. Just ask people like Abdul Rahman or Kamariah Ali of the difficulties they faced.
Barack Hussein Obama might have convinced some Americans that he is no longer a Muslim, but so far he has not convinced many in the world's most populous muslim country who still see him as a Muslim and a crusader for Islam and world peace.
Barack Hussein Obama's race, his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, his sympathy to Islam and Muslims worldwide and his Muslim heritage receive the Indonesian media coverage. There is no mention of his apostasy.
A good example of how some of the Indonesian media is reporting on Obama's religion can be found in the following.
"Ayah kandung Obama disebut-sebut seorang Muslim, dan Barack Obama juga disebutkan pernah memeluk Islam. Setalah tinggal di AS dan diasuh neneknya, Obama mengaku telah memeluk Kristen. Masalah agama apa yang sekarang dianut Obama, itu adalah prinsip dirinya yang harus dihormati siapapun. Dan hanya Obama sendiri yang tahu dan akan mempertanggungjawabkan di hadapan Tuhan yang diyakininya."
begin my translation...
"Obama's father was mentioned to be a Muslim and Barack Obama had embraced Islam. After living in the USA and being taken care of by his grandmother, Obama claimed to embrace Christianity. The problem with religion and what is now followed by Obama is a principal he himself must honor. And only Obama personally will account before God for his beliefs."
What I found interesting in the article was the use of the word "mengaku" when refering to Obama's conversion from Islam to Christianity. The word "mengaku" in Indonesian means "claimed" and as such leaves the insinuation to the native Indonesian reader being that Obama might actually still be a Muslim. But this is how Indonesians see Obama, they don't see him as an apostate at all, they see him as a crusader for the cause of Islam.
The following post from an Indonesian's blog gives an indication of how Indonesians see Barack Hussein Obama. While there is much pride in his Muslim heritage, you will also notice no mention of his apostasy.
"The United States Presidential candidate had lived in Indonesia.
He had experienced childhood in Indonesia.
His stepfather was an Indonesian citizen.
And he was born to a Muslim father.
This person stands for anti-racism, anti-warfare and I am sure he has a good view of Islam"
Obama's popularity in the Muslim world though presents a troubling conundrum though. His popularity with Islam's so-called moderates in actuality lends more credence to the ideology promoted by fundamentalist groups such as Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah who will be eager to explain Obama's popularity in America as futher evidence supporting the acquiescence of the West to the superiority of Islam.
The words of Australia's Prime Minister John Howard might has seemed harsh, but the reality is that a pullout from Iraq and/or a vote for Obama will spell out a major victory for Al Qaeda.
Very interesting discussion. As someone who lives in the Middle East and has for over a decade, I realize how intricate the subject is. However, if enough of us idealists can just change one person then I think we can change the world.
ReplyDeleteThere is a cool site that makes much of the Middle Eastern tradition of tolerance available in English. I understand the official launch date is March 1st but there are some neat things up already.
www.peaceathomepeaceintheworld.com
Are you seriously trying to tell the world that voting for a Muslim is treasonous to the American republic? What about the First Amendment? What about no religious test for public office? Since when is it true that siding with any Muslim whatsoever is siding with Al Qaeda? WE are the ones who made Al Qaeda active in Iraq because WE destabilized the country. Haven't we ALREADY voted for them?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that we will be ready for a Muslim president in the US only after the rest of the Ummah proves that Taqqiya is a myth...
ReplyDeletei am not concern whether obama is or isn't an apostate.
ReplyDeletethe learned of the west are embracing islam by the herds...and much much more are converting by the heart only and not seeking imams make to publicly anounce their conversions... many of them embrace the belief after reading and gaining insight through reading books such translated works of the koran and traditions of muhammad etc
while hungry moslems and pagans in africa and asia are converting to christianity by the power of the dollar.
...go be an apostate mr. obama... it is the state of your heart which you'll be judged by God in the end
Ayah kandung Obama disebut-sebut seorang Muslim, dan Barack Obama juga disebutkan pernah memeluk Islam. Setalah tinggal di AS dan diasuh neneknya, Obama mengaku telah memeluk Kristen. Masalah agama apa yang sekarang dianut Obama, itu adalah prinsip dirinya yang harus dihormati siapapun. Dan hanya Obama sendiri yang tahu dan akan mempertanggungjawabkan di hadapan Tuhan yang diyakininya."
ReplyDeletebegin my translation...
"Obama's father was mentioned to be a Muslim and Barack Obama had embraced Islam. After living in the USA and being taken care of by his grandmother, Obama claimed to embrace Christianity. The problem with religion and what is now followed by Obama is a principal he himself must honor. And only Obama personally will account before God for his beliefs."
Corrected translation
"Obama's father is constantly mentioned to be a Muslim and Barack Obama has also been mentioned to have embraced Islam. After living in the USA and taken cared of by his grandmother, Obama admitted to embracing Christianity. Whichever religion that Obama is currently embracing, it is up to his own principals (or choice) and that choice must be respected by everyone. Only Obama himself knows and will take responsibility for his decisions in front of his chosen God.
mengaku = admitted, the use of 'claimed' in this context is incorrect
your second last sentence was a bit wrong as it should be mentioned that 'yang harus dihormati siapapun' = 'should be respected by whomever/everyone' is a matter that most muslims would agree on, no one should be forced into a religion and whatever path they take, is up to their own decisions
to strengthen that point, 'Tuhan yang diyakininya' = 'God of his belief', meaning that the reporter only wants people to disregard his religion and only see him as a person of his own character, and let his actions be seen as decisions made by his own individual self and not by his religion.
"the learned of the west are embracing islam by the herds"
ReplyDeleteIt takes a gullible mind to believe that.
"many of them embrace the belief after reading and gaining insight through reading books such translated works of the koran and traditions of muhammad"
I doubt it. There are those of us in the West who cracked open a Koran in the wake of 9/11 to find out what was in the religion that could encourage such horrors as mass murderers yelling "Allahu Akbar!" in their last breath as they slammed planes into buildings. We found their 'holy book' the Quran (especially 9th Surah) to be a cesspool of 7th century cultist superstition - violent, misogynistic, and with lies (eg misunderstanding the trinity) and hate for other religions. I never read another religious book so )full of fear, hate and calls for violence. We also read the horrible examples of Mohammed (PBUH) the warlord, who let his minions rape and murder and enslave others in the name of "jihad" as he attacked caravans and settlements, who had 9 wives including a jew and a christian wife (did they end up in hell?), and who ordered deaths of inconvenient and dissident people, like Marwan's daughter. And we understood; it's as if a religion was centered on some Arab version of Ghengis Khan. We shuddered to imagine how warped the minds of the believers had become by such a dangerous ideology, and closed the book in disgust. If some are attracted to the religion, it is perhaps due to having a warped and violent personality and looking for an ideolgy that fits.