Obama’s Mosque

Obama-Mosque

That's one shiny dome, huh?

Call it unfortunate timing that the LAT backgrounder on Barack Obama's Islamic education shared the same front page yesterday with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. (Why the media incessantly runs the same grimy shot of that guy, and why the press sucked up the Pentagon's propaganda over Mohammed confessing to almost every real or imagined terrorist act in the past ten years is still another story.)

What I was particularly interested in, however, was how the Times framed Obama's early religious experience.

Credit is due, in the article, for mentioning that "political Islam was far less influential in the 1960s than it is today." At the same time, the story — and, especially, the photo gallery — weaves the impression that Obama — between the ages of 6 and 10 — was a more devout practicing Moslem than he lets on.

Although Obama has made known he attended an Islamic school for a couple of years, the Times seems intent on nailing him for a lack of specificity about his religious curriculum and occasional prayer attendance. Having first gone to a Catholic school for two years, Obama went to a Muslim school for third and forth grade. Although the article describes the school, founded by the Dutch, as a high-level place that produced many of Indonesia's elite, the inference — especially given this image leading off the photo gallery (and given the Western media's tendency to use of Islamic religious symbolism to connote ideological extremism) is that Obama still somehow attended a madrassa — or fundamentalist Islamic school.

In the world of parsed facts and factual hair-splitting, however, it would have been nice to know more specifically that this mosque — put forth as authoritative visual evidence that the juvenile Barack attended a religious complex where he allegedly prayed — didn't even exist at the time.

You can view the rest of the images in the photo gallery, including the murky class picture with Obama in the back; a shot of the "whistle blowing" former vice-principal at Obama's Jakarta public school who recalls his attendance at religious lessons (despite his official records having been "eaten by bugs"); and the practically accusatory last shot of Obama framed in a shiny, overly precious light, posed in front of our the American flag.

(image: Paul Watson / LAT. March 15, 2007. latimes.com)

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Tags: Islam, Los Angeles Times, Obama

http://ruinsofempire.blogspot.com/ Rafael

Irony is that not so long ago such domes stood not for the terrifying menace of apocalyptic struggle between civilizations, but the on the brink fears of the Russian bear. Then again, must of the imagery, language and posturing is Cold War Lite anyway.
http://molly.douthett.net lowly grunt

I think this article is more worthy of the MSM’s time and space, but whatever.
Yes, that is a very shiny dome. It looks like a mirror which is what the story of Obama’s early education IS. You see in it what you want to see in it. Okay, that’s more accurately a Rorshach inkblot, but you get the point.
ummabdulla

“Madrasah” is simply the Arabic word for school.
If Obama was living with a Muslim Indonesian stepfather in Jakarta and going to a public school, it wouldn’t have been surprising for him to have attended Islamic classes, like the vast majority of Indonesian students. (Indonesia has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world.)
Nice of them to take the picture from this angle, specifically to show the dome which didn’t exist when he attended school there.
I guess it’s to be expected, but I can’t believe they dredge up what a boy did or said or played when he was in elementary school.
Too bad he has to go out of his way to say that the family wasn’t really religious, and that he made faces during Quran class.
(He’s forgotten any sympathy he ever had for Palestinians, too. See How Barack Obama Learned to Love Israel.)
As for the accuracy of the LA Times, one of the articles mentioned begins, “Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the Kuwaiti national who is thought to be the highest-ranking Al Qaeda operative in U.S. custody…” He did live in Kuwait, but he has never been a Kuwaiti national. I think he’s Pakistani. The same thing was erroneously reported – and corrected – many times when he was arrested.
http://ruinsofempire.blogspot.com/ Rafael

Funny thing is that these kids are playing a very American game, one that many kids would identify with, basketball in the school yard.
tina

It’s hard for me to believe that Obama’s religious beliefs in third and fourth grade have any bearing whatever on a Presidential run forty years later. It’s not like as an adult he had a drunk driving record, friends from college who remember him high on drugs, a suspicious draft deferment, an incompetence that sank a few business ventures, or a wife that killed her ex-boyfriend.
Oh, shut up.
It might be nice, given the current geopolitical climate, to have a President who knows enough about Islam to, oh let’s see, know the difference between Shia and Sunni, for example. However, that’s not how it’s going to play in the heartland. This is going to be emphasized more and more, until Obama=terrorist. It’s unfair and it’s stupid but realistically, it’s an insurmountable handicap at this stage.
It must be Edwards or Wes Clark, nobody else has a chance. Why don’t we see more of Edwards anyway? Is he hanging fire ’till later?
tina

Somehow, I’m kind of glad to hear he made faces during Q’uran readings, the last thing we need is another pretend pious religious nut anywhere near the White House.
However, I could agree it’s rather a shame if he feels compelled to say that to please people. But look out, he may be called upon to denounce Islam ever more explicitly. Since he is not a Muslim now (didn’t he convert to Christianity?) he may well do that.
All of which should be less important to the voters than it is. However the mere fact that he has a broad international experience from childhood will work against him, others will see that as a negative.
The shiny dome in the pic, right in the center, makes the association with Islam loud and clear; he isn’t going to be able to shake this no matter how he tries.
vwcat

What is sad is that in the 1960s this country was more open and accepting of different cultures than now. Now we have become so closed minded, judgemental and accusatory that the msm just cannot accept the fact that living in jakarta, Obama attended a public school that embraced both religions and had a mom who was a true flower child that was not of any organized religion. She introduced her son to different things and cultures and ideas. that use to be a good thing. Now it is bad. And our press has to play the games of accusing someone of something that is not true and promote the ideas of narrow mindedness and hate.
He had a multi cultural upbringing where he lived in different places and went to different schools. That was the only school his mom could afford to send him to and for two years and yet the msm insists on playing the lying games.
What has become of our society? We are regressing and not progressing. How sad.
jtfromBC

Forget that drivel in the LAT remember when the MSM praised Muslims
The US/CIA backed the Suharto coup and dictatorship in the 1960s. That was when as many as a million Indonesians were massacred, and also included the brutal invasion and occupation of East Timor.
The Chicago Tribune, October 1965, “We must say it’s refreshing to read of young Muslims burning down Communist Party headquarters for a change and shouting `Long Live America.’ ”
In July 1966, when the immensity of the bloodbath in Indonesia was clear, Time magazine declared that the ousting of Sukarno was “the West’s best news for years in Asia.”
noen

why the press sucked up the Pentagon’s propaganda over Mohammed confessing to almost every real or imagined terrorist act in the past ten years is still another story.
Property does what it’s told.
–
The thing about Obama is you can’t extract the man from America’s racist past or present. Just look at the comments above. Do they talk about Obama the man? (This is not to criticize, I’m just sayin’) No, It seems to me like we can’t separate the man from the politics of hate that surround him. Sort of like the last picture in the gallery. Because of the rim lighting he looks like a cut-out figure that’s been pasted onto the background. This country isn’t ready for a woman as president let alone a black man with an Islamic history.
http://free-softwares.org Yudi

I’m from Indonesia
Mosque in an elementary school is an usual thing. The religion class is based on curriculum stated by the Education Ministry.
The textbooks is widely sold, so you can see what is taught in there. There is nothing radical in there.
They just ordinary kids, yes they study about Islam, but mostly they study about math, physics, social sciences, linguistic, etc. Yes the play basketball, online game, PS2, Xbox 360, you name it……
Elementary school (Sekolah Dasar) is not a madrasa, it is a public school just other elementary school around the world.
Ron

The article mentions “having attended Catholic for two years”. Under Indonesian law schools associated with churches are just schools and must have admissions open to anyone,not just Catholics. It is illegal in Indonesia to teach any religion other than Islam to Indonesian citizens and Obama became an Indonesian when he was adopted by his stepfather Lolo Soetoro. Obama was enrolled at the St.Frances of Assisi School in Jakarta but he was enrolled as a Muslim not as a Catholic. Since it is a private school he would also have been enrolled as an Indonesian citizen.