Was Obama Raised by Radical Islamists?

[updated] [updated again]

Bob Somerby has made it his mission over the last decade to identify, chronicle, and debunk false media narratives; and he's done superlative work. He has demonstrated again and again how false stories about major politicians are invented and then repeated endlessly by our fatuous and chronically fact-averse press corps (e.g. Al Gore's supposed claim that he "invented the internet"). These false anecdotes are then used to construct over-arching narratives about the candidates through which all subsequent news and reporting is filtered.

Well, last week Bob issued an impassioned plea to liberal bloggers:

Democrats need to be smart at the start of Campaign 08; whatever our personal preference might be, we need to address all misstatements and all spins about possible candidates. . . .

We Dems should start refusing--now!--to let such scripts get frozen in place. On the liberal web, we did a miserable job with this task RE Kerry in Campaign 04 (starting in February of that year). We let the scripts about Kerry gain traction (He voted against every weapon system!); as a group, we did amazingly little to confront, challenge, clarify and debunk them. So here's your daddy, telling you now: Starting today, Dems and libs should start addressing the scripts which emerge against all possible Dem nominees. We should clarify the scripts about Obama--and the scripts about Clinton too.

The next day Bob repeated his plea:

Libs and Dems on the web (and in "liberal" journals) have to rise to this new challenge. In 1999 and 2000, our "leaders" didn't say a word as this dimwit class spun its tales about Gore. In Campaign 04, we performed very poorly, moving slowly--if at all--when the framings of Kerry began to emerge. Will this third time be the charm? Or will we slumber and fail once again?

I couldn't agree more, and more to the point, I think this is a challenge that blogs are uniquely suited to take on. If liberal bloggers, particularly those with the biggest megaphones, make it their mission to debunk false claims about candidates in real time, before they congeal into conventional wisdom, it could make a real difference in '08.

Journalists who invent or mindlessly repeat false claims about candidates need to be singled out for criticism. They need to be called out in real time, before the claim has been repeated enough times to gain the aura of truth. As I wrote a while back:

In the past, the proliferation of false anecdotes and stories was enormously aided by the fact that, more often than not, no one was making any attempt to correct the record, at least until it was too late. But the emergence of the internet and bloggers allows, at least potentially, for real-time fact-checking of media accounts. These days, when someone makes up a story or misrepresents what a candidate said, there is a far greater chance that someone will discover the misrepresentation and write about it. If the misrepresentation is sufficiently egregious, it can trigger, relatively quickly, a chorus of blog posts exposing it and a barrage of angry emails to the media outlet responsible for airing it. Even when this doesn't result in a retraction, it often highlights for others in the media the dubious nature of the story and provides some incentive not to repeat it (if for no other reason than to avoid being deluged with angry emails). In this way, many false stories can be nipped in the bud, before they ever have the chance to solidify into conventional wisdom.

Which brings me, finally, to the original purpose of this post. Over the last week, one particularly obnoxious claim about Senator Barack Obama has been making the rounds. It began with an article in the conservative Insight magazine which asked the following:

Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?

The article claimed that Obama had attended a Madrassa for four years while living in Indonesia and had been raised as a Muslim. It also cited "sources" as saying that "He [Obama] was a Muslim, but he concealed it." It asserted that Obama's opponents "are searching for evidence that Mr. Obama is still a Muslim or has ties to Islam."

Not surprisingly, Fox News and various conservative pundits picked up the story and ran with it, repeating its claims as if they were fact. And in the Chicago Sun Times on Sunday, columnist Mark Steyn took the story one step farther--as he always does--claiming that Obama is a Muslim and that he was "raised in an Indonesian madrassah by radical imams.":

He's young, gifted and black, and white, and Hawaiian, and Kansan, and charismatic, and Congregationalist, and Muslim.
...
He was raised in an Indonesian madrassah by radical imams, which is more than John Edwards can say.
...
Some commentators say he's a blank slate. And how long is it since we've seen one of those? They used to have 'em in the schoolhouses back when the kids still learnt stuff instead of just discussing their sexuality with the guidance counselor all week long. I'll bet in those radical madrassahs they're still using blank slates.
...
But look at it from a Democratic primary voter's point of view, the kind who drives around with those ''CO-EXIST'' bumper stickers made up of the cross and the Star of David and the Islamic crescent and the peace sign. Your whole world view is based on the belief that deep down we'd all rub along just fine and this neocon fever about Islam is just a lot of banana oil to keep the American people in a state of fear and paranoia. What would more resoundingly confirm that view than if the nicest, most non-bitter, nonpartisan guy in politics turns out to have graduated from the Sword of the Infidel Slayer grade school in Jakarta?

THE FACTS:

Obama's mother married an Indonesian man when Obama was 6 years old and they moved together from Hawaii to Indonesia. From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother and step-father, who--like most Indonesians--was Muslim. As Obama explains in his autobiography, Dreams of My Father (which was first published almost 10 years ago):

In Indonesia, I'd spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I'd pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended.

At age 10, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. So he spent a grand total of four five years in Indonesia, only two of which he spent attending a Muslim school.

Moreover, at the time Obama lived in Indonesia, roughly 1967-1972, militant Islam was virtually unknown to that part of the world. The predominant form of Islam in Indonesia at the time--and still today--was a blend of Islamic and pre-existing animist beliefs and traditions. In Dreams of My Father, Obama discusses in some detail some of the animist believes his step-father held.

Furthermore, while the term "Madrassah" is often used as shorthand for a specific type of radical Islamic school where new jihadists are indoctrinated, the term simply means "school" in Arabic (and, by extension, a number of other languages). There is no reason to think the school Obama attended was anything other than a typical Indonesian school.

So let's recap the facts:

1) Obama was not "raised as a Muslim." He was raised primary by his mother and grandparents, none of whom were Muslims. His step-father, whom he lived with for only four five years, was a Muslim, but a very traditionally Indonesian one. Obama is currently a practicing Christian.

2) Obama did not attend a "radical Madrassah" during his time in Indonesia. During his four five years there (from age 6 to 10), he split his time between a local Muslim school and a local Catholic school.

3) Obama has not concealed any of this information. To the contrary, it is all laid out in detail in his two autobiographical books.

4) Mark Steyn is a massive tool.

Make no mistake. The GOP is laying the groundwork right now for the possibility of Obama winning the Democratic nomination. They're planting seeds and hoping these narratives will have gained a life of their own by the time the general election rolls around. Should Obama become the nominee, I expect that his Republican opponents will try to play up his "foreignness," to portray him as un-American, exotic, even dangerous. His name and his heritage open him up to this sort of attack, and there are a number of people on the Republican side who will readily exploit the American people's worst instincts.

That's why it's important to set the record straight now, to keep these claims from going unchallenged and thereby gaining the aura of truth. If you notice any false claims being made about any of the 2008 candidates, write about it or bring it to the attention of someone who will. It just might make a difference.

UPDATE: More debunking, courtesy of CNN and Think Progress. CNN has footage of the actual school, which is just a typical Indonesian public school where students wear uniforms and teachers were western clothes. Children attend a religion class just once a week and non-Muslim children learn about their own religious, whether it's Christianity or Buddhism or something else. Radical imams, my arse. Is there any bigger tool than Mark Steyn?

UPDATE II: Apparently there is a bigger tool than Mark Steyn. Despite the CNN report, conservative blogger Dan Riehl refuses to give up: "it appears as though a few questions may still remain." He then links to some translated Indonesia article which claims Obama lived in Indonesia for five years, not four (dear lord!). But guess what, Obama states clearly in his book, The Audacity of Hope (p. 204) that he lived in Indonesia for five years (confession: I got the number wrong, too; hence the strike-through text above):

During the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school.

Riehl then accuses Obama of hypocrisy because he claims to be "a man of God" but "tried to make himself appear as just the opposite in one of his recent books." Riehl writes:

I don't care so much about what he is or isn't. But I detest people who want it both ways.

That sure is some righteous indignation. But, uh oh, here's the passage Riehl points to as evidence of Obama trying to have it "both ways":

In Indonesia, I’d spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I’d pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended.

I know the passage of time is a difficult concept to understand, but if Riehl had given this any thought, he might have noticed a few obvious facts. First, this quote comes from Dreams of My Father, which was published 12 years ago. Second, as is obvious from the passage itself, Obama is not describing what he believed at the time he wrote the book, but what he thought when he was a kid, in Indonesia. Some people's religous beliefs actually change over time. What you believe when you were eight is not necessary what you believe as a grown man. And finally, nothing about the above-referenced passage is inconsisent with being religious. You can believe in God and still not believe that angels will descend upon you if you open your eyes during prayer.

But in case Riehl is interested in the truth (doubtful), Obama describes the evolution of his religious beliefs in some detail in the The Audacity of Hope (starting on p. 202). In short, he came to embrace Christianity as an adult.

Not knowing when to give up, Riehl also makes the following quasi-accusation:

Googling around, his Father was said to have been a non-practicing Muslim and his Mother an atheist or secularist. So why four or five years in two religious schools? There were, I believe, a few fine International schools available in Jakarta at the time.

That's called keeping it Riehl. Riehl dumb. As Obama explains in his book, his mother and step-father did not have very much money. They couldn't afford to send him to the expensive International schools in Jakarta, so instead they sent him to a local public school (the so-called "madrassah") and a nearby Catholic school. Mystery solved!

Riehl ends his entirely fact-free post with the following question:

If Obama is spinning his past as it seems he might be, how much should anyone care about his vision for the future? That might be part fiction, too.

Oy. Here's a better question: if you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about and are unwilling to do even the most minimal research or thought, why should anyone care about what you have to say?