Obama ‘was educated in madrassa’
The Times (London) - January 20, 2007
Obama ‘was educated in madrassa’ Tim Reid and Tom Baldwin in Washington
Senator hid time there, says article Clinton distances herself from claims
Barack Obama was given a rude awakening to the cut-throat world of
presidential politics yesterday after being accused of hiding four
years in which he was educated at a madrassa when a teenager.
The claim, made in the conservative Insight magazine, also revealed
the Machiavellian scheming of political activists in a presidential
race still nearly two years away.
It was aimed at tarnishing Mr Obama’s image in the week he announced
himself as a White House contender. But the article also claimed that
the madrassa allegations came from aides to Hillary Clinton, Mr
Obama’s main opponent for the Democratic nomination.
This may be wishful thinking on behalf of Republicans. The Clinton
camp is determined not to be accused of digging dirt on Mr Obama
because they fear such tactics could backfire, given his popularity.
But the Insight allegations represent an exquisite double shot at the
Democrats’ two leading White House contenders: it implies that Mr
Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, is a closet Islamic extremist,
and that Mrs Clinton is so rattled by his candidacy she is using
underhand tactics to weaken him.
Mr Obama, who is expected to announce formally his candidacy on
February 10, has never been subjected to the hardball tactics of the
presidential arena — until yesterday. Last night an aide said that
the campaign was working on a formal statement, but added that the
claims were “not accurate”.
The online article begins: “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?” It continues:
“This is the question Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking
about Senator Barack Obama.”
Mr Obama’s mother was a white woman from Kansas; his father, a black
Kenyan Muslim. He states in his recent biography that he attended a
predominately Muslim school when he lived in Jakarta as a teenager.
But the article claims: “In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled
in a madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim.” It says that
Mr Obama omitted to say in his memoir, or at any other time, that he
attended the school for four years.
Mr Obama, who has spent his adult life in Chicago, calls himself a
Christian and says that he believes in God. He attends a local church.
A source close to the Clinton campaign told The Times, a day before
the Insight article was published, that they do not want to be seen
as attacking Mr Obama or digging for dirt, but that they would be
happy for another Democrat contender to criticise him.
January 20th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Don’t fall for this nonsense spin! Madrassa simply means “school.” So he went to a school, big deal. So most of the students were Muslim, well, it was a majority Muslim country. It’s not like he hopped on a plane and went to Afghanistan and starting training to blow up something as an adult. He was a small child and was there because of his mother’s choice of second husband. Do we really expect a six year old to say “Take me out of this madrassa because it might hurt my political career later on?” This is so much a non-story it is ridiculous. Anyone who falls for it would not be using all their brain cells.