[Geeska Afrika caption:] U.S. Senator Barack Obama, right, is dressed as a Somali Elder by Sheikh Mahmed Hassan, left, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya, near the borders with Somalia and Ethiopia. The area is at the epicenter of a severe drought that has hit the Horn of Africa region, after erratic and insufficient rains during the April-June season

Barry’s funny hat moment-is really not so funny.

Tippin’ me tam to Right Voices, Sweetness and Light, Gateway Pundit, Oblogatory Anecdotes, etc., etc.

Sweetness and Light nails it right here:

According to the photo’s caption, what Mr. Obama is wearing is NOT a Kenyan elder’s garb, but a Somali elder’s garb. This is quite an important difference, especially in view of the fact that Kenya is 90% Christian and Somalia is 100% Sunni Muslim.

“Obama is not a muslim”, is what I keep seeing in some Obama fawning articles, and even on O’Reilly.

But where is their proof that he isn’t? Obama’s connection with Islam is-not only clear-it’s glaring. Which makes his ‘change’ rhetoric worrying.

From Free Republic:

Obama’s older brother, Abongo “Roy” Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must “liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture.” He urges his younger brother to embrace his African heritage.

This is no different than the rhetoric of Louis Farrakhan, who urges black men to do the same at his million man march.

What is interesting are the people who are being called liars for bringing up this subject, like Kim Barker of the Chicago Tribune, calling Daniel Pipes’ muslim story on Obama ‘falsehoods’. You have to wonder why there are no riots in the streets calling for Obama’s execution, if he is an apostate, as people - even Obama - suggest. You aren’t allowed to leave Islam if you become a muslim. If your father was a muslim, you are always considered a muslim. We saw this in the case of the Said sisters, who didn’t want to be buried in a muslim cemetary. Yet, inevitably, that is what happened to them.

The girls were buried in a muslim cemetery, because in Islam, the children inherit their religion from their father.

And…if Obama once was a Muslim, as his history in Jakarta would indicate-even if he wasn’t pious, he was listed at the Catholic school there as a muslim and he studied the koran. Today reports say he is not a muslim, even though numerous muslims and even radical muslims support his candidacy.

The Times has an interesting contradictory article here:

Obama has every right to be proud of his Muslim heritage and his middle name. The Prophet Mohammed’s grandson was named Hussein, who himself became one of the revered figures in Islam. Throughout history probably millions of newborn Muslim males have been named Hussein, one of the most popular Muslim names after Mohammed.

But that article also claims he was raised a Christian in the US. From what I can see, they should just stick with the “Obama is proud of his muslim name” schtick. I’ve read that his mother was a muslim convert, but also that she was an atheist, and that her parents who raised him, were also atheists. This is far away from being raised ‘Christian’.

Los Angeles Times reporter Paul Watson, who dug into Obama’s allegation of “error”, said “…his former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama’s grade school teacher as childhood friends, says Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both schools he attended. The registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion classes. The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque.” (Something else Obama claims he never did.) (Ryter, 2007)

Obama seems to be using al takeyya.

Obama’s father and stepfather were devout Islamics. Both faithfully practiced their religion. His stepfather, who had a much greater impact on Obama’s upbringing, was a radical Wahabbi Muslim. (Ryter, 2007)

Obama’s mother married Lolo Soetoro, a Wahabbi extremist who lived in Indonesia. When Obama’s mother moved to Indonesia—before she married her second Muslim husband—she enrolled her son in Francis Assisis Catholic School. He was enrolled as a Muslim because he was a Muslim. (Ryter, 2007)

Obama’s half-sister Maya admitted that her “…whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.” - (Ryter, 2007)

Even today, Obama’s connection with Christianity is dubious. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity Church espouses Liberation Theology, which isn’t Christian at all; it’s marxist…which fits in with his cousin Raila Odinga’s communist ideology, and helps us to understand Barack’s support of his cousin’s politics. Dr. Wright’s work denounces the United States as a white racist nation….which explains why Dr. Wright bestowed an award on Louis Farrakhan, who doesn’t hold white people in very high esteem, either.

In fact, it’s proudly displayed on Obama’s website that the “New” Black Panthers support Obama.

Obama’s cousin, Raila Odinga, is a sharia supporting communist in Kenya, and is behind the genocide in Kenya. Yet, few seem even interested in this. Obama has been very outspoken about his support of his cousin’s efforts there.

From Pam at Atlas Shrugs

Obama’s bias for his fellow Luo was so blatant that a Kenya government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila’s “stooge.”

If we are to believe he is not now a muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed.

Who can forget what happened in Afghanistan when Abdul Rahman who converted to Christianity was arrested and faced torture and public execution?

This is not what we are seeing in both the media and behind the scenes with Obama; we are seeing muslim support, which can only mean one thing.

Obama has said the muslim call to prayer was the ’sweetest sound on earth’.

Jon Christian Ryter asks the important questions here:

Obama announced his candidacy on the steps of the old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois—where Abraham Lincoln announced his candidacy—on Feb. 10, 2007. Obama sees himself as an archtype of Lincoln who will “free his people from the tyranny of the oppressor.” What people are those? The inner city people of color whom Dr. Wright believes are part of the Black Value System? Or does he see himself as the man who will free the Muslim world from the Great Satan since his first action, he says, as President of the United States will be to pull all Americans troops out of the Middle East?

Either way, even if we never find out the answers to those important questions, Obama is a worrying figure, who appears to be lying. And if he’d lie about something this elementary and easy to check, what else is he lying about?

Dan Riehl points out this worrying segment:

About 12 seconds in…just how many Arab-American families are being rounded up in America without benefit of an attorney? Apparently enough for Obama to be concerned over his own Civil Liberties…???

Former Senator Bob Kerry thinks Obama’s muslims background is a plus. At least he’s honest about it being there, although nobody is acknowledging that a) you can’t leave Islam without becoming an apostate worthy of death, and b) you are forever a muslim in the eyes of muslims.

Hussein is the most popular name; particularly for Shiites.

“Barack” is also Arabic, from “barakah,” meaning “blessing.” “Obama,” meanwhile, is a word in Swahili - a language based on Arabic that serves as the lingua franca of East Africa; it refers to members of his father’s tribe who converted to Islam.

In other words, “Barack Hussein Obama” is a perfectly common identifier for someone with an ethnic East African Muslim background.

Nevertheless, Obama insists that, while his father and paternal grandfather were both Muslims, he himself was never one in any way.

In Islam, of course, anyone born of a Muslim father is automatically regarded as Muslim. But Obama is hardly obliged to abide by what Muslims may or may not think of his religious status. As a citizen of a free and democratic state, he can cross from one faith to anther or have no faith at all without losing any of his rights, including the right to stand for the highest office.

But what Amir Taheri neglects to point out is that Islam doesn’t allow people to leave the faith.

In an important symbolic move designed to signal an end of the special relationship between Israel and America, Obama has become the first major presidential candidate in 25 years not to commit himself to transferring the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Last but not least, Obama has promised to withdraw from Iraq in his first year in office - meeting a key demand of all radical Islamist forces, Sunni and Shiite.

The message is clear: Obama wants a new relationship with radical forces in the Islamic world while distancing America from its traditional regional allies. In other words, he proposes to reverse policies that have taken shape over more than six decades under 12 successive American presidents.

And although Taheri thinks it’s this revolutionary idea that should be at the forefront and not the meaning of his name or its origins, to me, his name and his denials of his muslim heritage are the reasons why this revolutionary idea is so worrying.