Visit the ISIC website <http://www.isic-centre.org> 27th April 2007 In the last months, U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama has shunned public attention on his Muslim background, and repeatedly deflected questions about his family and childhood association with Islam. Apart from passing mentions in each of his memoir-type books, /Dreams From My Father/ and /The Audacity of Hope/, Obama has been noticeably silent on the subject. Meanwhile, reports about Obama's Muslim parentage and education have circulated in the news. While Sen. Obama has not personally addressed them, his press office has done so vigorously on his behalf. Along with CNN <http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/>, Obama's spokespeople address the public's interest in more information about Obama's connection with Islam as if there was /nothing/ to discuss, and no need of further exploration. Responding to an /Insight Magazine/ article <http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Obama_2.htm> earlier this year contending that Obama was once enrolled in a /madrassa/, and charging that he "has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage," the Obama press office released a statement <http://obama.senate.gov/press/070123-debunked_insight_magazine_and_fox_news_smear_campaign/index.html> in response to "these malicious and irresponsible charges." "To be clear," the statement read, "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago." As the former assertions seemed odd, if not untruthful to many observers, some in the media continued to examine Obama's upbringing. A friendly but detailed report <http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama15mar15,0,2299538.story?coll=la-home-headlines> in /The Los Angeles Times/ last month confirmed that Obama was registered as a Muslim at both the Roman Catholic school and the public school he attended in Indonesia during his youth. In response to this article, Obama's press office adjusted their story. According to the /Times/, the statement now said, "'Obama has never been a practicing Muslim,' but as a child he had spent time in the neighborhood's Islamic center." In his autobiography, /Dreams From My Father/, Obama mentions his "Koranic studies" at the Indonesian public school, which he describes as "a Muslim school." In his newest book, /The Audacity of Hope/, Obama describes it as "a predominantly Muslim school," but says little else. That it was not a madrassa but a "Muslim school" only raises the question of how to draw the line between one and the other. Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., was a Kenyan Muslim who was divorced from his mother when junior was two years old. "Although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist...," writes Obama in /The Audacity of Hope/. Later his mother married Lolo Soetoro, who was also a Muslim. According to a statement <http://obama.senate.gov/press/070123-debunked_insight_magazine_and_fox_news_smear_campaign/index.html> from Obama's press office, however, "Senator Obama was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother." As Senator Obama perhaps knows, because of Islam's Apostasy Law leaving the Islamic faith is not a light matter. Aside from the obvious political calculations about how having a Muslim background might negatively impact a presidential candidate's likelihood for success in the United States, could a concern about apostasy be one reason for Obama's persistent downplaying of his Muslim background? If Obama confirmed publicly that he was born and raised a Muslim -- even as a very nominal one -- but left the Islamic religion of both of his fathers and chose Christianity, it would surely be unpopular with Muslims. *Islamic Law's issue with Barack Obama* Why would this be especially difficult? According to all schools of /shari'a/ (Islamic law) the person leaving Isam becomes a /murtadd/, an apostate. Conversion into Islam is allowed, but shari'a forbids an adult male Muslim from leaving the religion upon penalty of death. The four major Sunni schools of Islamic law expressively prohibit Muslim women and children from doing so as well, differing only on the degree of punishment. Women are to be either killed or imprisoned according to the school of /shari'a/. Similar to adults, children should receive an invitation to repent and return to Islam. If, however, they do not repent within three days time they are punished. In the Hanafi school, children are imprisoned until they are of age and, if they do not return to Islam, they are to be killed. In the Shafi'i school they are imprisoned. Both the Maliki and Hanbali schools prescribe death for a child who leaves Islam and does not return at the age of maturity. Both Obama's father and stepfather may well have been secular-minded, but it is unlikely that either of them left Islam, or expected their son to do so. Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, registered the young boy as a Muslim and sent him to Islamic studies. Later in life, as an adult living in the United States, Obama decided to become a Christian. *What's a murtadd to do?* Barack Obama has not spoken out about the Islamic law of apostasy, but given his apparent status as a /murtadd/, perhaps he should. If he believes this judgment upon him and others is repugnant, will he speak out for religious freedom, and say that the Apostasy Law has no place within Islam or the modern world and must be changed? With many Muslim and Western societies alike involved in a growing debate over the role of /shari'a/ law in their midst, the time to address this is now. Sen. Obama is a major candidate for the presidency of the United States, someone who speaks to many hundreds of millions in America and around the world as a self-described reformer, and the candidate to lead the way forward. While Obama now lives in the freedom of the United States, he is at the same time under the judgment of the apostasy law, a disturbing mandate of an unreformed system of /shari'a/ now being agitated for and/or implemented around the globe. Who better then to speak out against its advance, and to call for the abolishment of the apostasy law? *ISIC EMAIL NEWS SERVICE* International Website: http://www.isic-centre.org <http://www.isic-centre.org> ============================================================= The Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity (ISIC) is a Christian research centre focusing on current trends in Islam and their effect on non-Muslims.
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