Obama's Muslim connection

[mamab]

I heard that Obama was raised Muslim and spent 7 years in Muslim schools when he was a kid. Do you think he's been indoctrinated enough that it will affect his decisions? Will it affect his chances of becoming president?

Personally, I'm not happy about the Congressman who's Muslim being in office, and the things he's trying to push so far. I know I wouldn't want someone who was totally immersed in being a Muslim to be president. What do you think?

 

[tater03]

I just heard this this morning. I am not sure how I feel. I guess it would have to depend on when he was going to a Muslim church. From my understanding though this was when he was younger and could not pick what religion he wanted to be. And that he no longer practices this religion. But I am not sure on that. I will say that I don't buy into the fact that all Muslims are bad and are out to get us.

 

[framed]

Unless your making the assumption that muslim = terrorist then I don't see the problem with it. There are christians in office, there are jews in office, there are agnostics in office. Why not muslims?

Personally I think it might help with our current crisis, as the guy would at least have a solid basis for opening a dialouge with the muslim community of the middle east. Some common ground might be nice for a change.

 

[mtatum4496]

I think I would rather have a Muslim who held a mainline perspective of that faith than I would to have some of the Christians we have in office now who insist their world view is the only right and moral one.

Persons who are able to practice their belief system privately - whether they be Christian, Jew, Muslim, Deist, Pagan, Agnostic, Atheist or whatever - and conduct their jobs based on the principles of equality and justice this country was founded on are just fine with me. Anyone who thinks the country has to follow their particular ideology or theology and abuses their position to try to make it so are the ones who scare the pants off me.

 

[FourBear]

I think the whole Muslim thing is being overplayed and overacentuated just to act as a weapon against his otherwise very-decent appearance. I don't think going to a Muslim school should matter, unless it really was a "madrassa."

 

[Andy D]

In Obama’s case, I am much more concerned with his voting record and his declared positions on a few issues. That is enough to keep me from voting for him regardless of what school / church he did or didn’t attend when he was a kid.

In general, I think a voter has to look at the particular views any individual has on the issues before deciding to vote for that person. If a person says they believe (or don’t believe) in a particular faith, which gives you an indicator of how they might view things. If there was a Muslim running for office in my district I would want to know that candidates feelings on terrorism, Hezbollah, Palestine, Israel, and Islamic law. Depending on how the candidate viewed those issues would factor into whether or not I could vote for them.

Of course, I can’t vote for most Dem’s because of how they view terrorism, Hezbollah, etc…..

 

[mtatum4496]

I would definitely agree. The candidate's declared stances on any given issue, coupled with any past records of how he or she voted on important measures, are much more important to me. Choice of religion, or lack of it, strikes me as a private matter and should only come into play as a way of helping the voter formulate questions to ask. But it is the answers, not the faith stance, that make the difference.

 

[dong]

In Obama’s case, I am much more concerned with his voting record and his declared positions on a few issues.

I'd like you to explain this further, as I do not know about Obama's history.

 

[Andy D]

Obama on the issues

I'd like you to explain this further, as I do not know about Obama's history.

Here is a quick run down of four of Obama’s positions I disagree with. If you are interested in him as a candidate, I have heard that his staff regularly updates his website.

He is for a quick “redeployment” of our military in Iraq. I think anyone who has read anything I have written on here knows I am against that.

He is for a National Healthcare. I think something could be done with our healthcare system, but I think a nationalized healthcare plan is a terrible idea. I posted an article on a different discussion thread on this site about a major failure with the national healthcare plan in the UK.

He is for abortion. He has supported the Roe v Wade decisions a few times. I am against abortion, and I think the Supreme Court overstepped its Constitutional Authority when it issued its decision.

He is against making some of the Bush tax cuts permanent. The specific quote I found was in regards to the estate tax. I don’t believe any individual should pay taxes on property when they buy it, again every year while they own it, and again when they die.

Hope that helps.

 

[mtatum4496]

Anyone happen to have the link for Obama's website? It might be worth the time to monitor it for awhile.

 

[Andy D]

Here is the site I used to get a gage on some of Obama's policies:

http://obama.senate.gov/

Hope that helps.

 

[mtatum4496]

Thank you, Andy. I have it bookmarked and will check in from time to time as this whole thing begins to heat up.

 

[Andy D]

Good luck. So far it seems that Clinton is his biggest oponent. She has leaked the information against him so far. I am eager to see if he attacks her back.

 

[mtatum4496]

I had noticed in the polls that she appeared to have a firm lead over him. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[dong]

Thanks for the link Andy, I'll take a look myself and get back to you on my takes on his policies shortly...if you get impatient, don't hesitate to remind me on PM as I may have forgotten!

Preliminary note: The "redeployment", whilst the official title, is a misnomer. Anybody who reads the full statement will realise it's nothing to do with sending the military troops back to Iraq- the byline is "Stop Escalation by using a diplomatic solution". Here is the link:

http://obama.senate.gov/press/07013...egin_phased_redeployment_of_troops/index.html