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I missed five days of work last week because I caught bronchial pneumonia, also known as "hell in my lungs". My son brought it home from daycare. I was so miserable, and I could barely talk, so I prayed for a miracle recovery, also known as "Aunt K's homemade chicken soup".
Instead, she sent me an e-mail instructing me to drink lots of fluids and warned me not to be tempted to vote for Barack Obama should he win the nomination in this election.
Several of my conservative, Republican relatives forwarded copies of an e-mail claiming that Senator Obama was a Muslim with an Islamic agenda, that he was secretly chosen to carry out a plan designed by terrorists to destroy America, and that becoming President of the United States was the first step to completely annihilate our country.
What's worse is that I received that same e-mail eleven times in that week. My family and friends wanted to be sure I got the message that Barack Obama was the closest thing to the anti-Christ.
The opening paragraph of the e-mail urges, "If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts. This is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us, here in our own United States. You better heed this and pray about it and share it." But what really frightens me, are the inaccuracies and downright lies that this e-mail is circulating through the Internet.
For example, the claim is made that "this information is factual" because it was "verified on Snopes.com", and instructs the reader to click an enclosed link to check it out for themselves.
One version of the e-mail in circulation claims "We were told this was checked out on 'snopes.com'. It is factual. Check for yourself," and includes a link to this web site. It's our guess that whoever included that bit was counting on folks to not check, as our article says the opposite: that the polemic is not factual, but rather is false.
The first "fact" states that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas. However, it was Obama's father that was an atheist, and his mother did not practice any religion.
Obama's father and mother separated when he was two years old. He lived most of his life in Hawaii, but from ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, after his mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student.
The second misconception is that Obama's stepfather is a radical Muslim, and that Soetoro raised Barack as a Muslim as well. While living in Jakarta, Obama attended Basuki School in Menteng, Jakarta, in which classes were taught in the Indonesian language. The Basuki School has been inaccurately reported as being a "madrassa" (an Islamic religious school).
In January 2007, Insight magazine printed an article which alleges that unnamed sources close to Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign had discovered that the Basuki School was an Islamic learning institution (A CNN article debunks this myth.), when in fact, it is a public school for people of all faiths. Barack Obama also attended Catholic school in Indonesia as well.
The third untruth states:
Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that he was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic School. Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical.
The e-mail even goes so far as to claim that Barack Obama will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance, nor will he show any reverence to the American flag; and that Senator Obama was sworn into office not with the Holy Bible, but the Koran instead.
Most of the information in the e-mail is distorted and exaggerated. There is simply no evidence to support the notion that Obama is a "radical Muslim". Barack Obama describes himself as a Christian and says that he is rooted in the Christian tradition. His association with the United Church of Christ began over twenty years ago, long before he contemplated a political career or launched his campaign for the presidency.
Upon further research, I discovered that this malicious e-mail has been floating through the Internet since as early as October 2007, when questions of Obama's faith began to surface.
