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From the Fact Check Desk: What Did Obama's Half-Brother Say About Obama's Background?
June 18, 2008 12:39 PM
It was a sloppy paraphrase that emerged as false evidence.
Malik Obama, the older half brother of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, gave a brief interview to Israeli Army Radio.
The Jerusalem Post listened to the interview, apparently, and produced a story saying "Malik Obama says his brother will be good president for the Jews. Barack Obama's half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background."
Nowhere is Malik quoted.
The Jerusalem Post has since taken the story down of its website, but you can see a cached version HERE.
Conservatives jumped on the Jerusalem Post's paraphrase that Malik said Obama "will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background" as some sort of evidence that Malik was saying Obama was raised a Muslim, which the campaign says he was not.
This suspicion reared its head in Israeli blogs and the blogs of supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Sean Hannity fan sites and Free Republic and conservative blogs.
It ended up on Fox News, with anchor Brut Hume saying on June 16 that: "Barack Obama is a practicing Christian, married in a Christian church, whose children were also baptized in that church. His campaign has emphasized his faith in part to dispel what the campaign calls an online smear campaign which contends among other things that Obama was raised a Muslim. There is even a statement on his official campaign website reading, quote, 'Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.' But Obama's half brother is not so sure. Malik Obama tells The Jerusalem Post that, 'if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.'"
So is it true?
No.
**
ABC News got a hold of the audio of Malik's interview with Israel Army Radio, and Malik said nothing of the kind.
You can't hear the questions -- only Malik's answers (listen HERE) -- but whatever the interviewer asked about Obama's father's Muslim heritage, or the Muslim minority in Kenya, Malik said, “I don’t think that’s in any way going to be something to worry about. I myself am not speaking for him. But we are here, we love people in general. People love us. I myself love people who love me. You know, so, and I think it’s mutual. I can’t go in terms of Israel and Kenya and America, and so forth, you know, but based on what else I’ve heard him say and what I know of him as an individual, I don’t think Israel should worry too much, you know, about the connection. Because, I am a Muslim myself, and I don’t think that my being a Muslim has got anything to do with my brother being the President of the United States.”
It may be that the Israeli Army Radio interviewer asked about Obama having a "Muslim background." But even if the interviewer did, Malik did not say that or come close to saying that.
It could be that the interviewer used the phrase, and Malik interpreted that in a way that squares with the Obama campaign's story -- that Obama's father was a largely secular man born Muslim. We don't know.
But nowhere in there does Malik expressly say anything about Obama having a Muslim background.
And nowhere does he "confirm" anything about Obama having a Muslim background.
Malik refers to Obama having a "connection" to something, perhaps Islam, which could clearly be a reference to Obama's father.
This interpretation spreading throughout the blogosphere and cable news is just not supported by the facts. The paraphrase was sloppy, for such a sensitive subject, and Malik's quotes don't even come close to supporting any assertion that Obama himself has a Muslim background.
**
In Obama's book Dreams of My Father, interestingly enough, he writes about meeting Malik as an adult: “I checked into the cheapest room I could find and waited. At nine, I heard a knock. When I opened the door, I found a big man standing there with his hands in his pockets, an even-toothed grin breaking across his ebony face. ‘Hey, brother,’ he said. ‘How’s life?’ In the pictures I had of Roy, he was slender, dressed in African print, with an Afro, a goatee, a mustache. The man who embraced me now was much heavier, over two hundred pounds, I guessed, the flesh on his cheeks pressing out beneath a thick pair of glasses. The goatee was gone; the African shirt had been replaced by a gray sports coat, white shirt, and tie. Auma had been right, though; his resemblance to the Old Man was unnerving. Looking at my brother, I felt as if I were ten years old again.”
It was later that Malik converted to Islam, Obama wrote in Dreams: “The person who made me proudest of all, though, was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam, and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol. He still works at his accounting firm, but talks about moving back to Kenya once he has enough money.”
In the Israeli Army Radio interview Malik said that Obama was the "best man at my wedding and I was best man at his wedding."
And in my favorite part of the interview, Malik said, "I think he'll be a good president as long as all of this, you know, doesn't go to his head."
Mark Twain is said to have quipped, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
And that was before the internet. And cable.
-- jpt
June 18, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (96)
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Democrat congress has driven the price of gas up $1.50 since taking over.
Posted by: Debra | Jun 18, 2008 6:04:15 PM
Lefties, it's your turn to check some facts and not rely on the Obamessiah loving mainstream media. Do some homework on the holier than thou one, the one who wants to lecture us about race, religion, foreign diplomacy, and wants us to pay higher gas prices.
Posted by: Patricia | Jun 18, 2008 5:43:11 PM
Obama attended a Catholic school but identified as a Muslim in the paperwork. Who cares except that he, himself, is trying to distance himself from the Muslim thing.
Posted by: Patricia | Jun 18, 2008 5:39:41 PM
comicrelief:
1. Barack Hussein Obama is a Junior: His Dad was Barack Hussein Obama. So, get this: HE WAS GIVEN HIS DAD'S NAME! OMG!!!! Hussein, btw, was his grand father's given name. Barack Hussein Obama the First was an Atheist (according to Obama himself).
2. He was NEVER a Muslim. His mother was Christian, and his Dad was pretty much an agnostic. BUT, and this is important, his Dad left when he was 2. I wonder if you were a confirmed Christian at age 2??
3. He was raised in a non-religious family. Although he spent time in Indonesia, he went to Catholic school (not a muslim school, as the right loves to imply). He "converted" to Christianity, as he himself says quite clearly and often, as an adult.
Please stop these idiotic rumors.
Posted by: DR | Jun 18, 2008 5:25:33 PM
It's just more of the right wing's fear and smear campaign. They can't win any other way.
Does the right have a positive vision for the US or is it just more war and tax cuts for the rich. All paid for by charging it to the Bank of China?
Posted by: Lee Burl | Jun 18, 2008 4:35:43 PM
"why not just say he was and converted to Christian?? that will be done with the story."
Because to convert to another religion from Islam means to be put under a death sentence.
Posted by: buster1 | Jun 18, 2008 4:12:10 PM
Travis - what makes you think I would not rise to their (Mitt Romney and Huckabee's) defense? I was very annoyed with the media's treatment of Mitt Romney for his religious beliefs and the fact that he was forced to defend them.
I happen to support Obama because I agree with much (not all) of his policy positions, and I think he is intelligent and capable.
I would certainly support a person of Mormon or Baptist or whatever faith or no faith at all - I don't apply a "religious test" - I think it is irrelevant. The only relevant thing for me personally is whether I believe they would serve well in office and whether I can live with their policies.
Posted by: fromnj | Jun 18, 2008 3:54:44 PM
fromnj---Where was all that talk w/Mitt and Huck?
Posted by: Travis | Jun 18, 2008 3:48:19 PM
LOL,..yeah,..ok,...and we all know how ABC is so pro-obama they ooze of it! Maybe if someone NOT so bias released the whole tape it might mean something, but this coming from ABC,..ppffffttt!
Posted by: Travis | Jun 18, 2008 3:46:41 PM
Somewhere in the constitution, I believe it says that there shall be no religious test applied to determine eligibility for the presidency.
How many times do we have to learn the same lesson over and over again? It is immoral to discriminate against Jews, immoral to discriminate against blacks, immoral to discriminate against Japanese, immoral to discriminate against Muslims....immoral, in fact, do discriminate against any of God's children based on their appearance or abilities, or what form they worship God in (or not).
I'm sure when the next new minority comes along, the same lesson will need to be learned all over again. Bah.
Posted by: fromnj | Jun 18, 2008 3:45:51 PM
CTJD Well said! But I'm just wondering about something. Let see. Is he an only child from the white woman? then if I understand it right his mother got married what, once or twice? and his father also? right, so how many sets of sisters and brothers has ge got and from how many countries? and how many religions? are there any christians in his family besides michele and his kids? I understand that he said his grand father convertible I mean converted to christianity to keep his job with the Brithish colonists but never practiced it, or his son would not have named his son barraakk Hussien? right.I don't know I should think he would name him something like I don't know James Earl Jones or Bill Cosby. or Spencer or Tracy.
Can you imagine a reading of a will in this family? it would have to be read at the United Nations. Maybe that's what we should call the White House as a matter of fact.That would make Obama happy and he's stop whinning maybe.
Posted by: comicrelief | Jun 18, 2008 3:25:59 PM
Is NO one else -- apparently including jpt -- even the least bit curious about how it came to pass that Israeli Army Radio should seek out a session with Malik Obama?
Posted by: Emma G | Jun 18, 2008 3:18:02 PM
Of course, he also didn't say that Obama would be a good President for the Jewish people -- yet he was quoted as such. I guess that sounded better than "I don't think Israel should worry too much," since the latter implies they should worry a little.
Posted by: Heywood U. Reedmore | Jun 18, 2008 3:17:29 PM
""Two Muslim women at Barack Obama's rally in Detroit on Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women's headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate."
_________
"WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF EVIDENT...THAT ALL (WO)MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL UNDER G-D...."
(Unless you're the un-DEMOCRATIC nominee in the current election for America's president!)
COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY!!!
Posted by: questioner | Jun 18, 2008 3:15:53 PM
Mark Twain is said to have quipped, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
------------------
That is a great quote. It takes the truth so long to sink in and trickle through. But in the internet age gossip,innuendo and personal attacks are in your face 24/7. Like never before, it takes patience and energy to sort out the truth. No wonder people are so confused and cynical and we never seem to get the leadership we so desperately need.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | Jun 18, 2008 3:07:29 PM
"What that another bus passing by? went so fast."
Caroline Kennedy and Oprah say not to worry: just a coupla black broads in Muslim headscarves ...
Posted by: Emma G | Jun 18, 2008 3:05:30 PM
While we're contemplating whether or not Obama is a Muslim, we might do better to take a closer look at his "Christianity" based on Black Liberation Theology. Obama's church holds little in common with most Christian churches in America.
Posted by: HoosierSue | Jun 18, 2008 3:04:05 PM
"Calling this assertion a falsehood is in itself a falsehood."
Nooo: like much Obama-boosting in the media, it doesn't quite rise to the level of "falsehood". What THIS is, is a stretch ("fancy writing" and nicely done, too).
Those "clinging" fools in the non-"black" underclasses probably don't turn a hair at the FACT of the One's cultural upbringing -- that his anthro-addled mommy sought out TWO Muslim "husbands" (of whom the first -- Obama's sire, if not quite his father -- already was married to someone else) isn't, after all, The One's fault.
It's the Bible-boasting and lying (and the fancy writing that conveys it all to the voting masses) that might make ANYone sit out the election, or whatever, rather than become complicit in this "Democratic" fraud.
Posted by: Emma G | Jun 18, 2008 2:57:54 PM
to Emma G there is a difference in a connection to Muslim and Jewish connection Muslims are as a group a Religion but Jewish people are Jewish both as a people and a faith or religion there is a difference like me my aunt who is a uber christian say even though my mother and father are baptized we are (my brothers and sister ) are still heathens and are not christians until we are and since we haven't been are not Christians but you I believe belong to another sect the moronic racist sect which there is a few of out there you should form a church so you can have a connection with your people,excuse me religion
Posted by: Dennis Fort Myers Fl | Jun 18, 2008 2:57:44 PM
What that another bus passing by? went so fast. If this an indication of how his administration would resemble I say my friends we should avoid busses at all cost.Stay out the way there's a bus coming! swush!
Posted by: comicrelief | Jun 18, 2008 2:51:58 PM
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