Obama Grew Up Muslim, Half-Brother Confirms

I've noted many times here that the question is not whether Barack Obama is Muslim, but whether he's been honest and forthcoming about his personal history.

It's thus extremely interesting that Malik Obama, Barack's half-brother, confirms that the presumptive Democratic nominee grew up Muslim:

Apparently the Obamas of Kenya have been reading those scurrilous emails to which Barack likes to refer, because they have no doubt -- contrary to the claims of the Obama campaign, that the presidential candidate was raised a Moslem. They take that as a given.

As the Jerusalem Post reports, "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. In an interview with Army Radio he expressed a special salutation from the Obamas of Kenya."

The Obama brothers' father, a senior economist for the Kenyan government who studied at Harvard University, died in car crash in 1982. He left six sons and a daughter. All of his children - except Malik -- live in Britain or the United States. Malik and Barack met in 1985.

In a remarkable denial issued last November that still stands on the official campaign website, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement explaining that "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim, and is a committed Christian."

Apparently Malik Obama, himself a Muslim, had not read the press release.

Melanie Phillips is the most recent commentator to draw attention to the massive body of evidence that leaves no doubt that Barak Hussein Obama was born a Muslim (Islam is patrilineal) and raised a Muslim (so registered in school, acknowledging attending Islamic classes, reported accompanying his step-father to the mosque, and able to recite the Koran in the original Arabic).

Reuven Koret, Aaron Klein and Daniel Pipes have previously pointed to the attempts by Obama and his campaign to conceal the candidate's Muslim background. The well documented evidence draws upon the on-the-ground interviews by researchers in Indonesia and Kenya, published quotations of Obama's childhood friends and his school records, as well as the candidate's own autobiography.

It is not clear whether Barack Obama will now disown his half-brother Malik, or throw him under the campaign bus, for acknowledging that shared family background. In any case, some one should notify "Fight the Smear" tout de suite. Perhaps they can get him with the program.

Be sure to check the Obama campaign's official denial, "Obama Has Never Been a Muslim."

See also, "Obama's Appeal in the Muslim World."

Photo Credit: Israel Insider

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UPDATE: Jake Tapper at ABC News is debunking claims of Barack Obama's Muslim upbringing: "From the Fact Check Desk: What Did Obama's Half-Brother Say About Obama's Background?"

Note, though, that the question remains as to whether Obama's been completely forthcoming on his Islamic heritage.

According to Daniel Pipes, in his investigation, "Confirmed: Barack Obama Practiced Islam":

Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque. This precisely substantiates my statement that he "for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father."

See also Melanie Phillips on the massive evidentiary trail, "Obama Takes on the Great Global Blogosphere Conspiracy Against His Holiness."