In the spring of 2007, candidate Barack Hussein<\/a> Obama met with a New York Times<\/em> columnist and discussed his days as a \u201clittle Jakarta street kid\u201d who once got in trouble for making faces during Koran classes.<\/p>\n Obama proceeded to recite the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer in Arabic, with what Nicholas D. Kristof called<\/a> a \u201cfirst-rate accent.\u201d Obama described this chant as \u201cone of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n This text, in one English translation, proclaims: \u201cAllah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme! \u2026 I testify that there is no god but Allah! \u2026 I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.\u201d These lines are known as the Shahada<\/a> \u2014 from the Arabic verb, \u201cto testify\u201d \u2014 and reciting them, in public, with the intent of becoming a Muslim, is a crucial act in entering and then practicing the faith.<\/p>\n This is the kind of biographical detail that keeps complicating matters for journalists who try to make sense of the poll from the Pew Research Center<\/a> and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life indicating that 18 percent of Americans think Obama is a Muslim, as opposed to 11 percent in March 2009. <\/p>\n Only 34 percent of those polled said Obama is a Christian and a stunning 43 percent did not know his current religion. Among his strongest supporters, 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats said he is a Christian.<\/p>\n These numbers are strange in light of Obama\u2019s public testimonies about his conversion to Christianity, after years of spiritual struggle.<\/p>\n In his memoir, \u201cThe Audacity of Hope,\u201d Obama confessed that as a young social activist he realized, \u201cRich, poor, sinner, saved, you needed to embrace Christ precisely because you had sins to wash away \u2014 because you were human. \u2026 I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized. \u2026 Kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God\u2019s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.\u201d<\/p>\n This was an open confession of faith, even if many conservative Christians choose to reject the liberal beliefs he has articulated through the years. During the campaign, the Rev. Franklin Graham asked Obama if Jesus was the only way to heaven. \u201cJesus is the only way for me,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Obama team has had difficulty communicating a clear message about his faith history. Campaign aides, at first, said he had never been a Muslim, but later stressed that he had never been \u201ca practicing Muslim.\u201d<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s family history is hard to describe. His father was a Muslim from Kenya who became an atheist. His stepfather was a Muslim who, in Obama\u2019s words, was raised in an era in which Indonesia offered a tolerant approach to Islam that blended with \u201cremnants of Hinduism, Buddhism<\/a>, and ancient animist traditions.\u201d His mother was raised as a Christian, but adopted her own mix of secularism and spirituality. <\/p>\n While in Indonesia, Obama attended what he has called a \u201cMuslim\u201d public school and also a Catholic school. At both schools, according to educators interviewed by the Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>, his faith was listed as \u201cMuslim.\u201d School friends recalled that they often went to the mosque together.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, there is no single, definitive Islamic approach to questions about the role of birth and upbringing in establishing a person\u2019s religious identity. <\/p>\n Franklin Graham was only partially right when he told CNN: \u201cThe president\u2019s problem is that he was born a Muslim. His father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father. \u2026 His father gave him an Islamic name.\u201d Graham added that Obama has \u201crenounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That\u2019s what he says he has done. I cannot say that he hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n This view of Islamic tradition is much too simplistic, said Stephen Prothero of Boston University<\/a>, author of \u201cGod is Not One<\/a>: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World.\u201d There is more to this debate about faith and identity than DNA, he stressed.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a matter of jurisprudence, however, there is a presumption that a child born to a Muslim father is Muslim,\u201d said Prothero, in an email exchange. \u201cThis needs to be followed up with ACTION, however. \u2026 <\/p>\n \u201cLike Christianity, Islam is a matter of choice, not inheritance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the spring of 2007, candidate Barack Hussein Obama met with a New York Times columnist and discussed his days as a \u201clittle Jakarta street kid\u201d who once got in trouble for making faces during Koran classes. Obama proceeded to recite the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer in Arabic, with what Nicholas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[97,1537,526,1544,720,889],"class_list":["post-1966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-barack-obama","tag-islam","tag-mainline-protestantism","tag-politics","tag-religion-news","tag-united-church-of-christ"],"yoast_head":"\n