Obama & WP's Jonathan Weisman Whitewashing Obama's "Christian Values"

According to a page 1 story from the Washington Post today, " Sen. Barack Obama ended a week's focus on values by giving a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church a highly personal account of his spiritual journey and a promise that he will make "faith-based" social service "a moral center of my administration." There is no attempt to go beyond the serenity of Obama's sanitized version of his "Christian values" and into the reality of his past. The MSM, and in this case, Mr. Weisman writing in the WP, are reporting positively on Obama's speech, with no mention of the Black Liberation Theology which defined Obama's Christianity for the past twenty years, nor the racist rant which now - carefully edited - animates the core of Obama's campaign. In essence, the press is complicit with Obama - a man whose choice of toxic associations would be red meat for the press were it any other candidate - in an effort to whitewash Obama's "faith" and "values" for mainstream public consumption.
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Though the WP does not mention it, what Obama is spouting today is a version of Christianity foreign from what drew him to Trinity United Baptist Church. Though the WP does not mention it, what Obama is spouting today is wholly foreign to the vile racism and separatism that animates the Black Liberation Theology - the poisonous doctrine of Trinity United throughout the time Obama was in the Churh. And as Obama tells us in his book, The Audacity of Hope, it was one such racist rant by Rev. Wright that drew Obama into Trinity United. Here is Obama reading from his book, recounting the sermon.



And, of course, here is the Black Liberation Theology in application in a "best of" CD sold by Trinity United:



And see this post from Gateway Pundit, discussing many other troubling aspects of Obama's world view.

That our MSM is complicit in whitewashing these facts is a travesty of epic proportions. The MSM takes all that Obama says at face value. Obama's claim never to have heard this come out of a Church whose official doctrine for the past twenty years has been Black Liberation Theology doesn't pass the laugh test. Yet here we have the Washington Post's Johnathan Weisman ignoring the above while reporting on Obama's "Christian values" and "moral center." And less you think Mr. Weisman possesed of any ethics, he finishes his article by allowing Obama to raise and knock down a meaningless strawman to suggest that the criticisms and concerns with what values Obama really holds are unimportant:

. . . In his speech here, he tried to dispel the notion that he comes from Muslim roots, pointedly mentioning that his father, a Kenyan who left his family and returned to Africa when Obama was a small child, was an atheist.

Obama acknowledged how hard it has been for the campaign to dispel false rumors that he is Muslim or that he is not an American, as well as a sense among some voters that he lacks patriotism.

"In fairness to the American people, I am relatively new on the political scene, compared to a John McCain or a Hillary Clinton. My profile is not typical of a presidential nominee, not only because I'm African American, but I'm relatively young as a candidate," he said. "So it's not surprising that people are still getting to be familiar with what I've done, who I am, what I stand for. I do think it's been fed pretty systematically by e-mails that have been sent out. There's a concerted strategy to raise questions about me and to spread lies about my background, and in the Internet age, that's pretty effective.

"What's remarkable is that despite all that, things that have been going on since we announced -- I'm the nominee and have a pretty good shot at winning," he added.

Read the entire article. If I did not know better, I would think the author, WP reporter Jonathan Weisman, in the tank for Mr. Obama.

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Conversions From Islam To Christianity

Every action causes a reaction at some levels, and the rise in radical Wahhabi Islam, infecting as it has other strains of Islam, from Deobandi to Khomeinist Shiaism, is no exception. It rose on Allah's promise of world domination. Yet, as the radicals are failing on the battlefields of Iraq, many Muslims are rebelling against the Dark Ages fanaticism and turning secular - or converting to Christianity, despite the threat of death. Indeed, the most visible event in this vein was the baptism of one of Italy's most well known Muslims into the Catholic faith. The baptism was carried out during Easter Service at St. Peter's Basilica by the Pope himself.

This from an exceptional article in Pajama's Media by Andrew Walden:

Pope Benedict’s choice to publicly baptize the most prominent Muslim in Italy, Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, highlights a quiet worldwide exodus from Islam. In recent years, millions have moved on. With this high-profile action, Pope Benedict demonstratively blesses this massive conversion from the highest levels of the Church.

Interviewed by al-Jazeera in 2006, Ahmad al-Qataani, leader of the Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, explains the decline:

Islam used to represent … Africa’s main religion . . . [T]he number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century.

On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.

As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.

Allam’s public baptism came just ten days after the body of Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was found in a shallow grave after being kidnapped by al-Qaeda February 29. The ceremony came just three days after an al-Qaeda tape threatening the pope and condemning cartoons of Mohammed. Muslims who convert to other religions or abandon religion entirely are subject to a standing order of death for apostasy. The baptism of Allam is an act of defiance in the face of Islamic threats.

The baptism of Allam also comes in the midst of papal “dialogue” with Muslims. The dialogue began unpromisingly with the catcalls from Islam and its secularist allies which greeted the now-famous September 20, 2006, papal address at the University of Regensburg. In October, 138 Islamic leaders presented the pope with “A Common Word Between Us and You” — nailed by critics as a craftily written call for conversion. On March 4, Pope Benedict approved formation of a permanent “Catholic-Muslim forum” scheduled to meet in November. And now he has thrown his own call for conversion into the discussion. Islam’s secularist allies were quick to echo Muslims, calling the baptism “provocative.” While accepting the Islamic death penalty for apostasy as a given, they complain the pope’s action could set back dialogue.

While the secularists wring their hands, Allam writes that his mind “has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimizes lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny, permitting me to join the authentic religion of Truth, Life, and Liberty. … I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight, and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith.”

Allam, author of numerous books and deputy editor of Milan’s Corriere della Sera, joins a list of converts from Islam which includes many other public intellectuals and millions of average people from all over the world. This is more than the normal flow between two large religious communities. Islam can point to little in the way of recent conversions. Its claim to be the world’s fastest-growing religion stems mostly from the high birth rate in Islamic countries, whose infant mortality rates have been cut by the introduction of Western medicine. Christian growth is based on adult conversion. As leading Christian evangelist Wolfgang Simpson writes, “More Muslims have come to Christ in the last two decades than in all of history.”

Although al-Qataani points to Africa, there is another phenomenon based on repulsion from Islamist dictatorship, corruption, and terrorist violence. In Iran as many as 1 million people have surreptitiously converted to Evangelical Christianity in the last five years. Pastor Hormoz Shariat claims to have converted 50,000 of them through his U.S.-based Farsi-language satellite ministry. He contrasts the upswing to the efforts of evangelical missionaries in Iran between 1830 and 1979, whose 149 years of work built a Christian community of only 3,000. One Iranian religious scholar believes youth are abandoning Islam because it is identified with the corrupt Iranian government. Now the Iranian Majlis (parliament) is debating the death penalty for conversion.

After years of al-Qaeda war on Iraq, a similar phenomenon is growing. The New York Times March 4 reports: “After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.” A high school girl tells Times reporters: “I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us. Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.” A 19-year-old man says: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.” A Baghdad law professor explains that her students “have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them.” A 24-year-old female college student says, “I used to love Osama bin Laden. Now I hate Islam. Al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.”

In southern Russia the same pattern is emerging. According to Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council in Russia, freed from atheist control, two million Muslims converted to Christianity. Repulsed by bloody terrorist attacks, those living in areas such as Beslan have converted to Christianity in the greatest numbers of all. As many as 100,000 have converted to Christianity in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.

After decades of Islamist war, evangelicals report thousands of sub-rosa converts in rural areas of Kashmir. Says one churchgoer: “I am interested in this religion. I hate violence. I hate fundamentalists in Islam. I come here to seek peace.” An Indian newspaper headline reads: “Urban Muslim Youth Out to Junk Faith.”

Following decades of terrorist rule, Palestinians are being quietly converted, holding in-home services to avoid detection. Says one evangelist: “I’ve been working among these people for thirty years, and I promise you I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Islam is also losing adherents in areas where Islamist harassment is heavy on the streets. The London Times estimates 15% of Muslims living in Western Europe have left Islam — 200,000 in the UK alone. Those who leave often face harassment, threats, and attack.

The mufti of Perak, Malaysia, estimates about 250,000 people have abandoned Islam, making formal application for apostasy to the state — a right allowed to Malaysian citizens who are not ethnic Malays. Says he: “This figure does not include individuals who don’t do solat, doesn’t fast and breaks [sic] all the tenets of Islam.” Borrowing from the communist playbook, Malaysia operates “reeducation camps” for any ethnic Malay found guilty of apostasy. Unsurprisingly, ethnic Malays are at the bottom of the economic ladder in Malaysia.

In a letter published in Corriere della Sera on Easter Day, Allam points out the pope “sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims … because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted who are condemned to death for apostasy.

“Thousands of people in Italy have converted to Islam and practice their faith serenely. But there are also thousands of Muslims who have converted to Christianity who are forced to hide their new faith out of fear of being killed by Islamist terrorists.”

Allam describes Islam as a system for taking and holding power. Threat of violence is its enforcement mechanism. Allam also points out: “Beyond … the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam.” So it is not coincidental that Muslims are abandoning the faith as U.S. and coalition soldiers smash al-Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Islamist terrorists and street thugs are beginning to look impotent.

Appeasement-oriented opinion explains Islamic violence as a response to Western policy. For them, reality is incomprehensible. But in a 1998 ABC News interview with John Miller, Osama bin Laden explained his motivation: Allah had given the jihadis victory over one superpower (the USSR) and Allah would grant them victory over the other. But a decade later it is not coming to pass on the battlefield. The defeat of the Islamists puts the lie to the claim that Allah will cause the infidels to desire submission. As a result, the Islamists’ ability to intimidate their captive populations is weakened. More and more it is Muslims who no longer desire submission to Islam.

Read the entire article.

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Interesting News From Around the Web

The far left are still pushing hard for an impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Good luck with that.

So is al-P photographer Bilal Hussein the completely innocent victim of a plot hatched by our evil U.S. military . . . or perhaps not? It all seems to have shaken Instapundit’s belief in the veracity of our press.


According to the Asia Times, the very existence of Israel “embodies the last, best chance for the Islamic world to come to terms with the modern world. . . . The premise of Western policy is to tread lightly upon Muslim sensibilities. That is an error of first magnitude, for Muslim sensibilities are what prevents the Islamic world from creating modern states. Islam cannot produce the preconditions for democracy in the Western sense out of its own resources.” Read it all here. I concur and for the reasons stated therein. (h/t Jules Crittenden)

Lenin's corpse has a rare reason to smile. A new workers' paradise is sprouting in Venezuela, under the direction of the sometimes clownish but always cunning President Hugo Chavez.

The Weekly Standard is running a story on the newly invigorated Tories under the leadership of the boy wonder, David Cameron. I have my doubts about the Tories. Their refusal to promise a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is very bad indeed. The Tories seem more concerned with the UKIP than with the transfer of Britain’s sovereignty to the EU.

In multicultural Britain, to proclaim one’s faith in God is to be called a “nutter” according to Tony Blair.

Classical Values has a fascinating post on fuel costs and energy R&D, comparing the EU and America.

Even as fatalities have dropped and the security situation measurably improved, Democrats continue to push for a full withdrawal of all police from NYC.

Biased BBC is reporting that the publicly funded BBC is squealing like a pig over their rivals, SKY news, whose reporting is generally recognized to be faster, more accurate, and sufficiently less biased “that during the Iraq War, the crew of HMS Ark Royal chose Sky News over BBC News because "The BBC always takes the Iraqis' side. It reports what they say as gospel but when it comes to us it questions and doubts everything the British and Americans are reporting".

From the Rightwing Nuthouse - its official. America has lost its collective grip on 9-11 reality. Dennis Kucinich must be putting something in the water. But Cheatseeking Missles thinks that it may just be that the pollsters were looking for specific results.

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