New York, NY – Jewish organizational leaders defended Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama from a smear campaign claiming that he’s a Muslim.
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Obama has been the subject of an e-mail making the rounds in the Jewish community in recent days alleging that he is a Muslim, attended a radical Islamic madrassah in Indonesia, and took his oath of office on a Koran. None of the claims are true, and the campaign has published a detailed refutation on its Web site.
“These tactics attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks based on religion,” said a letter signed by heads of several national Jewish organizations. “We reject these efforts to manipulate members of our community into supporting or opposing candidates. Attempts of this sort to mislead and inflame voters should not be part of our political discourse and should be rebuffed by all who believe in our democracy.”
Among the signatories were David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee; Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League; Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. [JTA]
The favorite presidential candidate among Arab Americas is Dennis Kucinich.
Jews should be very wary of Obama. He does in fact have ties to Black Muslims in Chicago. He was a frequent atendee of Arab- American rallies between 1990- 2000. He is the favorite of Arab Americans. Any Jew who supports him is insane.
I”m not an supporter of Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign, but it is an extreme embarassment that these lies are flying around the internet. It is even more of an embarassment that some frum internet sites have given them credibility. Does the prohibition against bearing false witness not apply to gentiles?
FWIW, Sen. Obama belongs to a church that is a part of the United Church of Christ. Among its official policies are the belief that God’s covenant with Jews is still in effect, opposition to targeting Jews for conversion, support for the State of Israel and for a Palestinian State, and international control over Jerusalem. While many of us might have difficulty with the last two, it isn’t much different from the policies of President Bush. And regarding the first two, there is no Christian sect that is more favorable to us, although the United Methodist Church, to which Sen. Clinton and President Bush belong, are equally favorable.
I hope they will also defend Republicans like Huckabee and Romney when it comes to religious bigotry.
None of these claims are true, but it is true that he was raised as a Moslem, and he chose to join a racist “black nationalist” Christian church. If he were white and joined a “white nationalist” church he’d never have a chance. He’d be howled down. But for some reason it’s OK to belong to the black equivalent.
That said, he seems like a mentch, and if he did become president he probably wouldn’t be an embarrassment to the country.
Since when is Obama the greatest thing since sliced bread among Jews? Why must everyone always leap to defend him? Just wondering
dont blame the clintons, these emails have been largley circulated in frum circles and was probably started by the same jerks who put out those false claims about al gore and nine eleven.
the funny thing about those emails is that they say to check snopes for verification of the truth and of course if anyone actually bothers to check snopes, the site disproves all of the horrifica claims and inaccuracies made about senator obama.
Its too bad the other orgzanizations did not join the in standing up for honesty and integrity.
the Clintons started it
baruch hashem there are honest jews out there who seek to rectify the horrific chilul hashem caused by the false emails and idiotic claims made on some of our own blogs.