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Washington Post - November 29, 2007
Foes use Obama's Muslim ties to fuel rumors about him
By Perry Bacon Jr.
In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world.
Since declaring his candidacy for president in February, Obama, a member of a congregation of the United Church of Christ in Chicago, has had to address assertions that he is a Muslim or that he had received training in Islam in Indonesia, where he lived from ages 6 to 10. While his father was an atheist and his mother did not practice religion, Obama's stepfather did occasionally attend services at a mosque there.
Despite his denials, rumors and e-mails circulating on the Internet continue to allege that Obama (D-Ill.) is a Muslim, a "Muslim plant" in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the only Muslim in Congress, when he was sworn in earlier this year.
In campaign appearances, Obama regularly mentions his time living and attending school in Indonesia, and the fact that his paternal grandfather, a Kenyan farmer, was a Muslim. Obama invokes these facts as part of his case that he is prepared to handle foreign policy, despite having been in the Senate for only three years, and that he would literally bring a new face to parts of the world where the United States is not popular.
The son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, Obama was born and spent much of his childhood in Hawaii, and he talks more about his multicultural background than he does about the possibility of being the first African American president, in marked contrast to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who mentions in most of her stump speeches the prospect of her becoming the first woman to serve as president.
"A lot of my knowledge about foreign affairs is not what I just studied in school. It's actually having the knowledge of how ordinary people in these other countries live," he said earlier this month in Clarion, Iowa.
"The day I'm inaugurated, I think this country looks at itself differently, but the world also looks at America differently," he told another Iowa crowd. "Because I've got a grandmother who lives in a little village in Africa without running water or electricity; because I grew up for part of my formative years in Southeast Asia in the largest Muslim country on Earth."
While considerable attention during the campaign has focused on the anti-Mormon feelings aroused by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), polls have also shown rising hostility toward Muslims in politics. It is not clear whether that negative sentiment will affect someone who has lived in a Muslim country but does not practice Islam.
In an August poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 45 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for any office who is Muslim, compared with 25 percent who said that about a Mormon candidate and with 16 percent who said the same for someone who is an evangelical Christian.
In Ellison's case, much of the controversy focused on his decision to take his oath of office with a Koran, one owned by Thomas Jefferson.
"It's good for America to have a president who has diversity at many levels in his background. That would be a benefit in reaching out to the rest of the world, particularly the Islamic world," said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group for Muslims. "But that kind of thing provides talking points for political detractors."
Obama aides sharply disputed the initial stories suggesting that he was a Muslim, and in Iowa, the campaign keeps a letter at its offices, signed by five members of the local clergy, vouching for the candidate's Christian faith. Aware that his religious belief remains an issue, Obama has denied a separate charge: that he does not hold his hand to his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. This rumor stemmed from a photo that was taken while the national anthem was being played.
"If I were a Muslim, I would let you know," he said in Dubuque, Iowa, recently, according to CNN.com. "But I'm a member of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. We've got the best choir in town, and if you want to come and worship with us, you are more than welcome."
In the past few months, Obama has actively touted his Christianity, particularly in South Carolina, where his campaign hosted a gospel tour to appeal to black voters. He describes his movement from a "reluctant skeptic" to a believer during his 20s while he was working with black churches in Chicago as a community organizer. The title of his second book, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream," comes from a sermon by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
An early rumor about Obama's faith came from Insight, a conservative online magazine. The Insight article said Obama had "spent at least four years in a so-called madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia." It attributed this detail to background information the Clinton campaign had been collecting.
After Obama denied the rumor, Jeffrey Kuhner, Insight's editor, said Obama's "concealment and deception was to be the issue, not so much his Muslim heritage," and he suggested that the source of the madrassa rumor was the Clinton campaign. The Clinton campaign denied the charge……
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/28/AR2007112802757.html
AlterNet - November 16, 2007
Obama supporters find novel way
to reach out to Latino voters
By Jenifer Fernandez Ancona
Last spring, America saw the potential power of the Latino community as a political force. Millions of people, in cities across the country, poured into the streets, marching in solidarity for equality and justice for immigrants. In November of 2006, Latino voters proved again that they could help deliver victories, as their turnout increased by 33 percent in congressional races and was much more heavily Democratic than in years past, according to a recent report by NDN's Hispanic Strategy Center. The GOP's constant drumbeat of anti-immigrant rhetoric has opened up an incredible opportunity for Democrats and progressives to solidify Latino voters as a reliable -- and fast-growing -- part of our coalition.
But in California, where the largest majority of Latinos in the country live, that potential has barely been tapped. In our state, there are still more than 5 million Latino voters who are eligible but not registered to vote, or who are registered but don't regularly come out to the polls. When you consider that only about 3.2 million people voted in the 2004 Democratic primary in California, you can see the potential that the sheer numbers of this population could have on the outcome of our state's upcoming primary election on Feb. 5, 2008.
And yet few campaigns on the Democratic side have invested any resources into Spanish-language or Latino-focused media in this state in recent years. The 2006 governor's race was perhaps the most glaring example of this missed opportunity. Democrat Phil Angelides didn't put up a single Spanish-language ad during the 2006 race, despite evidence provided by outside groups that Spanish-speaking Latinos preferred him over Schwarzenegger by a 40 percent margin. Schwarzenegger ran a brilliant Spanish-language ad campaign, and he ended up moving the California Latino vote from 11 percent earlier in the year to over 30 percent on Election Day.
You would think Democrats would learn that lesson in 2008, but the California Presidential Primary thus far has been no different. None of the official campaigns have done anything significant to reach out to the Latino community. It's all being done by independent groups like the one I work for, Vote Hope, and Amigos de Obama, which are supporting Barack Obama in the primary contest.
Amigos de Obama produced a website and a catchy reggaeton song that has been heard by hundreds of thousands of people around the country.
Vote Hope has had Latino organizers on the ground in Southern California for the last five months, and has produced, working with Amigos de Obama, some of the most innovative media targeting this population -- Web-based political novelas that tell the story of the Ortiz family and how they came to support Obama in the primary.
The series is called Tu Voz, Tu Voto and is inspired by the wildly popular Latin American telenovela genre seen by over 2 billion people worldwide. Like telenovelas, these films use humor and drama to convey serious messages. This effort is an attempt to connect Latino politics with Latino culture that has never been seen in California and only rarely nationwide.
It remains to be seen whether the other campaigns and their supporters will follow suit in realizing the importance of this fast-growing constituency. What is clear is that Latino support could make or break a candidate's bid for the state's 440 Democratic delegates.
Jenifer Fernandez Ancona is a San Francisco-based writer and activist working in the progressive movement. She is currently communications director at Vote Hope, a new political network in California backing candidates of hope and conscience.
http://www.alternet.org/story/68081/
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