# The newest 'Obama is a secret Muslim' glurge **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 9, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158 "2008-10-09T13:43:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/21 "2008-10-09T17:02:20Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > The reference is to **Bricker** ’s recent snarking (see the GD ACORN thread) that Doper “leftists” aren’t conscientious enough or quick enough about bringing up news items that reflect badly on Democrats/liberals. Ah. I’m still not sure this is really within the scope of his “side”, though - I mean, we don’t expect him to denounce white supremacist press releases, and the stuff quoted in the OP isn’t a million miles from that. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/22 "2008-10-09T17:11:12Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I mean, we don’t expect him to denounce white supremacist press releases I do now. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/23 "2008-10-09T17:11:54Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Nitpick: This ain’t [glurge.](http://www.snopes.com/glurge/glurge.asp) Glurge is **nice.** Stupid, but nice. So nice he posted it twice! Seriously, I didn’t know that, I always interpreted it has having negative connotations. Good to know. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/24 "2008-10-09T19:12:56Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Screw the glurge, have you guys seen this from a Palin rally yesterday: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E)? 24 seconds in, and someone has MISSPELT THE LETTER M! I thought it couldn’t get better than that, but boy was I wrong… ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/25 "2008-10-09T19:41:16Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > [Here’s the post of the blogger who shot this video](http://bloggerinterrupted.com/2008/10/video-the-mccain-palin-mob-in-strongsville-ohio) > > If your work blocks it, here’s his summary: > The comments on his blog post are, of course, good readin’. If they’ve never heard of Obama, who do they think McCain is running against? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/26 "2008-10-09T20:48:22Z")
Anybody know who this Rich Carroll dude is or what rock he crawled out from under? ---
**Author:** ![Aquila\_Be](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@Aquila\_Be](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquila_Be)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/27 "2008-10-09T21:54:48Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > (Don’t waste time reading the whole thing) > "The Jihad Candidate: By Rich Carroll > ( **see OP for all 39 allegations** ). > When I looked online to see where the ‘article’ was originally posted, it appears someone has used the title and author, but replaced the article with the stuff above. The original article was offensive and nutty enough, however. Do you consider any of the 39 allegations to be true? If the answer is “yes” to one or more, then which one(s)? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/28 "2008-10-09T22:00:52Z")
> [@Aquila\_Be](#): > > Do you consider any of the 39 allegations to be true? > > If the answer is “yes” to one or more, then which one(s)? I don’t see any true ones. Do you? If so, which ones? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/29 "2008-10-09T22:11:01Z")
“Admissions of drug use” is true, but I had thought we were past all that crap. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/30 "2008-10-09T22:33:30Z")
> [@Aquila\_Be](#): > > Do you consider any of the 39 allegations to be true? > > If the answer is “yes” to one or more, then which one(s)? No. Not at all. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/31 "2008-10-10T00:00:08Z")
> [@Aquila\_Be](#): > > Do you consider any of the 39 allegations to be true? > > If the answer is “yes” to one or more, then which one(s)? Well, he never went to Libya, with or without Louis Farrakhan, for one: [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704090407apr10,0,7072060.story](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704090407apr10,0,7072060.story) He _probably_ was a friend of Frank Marshall Davis’, a card carrying member of CPUSA: [Frank Marshall Davis - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Marshall_Davis#Relationship_between_Davis_and_Barack_Obama) Khalid al-Mansour isn’t a “Middle Eastern Muslim”, he’s an American who converted to Islam. He’s represented the Saudi government and the Saud family in several lawsuits: [http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/khalid\_al\_mansour/2008/09/04/127844.html](http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/khalid_al_mansour/2008/09/04/127844.html) I can’t find much information on whether he actually helped Barack pay his way through college (and frankly, I couldn’t give a shit). One of _volunteer_ staff (Mazeen Ashbahi), who served as his Muslim outreach coordinator, resigned after the WSJ started poking around in his background. He briefly sat on the board of a Delaware fund management group; the imam of an Illinois mosque which has been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood also sat on the board. Raila Odinga has claimed to be Barack’s cousin. Barack’s (paternal) uncle has denied this, although Odinga is from the same tribe as Barack’s father. Odinga is an Anglican, and is not associated with any “brutal Muslim politics”. He has been accused of signing a memo of understanding with the leading Muslim party in Kenya (which has a Muslim population of around 10%). Dick Cheney is also a distant cousin to Barack, which frankly bothers me a lot more. [mafo.com](http://mafo.com) is the website of Muslim-Americans for Obama, which disclaims any connection with the Obama campaign in great big block letters. Wikipedia seems to know plenty about the [Chicago Annenberg Challenge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge), and there are 62 footnotes to the article which indicates that apparently plenty of other people know about it too. Anyone else want to take a crack? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/32 "2008-10-10T18:40:31Z")
[Saul Alinsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky) was a leftist but **not** a Communist. I’ve never read his _Rules for Radicals,_ but it was quoted extensively and approvingly in [this](http://www.amazon.com/Uprising-Unauthorized-Populist-Scaring-Washington/dp/0307395634) most excellent and optimistic new book. ---
**Author:** ![sidle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@sidle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/33 "2008-10-13T14:20:29Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Yeah, well, look at your location… Seconded. I like in South Carolina. Don’t see many notable displays of thinking electorate, around here. Lots and lots of Muslim/terrorist/AntiChrist type email forwards. Not just among the masses. I’m talking among white collar types. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/34 "2008-10-13T14:52:52Z")
This probably doesn’t deserve its own thread. Maybe this is the best place for it. The NY Times today has an [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?hp) about Andy Martin, who appears to have started the first “Obama is a secret Muslim” rumors. Martin released a statement to that effect back in 2004, just two weeks after Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention. According to the Times, Free Republic picked up the statement, and it’s been a staple of right-wing lore ever since. Turns out Martin is a nut who was barred from practicing law in Illinois on psychiatric grounds, and who filed so many frivolous lawsuits that he was barred from filing any more in federal court without prior approval. Martin is also an anti-Semite who ran for Congressman from Connecticut with the stated purpose of eliminating “Jew power”. Great source of information, there. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/35 "2008-10-13T15:08:30Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Why should it be **Bricker** ’s job to refute stupid lies? Did someone appoint him Stupid Lie Fact Checker? Yes, **Bricker** himself. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/36 "2008-10-13T15:09:11Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Martin is also an anti-Semite who ran for Congressman from Connecticut with the stated purpose of eliminating “Jew power”. > > Great source of information, there. OT: Even if someone believes that Republicans are completely without any racial or ethnic biases whatsoever, aren’t people a little put off by a dude like this getting interviewed on Hannity? Or put off by Palin quoting a Nazi sympathizer in her RNC speech? On the one hand, we have people who act like it’s laughable that the Republican party is trying to appeal to racists. On the other hand, we have evidence of the attempts. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/37 "2008-10-13T18:54:51Z")
[More on Andy Martin.](http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071112/hayes) > [@](#): > > On August 10, 2004, just two weeks after Obama had given his much-heralded keynote speech at the DNC in Boston, a perennial Republican Senate candidate and self-described “independent contrarian columnist” named Andy Martin issued a press release. In it, he announced a press conference in which he would expose Obama for having “lied to the American people” and “misrepresent[ed] his own heritage.” > > Martin raised all kinds of strange allegations about Obama but focused on him attempting to hide his Muslim past. “It may well be that his concealment is meant to endanger Israel,” read Martin’s statement. “His Muslim religion would obviously raise serious questions in many Jewish circles where Obama now enjoys support.” > > A quick word about Andy Martin. During a 1983 bankruptcy case he referred to a federal judge as a “crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race.” Martin, who in the past was known as Anthony Martin-Trigona, is one of the most notorious litigants in the history of the United States. He’s filed hundreds, possibly thousands, of lawsuits, often directed at judges who have ruled against him, or media outlets that cover him unfavorably. A 1993 opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in Atlanta, described these lawsuits as “a cruel and effective weapon against his enemies,” and called Martin a “notoriously vexatious and vindictive litigator who has long abused the American legal system.” He once even attempted to intervene in the divorce proceedings of a judge who’d ruled against him, petitioning the state court to be appointed as the guardian of the judge’s children. > > When I asked Martin for the source of his allegations about Obama’s past, he told me they came from “people in London, among other places.” Why London, I asked? “I started talking to them about Kenyan law. Every little morsel led me a little farther along.” > > Within a few days of Martin’s press conference, the conservative site Free Republic had picked it up, attracting a long comment thread, but after that small blip the specious “questions” about Obama’s background disappeared. Then, in the fall of 2006, as word got out that Obama was considering a presidential run, murmurs on the Internet resumed. In October a conservative blog called Infidel Bloggers Alliance reposted the Andy Martin press release under the title “Is Barack Obama Lying About His Life Story?” A few days later the online RumorMillNews also reposted the Andy Martin press release in response to a reader’s inquiry about whether Obama was a Muslim. Then in December fringe right-wing activist Ted Sampley posted a column on the web raising the possibility that Obama was a secret Muslim. Sampley, who co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry and once accused John McCain of having been a KGB asset, quoted heavily from Martin’s original press release. “When Obama was six,” Sampley wrote, “his mother, an atheist, married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian Muslim, and moved to Jakarta, Indonesia… Soetoro enrolled his stepson in one of Jakarta’s Muslim Wahabbi schools. Wahabbism is the radical teaching that created the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad on the rest of the world.” > > On December 29, 2006, the very same day that Sampley posted his column, Snopes received its first copy of the e-mail forward, which contains an identical charge in strikingly similar language. Given the timing, it seems likely that it was a distillation of Sampley’s work. > > Despite the fact that CNN and others have thoroughly debunked the smear, the original false accusation has clearly sunk into people’s consciousness. One Obama organizer told me recently that every day, while calling prospective voters, he gets at least one or two people who tell him they won’t be voting for Obama because he’s a Muslim. According to Google, “Barack Obama Muslim” is the third most-searched term for the Illinois senator. And an August CBS poll found that when voters were asked to give Obama’s religion, as many said Muslim as correctly answered Protestant. > > Oh yeah. And the e-mail continues to circulate. > > “Everybody started calling me” when the e-mail first made the rounds, Andy Martin told me. "They said, ‘Hey, did you write this?’ My answer was ‘they are all my children.’ " ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/38 "2008-10-13T20:54:45Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, he never went to Libya, with or without Louis Farrakhan, for one: [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704090407apr10,0,7072060.story](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704090407apr10,0,7072060.story) Right…but the e-mail says that it was Wright who went to Libya. "You learn that the candidate’s pastor met with global terrorist Mohmmar Gaddafi in Libya , along with their mutual friend and anti-American Louis Farrakhan. " ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/39 "2008-10-13T21:12:56Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Right…but the e-mail says that it was Wright who went to Libya. > > "You learn that the candidate’s pastor met with global terrorist Mohmmar Gaddafi in Libya , along with their mutual friend and anti-American Louis Farrakhan. " You’re quite right. I read that wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158/40 "2008-10-14T01:12:16Z")
You know who else met with global terrorist Moammar Qadhafi? Condoleezza Rice. The plot thickens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-obama-is-a-secret-muslim-glurge/467158.md?page=3)