This disturbing and untrue email about Barak Obama was sent to me by a number of people - see the email first and my response to the email below:

WHO IS BARACK OBAMA

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHIEST from Wichita, Kansas.

Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school."

Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.

Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his, stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking Major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Kuran (Their equivalency to our Bible, but very different beliefs). Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!! Please forward to everyone you know. Would you want this man leading our country?...... NOT ME!!

If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts.........this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States........ better heed this and pray about it and share it.

 THIS DEFINITELY WARRANTS LOOKING INTO. THIS COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED, "ONENATION UNDER GOD". ALMIGHTY GOD, NOT THE GOD OF THE KORAN.

MY RESPONSE TO THE EMAIL:

Hi all,

Let me apologize upfront for this somewhat lengthy email but this "Obama" email has been sent to me by a number of people and I continue to find it so disturbing that I felt compelled to respond. I have taken the liberty of copying others who were on the various email trails.

As Lara has pointed out below, the "facts" in the Barak Obama email are an urban myth and 100% untrue. For example Obama did go to a middle class, Muslim school in Indonesia, but the radical Wahabi sect is based in Saudi Arabia and at that time did not even exist in Indonesia. Even Fox News, which "broke" the story, gave it up after Time Magazine and many other sources printed the facts behind this disturbing lie.

But, for a moment, let's pretend the information was true because it is the belief in its truth that led people to forward the email. I urge you to re-read this email and substitute the word "JEW" every time you read the word "MUSLIM" and begin to imagine the anger and outcry you would all feel if an email like this one circulated about a Jewish presidential candidate.

This email is racist at best. Worse it is fear-mongering and hatemongering and incites people to hate others based simply on their religion. It is this type of email that the Jewish Anti-Defamation League watches for. And it is this type of email that gives permission to extremists to launch hate crimes around the globe and worse, leads to the assassination of presidents and world leaders from Israel to Pakistan, from Egypt to America. 

It is interesting that the people who originally drafted this email didn't have the courage to sign it. This speaks volumes about who they are and what they want. The kind of language in this email strikes a deep chord in my historical memory; stories that are not myth, about the Nazi propaganda machine and its language which is so chillingly similar. It is this email not Obama that we should fear, because when its originators finish with Obama, where will they turn their hatred next? No matter our political beliefs, Democrat or Republican, as Jews, more than any other people, we owe Senator Obama the same due diligence that we demand for ourselves. Our job is to protect him from lies, insist that "truth", whatever it is, be documented. And in so doing, we protect no one's future more fully than our own.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting with a woman by the name of Linda Biehl. Linda is the mother of Amy Biehl, an American student who 14 years ago went to South Africa to help the plight of Black South Africans living under the apartheid regime. Amy was murdered by the very people she went to help. But what followed was the ultimate lesson in forgiveness. During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Linda and her husband came face-to-face with the two men who killed their daughter. They forgave these men and together with them, established the Amy Biehl Foundation which now creates programs for underprivileged children in Africa. Everyday they work side-by-side hoping to make a better future for others. I share this with you all because it is perhaps this kind of supreme act of forgiveness that may indeed change the world we live in and finally bring the kind of peace to the middle-east that we all wish for.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts. I hope you all have a peaceful 2008.