According to source Tine Hahiyary, who was a teacher and principal at the Besuki Primary School, young Barry Soetoro (Barack Obama) was quite religious, and actively took part in mengaji lessons there. This is in rather stark contrast to Obama’s representations; he claims to have been playing, instead of praying. The precise definition of mengaji is interesting. In Indonesian and Malay society, the word mengaji means learning to recite the Quran rigorously in its native language, Arabic.
Photo: Stanley Ann, Obama, Stanley Durham, and half-sister Maya in Hawaii on trip from Indonesia in early 1970s
Lao in “Obama and the Inconvenient Truth”
To put it quite simply, “mengaji classes” are not something that a non practicing or so-called moderate Muslim family would ever send their child to. To put this is perhaps a Christian context, this is something above and beyond simply enrolling your child in Sunday school classes.
The fact that Obama had attended mengaji classes is well known in Indonesia and has left many there wondering just when Obama is going to come out of the closet. As I’ve stated before, the evidence seems to quite clearly show that both Ann Dunham and her husband Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo were in act devout Muslims themselves and they raised their son as such.
In a recent article entitled “Confirmed: Barack Obama practised Islam”, Daniel Pipes comes to the conclusion that Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque.” and “that for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father.” Needless to say, I will respectfully differ with Daniel Pipes conclusion. So will most Indonesians.
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Filed under: Indonesia, Mengaji, Muslim, Obama | Tagged: Indonesia, Mengaji, Muslim, Obama |
Poison Spider Mesa 
Another silly season blog. Really, you should be ashamed of yourself for posting FALSE charges like this. Get your fact straight, he is NOT a muslimm never has been.
A person goes to a Methodist church, reads and studies the Bible, prays, associates with and attends Methodist church functions has family that does the same and recognizes that person as a christian. A person associated with all that, I’d tend to believe that person a christian.
Obama ties to Islam
A brief google and it seems to me there is evidence Obama did participate in Islam and Muslim studies and faith and did participate in prayer and attend Mosque.
In January 1968, Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta’s Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled, also as a Muslim, in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta.
In his autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” Obama mentions studying the Koran and describes the public school as “a Muslim school.” – LA Times March 16, 2007
A close boyhood friend of Obama, Zulfin Adi, said Barack “was a Muslim. He went to the mosque.” – LA Times March 16, 2007
Tine Hahiyary, a principal of Obama’s school (SDN 1 Menteng, Jakarta) while he was enrolled there, said she recalled he studied the Quran in Arabic. “I remember that he studied ‘mengaji (recitation of the Quran).”- Kaltim Post
In Indonesian and Malay society, I found the word mengaji means learning to recite the Quran rigorously in its native language, Arabic.
Obamas campaign announcement, February 20, 2007, produced articles in Indonesian dailys, including the The Kaltim Post and Benjarmasin Post, regarding their belief of Obamas Muslim faith. In addition a March 6, 2007 article in The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof comments on Obamas ability to recite the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer in Arabic, and recite it very well.
“There are elections in America now. Along came a black citizen of Kenyan African origins, a Muslim, who had studied in an Islamic school in Indonesia. His name is Obama,” said Muammar Gadhafi at a rally marking the anniversary of the 1986 U.S. air strike on him in Libya.
“All the people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded this man,” continued Gadhafi. “They welcomed him and prayed for him and for his success, and they may have even been involved in legitimate contribution campaigns to enable him to win the American presidency.
“We are hoping that this black man will take pride in his African and Islamic identity, and in his faith, and that [he will know] that he has rights in America, and that he will change America from evil to good, and that America will establish relations that will serve it well with other peoples, especially the Arabs,” – Muammar Gadhafi address aired on Al-Jazeera TV on June 11, 2008 (translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, MEMRI,)
You, sir, are a bigger dildo than me.
[…] studied Islam in great detail, including intensive menghaji studies of the Koran in Arabic (here). This means of course that Obama is today exactly an APOSTATE of Islam – if he cannot […]
You RWNJs are completely insane. Obam’s parents were both atheists. Go back to your birther conspiracy theories, idiots.
Barry Soetoro’s daddy (at the time) was an Indonesian; his mummy was a Marxist. Your Barry was enrolled exactly as a muslim in Indonesian schools.