Comments on: Trivia Fact of the Day

By: dd

dd — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:32:43 +0000

Christianity says children should take the father’s religion? Are you sure?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:01:28 +0000

I was born of a Christian mother and a Jewish father. Jewish law says that a child should take his mother’s religion, which makes me Christian. The trouble is that Christianity says that a child should take his father’s religion, which takes me back to Judaism. Anyone in my position is a paradox because of this rule. My parents just decided to raise me Jewish, but Israel does not recognize me as a Jew.

By: Rasheed

Rasheed — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:16:04 +0000

Well, this all has more to do with the Man being Head of House, and thus having the right to raise his children as Muslim. When I was a kid, I’d go to Catholic church with my Mom, but never took Communion, or was Baptized. I don’t think there was a specific ban on any of it at the time, just wasn’t discussed. At the time, being Muslim to me just meant “no pork.” I wasn’t really exposed to Islam at large until I was 12. However, it should have been my Dad’s right (and responsibility) to teach us about Islam. Now we have one Muslim, one agnostic Muslim, and two toe-in-water Catholics at Lent.

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:50:19 +0000

So, anonymous, how long have you been making up nonsense?

By: WTF

WTF — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:42:24 +0000

Trivia fact of the day????

That’s a pretty bizzare title. I hardly think the matter is trivial.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:05:51 +0000

i grew up being told, by casually practicing muslims that anyone whose father was nuslim is considered to be a nuslim, everything I’ve read supports that too.

but lets go ahead and throw that out the window, the question becomes, when did BHO reach puberty? was it while he was reciting the testification while registered as a muslim in school in jakarta?

throw that away too, he recited the shabadah ftr years while in muslim school, did he remember it as an adolescent and reject it then? Or has he heard it and rejected it sense then? either answer makes him an apostate, you too.

By: Winter Wallaby

Winter Wallaby — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:33:50 +0000

The Muslim-though-the-father idea appears in other articles. From a web site on Half-Jewish issues:

It is our current understanding that under the Islamic religious law, Sharia, a child is considered as belonging to the religion of the father. . .Under Sharia, the child of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother is considered to be a Muslim. Ironically, Orthodox Jewish law views that same child as a Jew.

And from a web site on Muslim intermarriage:

If any Muslim marries a woman from “People of the Books”, the children, by shar’iah (Islamic law) are considered to be Muslim.

Neither source appears particularly definitive, but conversely, it’s not like the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) just pulled the idea out of nowhere. I suspect the issue is variations in sharia law from community to community.

I’m so confused! First McCain tells me that Hamas will love it if Obama is elected, since Obama is so friendly to radical Muslims. But now I hear that Osama wants Obama to win because Obama is so repulsive to radical Muslims. But I thought Obama was a “secret Muslim.” How can he be a repulsive apostate when he’s a secret Muslim? And how does he have time to both be a secret Muslim, and a secret radical black separatist Christian? Too confusing. . .

By: Rasheed

Rasheed — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:00:14 +0000

Well, she seems to be trying to pin it all on Osama and Al-Qaeda, and I have no idea where a lot of their beliefs come from. They have picked & chosen what they want the rules to be, and made up the rest as they went along. They’re not even Wahabi, they’re even beyond Wahabi principles and conservatism. So I do concede that if Obama is elected, he may very well be rejected by the Middle East, but only out of ignorance.

By: Reema

Reema — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:38:18 +0000

The NY Times also ran an article similar to the one you link to. Here are some of the letters they received in response to that article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/opinion/lweb14muslim.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

By: Chennette

Chennette — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:31:55 +0000

Addition after some puzzling and reading that article - wonder if this is mixed up with the fact that Muslim men are allowed to marry Christian or Jewish women, but the children should be raised as Muslim? This does not mean the children will BE Muslim of course, as they are responsible for their own actions and decisions.

The author of that article says most Muslims agree, and this is what Islamic jurisprudence says, but doesn’t cite any specific evidence of that. I for one, and Reema above were clearly taught otherwise.