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Netlore Archive: Emailed letter from American missionaries in Kenya claims Barack Obama is a racist Muslim who fomented political chaos in Africa and is dedicated to worldwide jihad.

Description: Email flier
Circulating since: March 2008
Status: False

Email example contributed by Sharla K., April 10, 2008:

Subject: Obama and Kenya connection

Dear Billy Sam,

Thanks for sending out an alert about Obama. We are living and working in Kenya for almost twelve years now and know his family (tribe) well. They are the ones who were behind the recent Presidential election chaos here. Thousands of people have been displaced by election violence (over 350,000) and I don't know the last count of the dead. Obama under 'friends of Obama' gave almost a million dollars to the opposition campaign who just happened to be his cousin, Raila Odinga, who is a socialist trained in east germany. He has been trying to bring Kenya down for years and the last president threw him in prison for trying to subvert this country! December 27th elections brought cries from ODM (Odinga Camp) of rigged election. Obama and Raila speak daily. As we watch Obama rise in the US we are sure that whatever happens, he will use the same tactic, crying rigged election if he doesn't win and possibly cause a race war in America.

What we would like you to know is what the american press has been keeping a dirty little secret. Obama IS a muslim and he IS a racist and this is a fullfilllment of the 911 threat that was just the beginning. Jihad is the only true muslim way. We have been working with them for 20 years this july! He is not an american as we know it. Please encourage your friends and associates not to be taken in by those that are promoting him. It is world wide jihad. All our friends in Europe are very disturbed by the mulsim infiltration into their countries. By the way. His true name is Barak Hussein Muhammed Obama. Won't that sound sweet to our enemies as they swear him in on the Koran! God Bless you.

Pray for us here in Kenya. We are still fighting for our nation to withstand the same kind of assult that every nation, including America, is fighting. Takeover from the outside to fit the new world order. As believers, this means we will be the first targets. Here in Kenya, not one mosque was burned down, but hundreds of churches were burned down, some with people in them, burned alive.

Jesus Christ is our peace but the new world order of Globalism has infiltrated the church and confused believers into thinking that they can compromise and survive. It won't be so. I will send you a newsletter we sent out in February documenting in a more cohesive manner what I've tried to say in a few paragraphs.

Love, Celeste

Celeste and Loren Davis
About our Father's business!
Luke 2:49b

Comments: I contacted Loren Davis Ministries to verify that this email indeed came from Celeste and Loren Davis, a husband-and-wife team of Christian missionaries stationed in Kenya, and their reply was yes, they did write it, though the message was never intended for public consumption.

Whatever its intended scope of distribution, the widely forwarded letter makes a number of patently false claims, among them that presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Muslim and that his full name is "Barack Hussein Muhammed Obama." When I wrote to ask the Davises for proof of these statements they did not respond. Needless to say, the implication that the Illinois senator, who has belonged to the same Christian church in Chicago for 20 years, somehow stands at the forefront of a worldwide jihadist movement connected with the 9/11 attacks is not merely false but delusional (see "Is Barack Obama a Muslim?" and "Barack Obama's Church").

The Obama / Kenya connection

As to the claim that former Kenyan presidential candidate (now Prime Minister) Raila Odinga is Barack Obama's cousin -- a claim Odinga himself has made -- Obama's uncle says it isn't so. Barack Obama's father was born in western Kenya, making him a member of the same Luo tribe as Odinga, but according to Said Obama they were not directly related. "Odinga's mother came from this area, so it is normal for us to talk about cousins," the uncle told Reuters in January 2008. "But he is not a blood relative."

The email further claims that Barack Obama donated a million dollars to Odinga's presidential campaign under the name "Friends of Obama," but the only proof offered thereof is an illegible scan of an unvetted document that appears to list "Friends of Senator BO" as a contributor. Obama himself has disclosed no such contribution, nor have any mainstream news sources reported it.

Nor has it been reported that "Obama and Raila speak daily," though the record shows that they met when Obama visited Kenya and have spoken on occasion since. According to an Associated Press story dated January 8, 2008, Obama had attempted the day before to speak with both Raila Odinga and his opponent, President-elect Mwai Kibaki, to broker a peace between the battling factions, but this was done in coordination with the U.S. State Department and with the express purpose of trying to end the violence following the contested election.

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Sources and further reading:

For Kenyans, Barack Is a Hero
Newsweek, 14 January 2008

Is Barack Obama a Muslim?
Urban Legends, 11 January 2008

Odinga Says Obama Is His Cousin
BBC News, 8 January 2008

Obama Tries to Mediate End to Kenyan Violence
Associated Press, 8 January 2008

Some Kenyans Forget Crisis to Root for Obama
Reuters, 8 January 2008

Last updated: 04/30/08