Rumours and speculations about US President Barack Obama’s religious beliefs continue to rise as a TV show host Bill O’Reilly on Wednesday shared some old photos of Barack Obama claiming they were from his half-brother Malik’s wedding.
The Fox News host said it was ‘very difficult’ to verify the exact location of the photographs, a similar set of which were first released back in 2004 by Malik, but claimed they were taken in Maryland in the early 1990s.
Using the photos, O’Reilly alleged that the president’s ‘deep emotional ties to Islam’ have stopped him effectively combating Islamic State (IS). He further added that the photos prove that President Obama was not a ‘devout Christian’.
“According to his half-sister, Barack Obama attended his half-brother’s wedding in the early 1990s. Malik Obama was a Muslim,” said O’Reilly.
“The Factor has obtained pictures allegedly from that wedding, which we believe was held in Maryland,” he added.
Malik was married in 1981 for the first time and President Obama was his best man at that ceremony. He now has multiple wives.
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“I believe he’s a Christian. I’m not one of these guys who says he’s a Muslim. But I don’t think he’s a devout Christian.”
He did this while attacking President Obama hours after he revealed he would not be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, saying: ‘President Obama, as we all know, will not even use the words Islamic terrorism.
‘Again today when telling the nation that America will maintain eight-thousand troops in Afghanistan, the president did not accurately describe the situation there, putting forth that it was more about politics than Islamic terror.’
He went on to say, “I base my analysis on the fact that in my opinion – and I could be wrong, but I’m not – President Obama’s sympathetic treatment of Muslims put the country in danger because he has not elevated the risks that we have to the level it should be.”
“And he allowed ISIS to be created because of his foolish decision to withdraw troops in Iraq and to pretty much run wild for five years. So another president, angry about the jihad, would not have done that,” he added.
Obama’s refusal to use the phrase ‘Islamic terrorism’, preferring instead to say ‘militants’ or simply ‘terrorists’ has long been criticised by Republicans, including Donald Trump.
President Obama has hit back at these criticisms in the past, saying that the row over the phrase is a ‘political distraction’ from the real threat in the Middle East.
Obama, the first African American to hold the office of president, was born in Hawaii and is a Christian. However, when Americans were asked in survey last year about his religious beliefs and place of birth, 29 per cent answered he was a Muslim, while 80 per cent said he was born in the United States.
Courtesy: Daily Mail