Why did Barry Soetoro change his name to Barack Hussein Obama? - Yahoo! Answers

"All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school and a young Barry Soetoro, being a Muslim, would have been required to study Islam daily in school.

He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam.

In his autobiography, 'Dreams From My Father,' Obama mentions studying the Quran and describes the public school as 'a Muslim school.'

According to Tine Hahiyary, one of Obama's teachers and the principal... Barry actively took part in the Islamic religious lessons during his time at the school. ... 'I remembered that he had studied 'mengaji' (recitation of the Quran)' Tine said.

Obama himself recalls, 'In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies.'

Our guy in Jakarta writes: 'The actual usage of the word 'mengaji' in Indonesian and Malaysian societies means the study of learning to recite the Quran in the Arabic language rather than the native tongue. 'Mengagi' is a word and a term that is accorded the highest value and status in the mindset of fundamentalist societies here in Southeast Asia"

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 in 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 fact devout Muslims themselves and they raised their son as such."

Need I say more? Is Obama a Muslims? He's surounded by them, supports them, gives advice to them, gets lots of money from them, praises them, has long been associated with them in many ways...but, No he's not one of them....?