{"id":457,"date":"2009-04-21T15:22:04","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T09:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mohamediqbalp.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/21\/church-seeks-to-convert-obama-grandma\/"},"modified":"2009-04-21T15:22:04","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T09:52:04","slug":"church-seeks-to-convert-obama-grandma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/church-seeks-to-convert-obama-grandma\/","title":{"rendered":"Church seeks to convert Obama grandma"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Published 2009-04-20<\/font>


‘Born a Muslim and wishes to die a Muslim’<\/font><\/p>\n

 
Church seeks to convert Obama grandma<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 
Relatives of ‘Mama Sarah’ say she was surprised by Church baptism offer, declined to attend.<\/font><\/p>\n

 
NAIROBI – A Protestant church in Kenya is trying to convert US President Barack Obama’s step-grandmother to Christianity against her will, a Muslim group said Monday, condemning the move as provocation.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Seventh Day Adventist church in the western town of Kisumu had invited 87-year-old Sarah Obama — a Muslim — to a function on Saturday, where she was allegedly to be baptised.<\/font><\/p>\n

According to relatives in her village of Kogelo, “Mama Sarah”, as she is popularly known in the US president’s paternal homeland, was surprised by the offer and declined to attend.<\/font><\/p>\n

“I regret the attempt by the Christian religion to force her to convert,” said Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, the organising secretary of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya.<\/font><\/p>\n

“Why only her? Why not before Obama became president? Didn’t they see her before he became president?” he said.<\/font><\/p>\n

Said Obama, a step-brother to the US president, said the church pastors had approached Sarah Obama with news that she could become a Christian.<\/font><\/p>\n

“Mama (Sarah) was born a Muslim and wishes to die a Muslim. The issue of conversion is neither here not there,” he said.<\/font><\/p>\n

Khalifa denounced the move as a “provocation.”<\/font><\/p>\n

“They don’t have permission from Jesus to convert someone. I challenge them to quote a verse from the Bible allowing them to convert someone,” he said.<\/font><\/p>\n

Sarah became a national celebrity when her grandson visited the country in 2006 and her modest homestead has become a tourist attraction since the former Illinois senator’s November 2008 election triumph.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Kenyan government last month declared Kogelo a protected national heritage site.<\/font> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Published 2009-04-20‘Born a Muslim and wishes to die a Muslim’  Church seeks to convert Obama grandma  Relatives of ‘Mama Sarah’ say she was surprised by Church baptism offer, declined to attend.   NAIROBI – A Protestant church in Kenya is trying to convert US President Barack Obama’s step-grandmother to Christianity against her will, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iqsoft.in\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}