Which schools did Barack Obama attend?

Answer 1

No.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

The claim that Obama attended a radical Wahabbist school in Indonesia in the mid-1960s is exceedingly far-fetched, given that:

The large Indonesian community resident in Mecca was a medium through which knowledge about Wahhabism reached Indonesia, but the community itself appears to have remained virtually immune to Wahhabi influences. In reality there was little direct influence of Wahhabism on Indonesian reformist thought until the 1970s.

Insight magazine claimed in a January 2007 article that Barack Obama spent at least four years attending what is variously described as a "madrassa," a "radical Muslim religious school," or a "Muslim seminary" in Indonesia, but CNN has more recently reported that its own investigation found those claims to be false:

[R]eporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.

He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.

"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."

Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.

"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the 'Situation Room.' "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."

Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils. Insight reported that Obama's political opponents believed the school promoted Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, "and are seeking to prove it."

"It's not (an) Islamic school. It's general," Winadijanto said. "There is a lot of Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian. ... So that's a mixed school."

The Associated Press reported similarly:

A spokesman for Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs said claims that Obama studied at an Islamic school are groundless.

"SDN Menteng 1 is a public primary school that is open to people of all faiths," said the spokesman, Sutopo, who goes by only one name. "Moreover, he studied earlier at Fransiskus Assisi, which is clearly a Catholic school."

Obama later transferred to SDN Menteng 1 the elite, secular elementary school at the center of the controversy. The school is public but is very competitive and has exceptionally high standards. It is located in one of the most affluent parts of Jakarta and attracts mostly middle- to upper-class students, among them several of former dictator Suharto's grandchildren.

Indonesia is home to several of the most radical Islamic schools in Southeast Asia, some with alleged terrorist links. But Akmad Solichin [the vice principal at SDN Menteng 1], who proudly pointed to a photo of a young Barry Obama, as he was known, said his school is not one of them.

Moreover, a statement released by the Obama campaign affirmed that:

In the past week, many of you have read a now thoroughly-debunked story by Insight Magazine, owned by the Washington Times, which cites unnamed sources close to a political campaign that claim Senator Obama was enrolled for "at least four years" in an Indonesian "Madrassa". The article says the "sources" believe the Madrassa was "espousing Wahhabism," a form of radical Islam.

All of the claims about Senator Obama's faith and education raised in the Insight Magazine story and repeated on Fox News are false. Senator Obama was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother. Obama's stepfather worked for a U.S. oil company, and sent his stepson to two years of Catholic school, as well as two years of public school.

To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago. Furthermore, the Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa.

Claim: Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

As noted above, Barack Obama describes himself as "a Christian," says that he is "rooted in the Christian tradition," and his association with the United Church of Christ began over twenty years ago, long before he contemplated a political career. (Obama was first elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996, but he has been involved with the United Church of Christ since the mid-1980s.) The beginnings of Obama's relationship with the church were described in an April 2004 Chicago Sun-Times article:

Obama is unapologetic in saying he has a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." As a sign of that relationship, he says, he walked down the aisle of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ in response to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's altar call one Sunday morning about 16 years ago.

The politician could have ended his spiritual tale right there, at the point some people might assume his life changed, when he got "saved," transformed, washed in the blood. But Obama wants to clarify what truly happened.

"It wasn't an epiphany," he says of that public profession of faith. "It was much more of a gradual process for me. I know there are some people who fall out. Which is wonderful. God bless them ... I think it was just a moment to certify or publicly affirm a growing faith in me."

These days, he says, he attends the 11 a.m. Sunday service at Trinity in the Brainerd neighborhood every week - or at least as many weeks as he is able. His pastor, Wright, has become a close confidant.

Answer 2

Barack Obama attended the Punahou School in Hawaii (an elite private high school). He then attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, transferred to Columbia University and graduated in 1983; worked for a while and then graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.

Answer 3

Absolutely not. This is another internet myth, with no evidence to support it. The president's education occurred in two places-- Hawaii and Indonesia. When his mother remarried (Barack was five at the time), the family moved to Indonesia, where he first attended a Catholic school and then a public school. The majority in Indonesia are Muslim, but he never attended a "madrassa"-- a strict religious school where Islam is the dominant system and no other ideologies are permitted. The schools he attended in Indonesia were the kinds of places where the children of the educated elites and diplomats of all religions sent their kids. And back in Hawaii, Mr. Obama attended a private college-preparatory school in Honolulu, the Punahou School, from which he graduated in 1979.

Answer 4

No, contrary to some internet myths. Barack Obama was not raised a Muslim-- his father had long since left that religion and become an atheist, and while his step-dad was a moderate Muslim, he did not impose it on anyone. Young Barack first went to a Catholic school in Indonesia and then a public school, along with kids of all religions. He lived in Indonesia for less than five years and then returned to Hawaii to finish his education. He was mainly raised by his maternal grandparents, and they were Protestant Christians.

Answer 5

No, he did not. Contrary to what you read online, Mr. Obama has no history of studying at a madrassah (a Muslim religious school), and he was also not raised in the Muslim faith. He first attended a public kindergarten in Hawaii; then, after his mom married a businessman from Indonesia, they moved to that country, where young Barack went to a Catholic school, followed by a public school. Indonesia is a majority-Muslim country, yes, but the schools he attended were not run by the Muslim faith, nor were all the students Muslims. Then, he returned to Hawaii to attend middle school and high school, at an exclusive private academy, the Punahou School in Honolulu.

Answer 6

No.

He recorded a 5 minute Ramadan message, like every president before him.

Answer 7

No. Barack was home tutored by imams.