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Meet the Man Calling Obama a Muslim

Lawsuit-loving, anti-Semitic eccentric behind false rumors

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 13, 2008 8:37 AM CDT

(Newser) – The pernicious rumors that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim can be traced to one man, the New York Times reports: Andy Martin, a failed lawyer and politician known for his anti-Semitic comments and frivolous lawsuits. In 2004 Martin released a press release calling Obama a Muslim, and he has since been quoted heavily by most proponents of the theory. “Everybody uses my research as a takeoff point,” he says.

Martin is a law graduate, but he was denied entry to the bar after a psychiatric finding of “moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.” He has run for office for both parties; one of his campaign committees once listed as its official purpose “to exterminate Jew power.” He was plucked from obscurity last week by Fox News, which allowed him to falsely assert that Obama had trained to overthrow the government.

[Images (2)]

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Andy Martin appears on Hannity's America.

The cover of Andy Martin's book "Obama: The Man Behind the Mask."

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Andy Martin appears on Hannity's America, asserting that Obama had trained to overthrow the government. (HoaxM3Not)

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I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place, and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did. - Andy Martin, in a 1983 court filing

It’s an example of how the Internet has given power to sources we would have never taken seriously at another point in time. - Danielle Allen, a Princeton professor studying the anti-Obama whisper campaign

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Meet the Man Calling Obama a Muslim