Pat Robertson, during a June 27 TV broadcast, said President Obama attended “an Islamic madrassa.”
Our ruling
Robertson said Obama attended an “Islamic madrassa.”
The Congressional Research Service notes that madrassas are Islamic religious schools and in recent years sometimes have been defined as breeding grounds that promote Islamic extremism and terrorism.
Robertson plays bait-and-switch with definitions. He says the president attended an “Islamic madrassa” while accusing him of being weak on terrorism, protective of Islamic nations, and viewing the U.S. as “an oppressor.” He dials it back when pressed for details, noting that madrassa, in Arabic, simply means “school.”
Robertson has a slight leg to stand on in that Obama, as a child in Indonesia, went to a public school where a majority of the students were Muslim. In a 2004 memoir, Obama described it as a “Muslim school.” And the future president, as part of the curriculum, spent two hours a week in classes about Islam.
But Robertson doesn’t tell his viewers the larger part of the story: The school was non-sectarian; it celebrated Christian and Islamic holidays; and that the school offered separate religion classes where Muslim and Christian students could learn about their faiths.
So we rate Robertson’s misleading statement Mostly False.
To read the full fact check, go to www.politifact.com.