Barack Obama a Radical Muslim?

I received an e-mail this morning that started out like this:

"Who is Barack Obama? Very interesting info and something that should be considered in your choice for President. If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts...this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States...better heed this and pray about it and share it. We checked this out on "snopes.com". It is factual. Check for yourself."

It goes on to claim that Barack Obama is actually a radical Muslim, instead of a Christian as he claims. And that he refuses to put his hand on his heart during the national anthem or to say the pledge of allegiance.

What I liked best about the e-mail is that it tells you to check out Snopes for yourself--really makes it sound legit, doesn't it? Well, if you actually check out snopes and their evidence, you'll find that this e-mail is actually a hoax full of false allegations. Here are the links to the Snopes articles I found:

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

The photograph in question in the second article was a true photograph, but claims that Obama routinely doesnt't put his hand over his heart during the anthem or refuses to say the Pledge are unfounded.

Lesson: Don't believe everything you read, especially in e-mails. Check it out on Snopes.com or other sources, especially before you forward it to lots of other people. That's how smear-campaigns and rumors are spread--people sharing information that they don't even investigate for accuracy.

There's enough political yuck going on already between the candidates themselves, don't you think? We don't need to propagate it.