The popular blogger happened to be in Jakarta, Indonesia and decided to do some investigative reporting and tracked down Sen Obama’s so-called madrasah.

“As a young child, Barack Obama lived in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for five years with his American mother. First, I want to make it clear that I don't think it should matter to us what kind of school Obama attended as a child. As to his present faith, the controversy concerning his Chicago pastor highlights his longstanding membership in a Christian church. In any case, I personally do not think religious affiliation tells us anything meaningful about a candidate's fitness for office.

“Nevertheless, simply because a recurring rumor such as this can and should to be addressed, I tracked down the truth concerning Obama's Indonesian sojourn.”

Sen Obama reportedly attended two schools in Indonesia. One school that was completely missed out by the American media was the SD Franciscus Assisi. A school named after a Roman Catholic friar, who is also a well known patron saint of the Christian faith.

Jotman said that he had to cross SD Franciscus Assisi off his list.

“I have it on good word that not many madrasah are named after Saint Francis. So I crossed that school off my list. What about the second school Obama attended in Indonesia?

“The name sounded fairly benign: SDN Menteng 01. But if the young Obama attended a madrasah, this was it. So I hailed a taxi and paid a visit to SDN Menteng.”

The school turned out to be located just a block away from where the current American Ambassador to Indonesia is residing.

“… the road leading to the school was blocked by security to protect the American Ambassador’s residence.

“Nearby are two old churches. It's not your typical neighborhood in this, the world's largest predominantly Muslim country.

”The SDN Menteng 01 facility is built around a courtyard which serves as a basketball court. Obama's love for this American sport almost certainly began here.

”Above the court, to one corner, is small mosque structure (first photo).

“Yep, the school has a small mosque attached to it. Had I found the fabled madrasah?”

But if this was a training center for jihad, something was badly amiss, noted Jotman.

”Because as I stood in the courtyard staring up at the small dome, students flew by me shooting hoops. In fact, most of the students circulating around the basketball court were girls. They wore no head scarves. In fact, one girl wore surfer shorts. I watched as she aggressively kept two boys in check.

“I listened hard, but I did not hear any chorus of small voices reciting the Koran. Instead, from inside the entrance foyer came shouts of kids practicing their Kung-fu kicks and punches. Ka! Ka! I saw yellow, orange, and green belts tied around small white coats. The principal would later tell me that the children have a choice of thirteen after-school activities.

”Undeterred, I told the school principal about my urgent need to verify whether his school was, in fact, a madrasah. So the principal summoned the custodian. And the custodian walked me upstairs to a locked green door adjacent to some classrooms. He turned the key and the door opened.”

That was when Jotman said he saw Jesus Christ.

”… I saw his likeness framed on the wall. In one corner of the room Bibles were stacked on a table behind a crucifix. The sign above the door read Christians Lesson Room.

“The principal explained to me that the Indonesian concept of religious freedom means public schools like SDN Menteng 01 provide religious education for students — whatever their faith. Whereas the American approach has been to exclude religion from public schools, the Indonesian way is to provide religious lessons to students — according to the faith of the student's family — through the public school.

“In my opinion, it makes little difference what kind of school a forty-six year old man attended when he was a child of six. But we can see that any allegations that Obama attended some kind of extremist Islamic institute as a child are entirely without substance.”

Jotman also offered a bit of background on his story:

“Background: CNN was the first to debunk this story. Since this rumor was started by Insight Magazine and shortly thereafter broadcast by Fox News, over 50 news organizations have paid a visit to SDN Menteng 01, the principle told me. Jotman was not the last. Just as I was leaving, a foreign camera crew was moving in to do yet another story.

”Fox News has apparently succeeded in removing all trace of its original report that Obama attended a madrasah. The wildly inaccurate Fox News video clips have been removed from YouTube on “copyright infringement grounds.” The real story here is the fact that Fox News gives substance to outrageous rumors, and then — after the distortion had been exposed — attempts to cover up its tracks. As I have blogged, not only does Fox News make American people stupid, it forments anti-American sentiment overseas.”

• In Trinidad, calypso legend The Mighty Sparrow sings that America could "regain worldwide respect with Obama’s vision", and in Jamaica reggae star Cocoa Tea adds "This is not about class nor color, race nor creed. It's about the changes, what the Americans need."
• In Egypt, a humanitarian worker has written letters to dozens of superdelegates urging them to back Obama.
• In China a dramatic Obama rally is being planned on the Great Wall.
• In Gaza, a Palestinian student has been making hundreds of campaign phone calls to the US over the internet, whenever he has electricity and is not under Israeli bombardment.
• In Kenya, Obama is so popular that a beer has been named after him!
• On the internet there over 40 international Obama fan groups on Facebook, many with more than 500 members, focused on Denmark, France, Indonesia, Tanzania and many other countries. There are also dozens of blogs and websites (see listings in the sidebar).

And wherever opinion polls have been conducted, comparing him with Clinton and McCain, Senator Obama is consistently the favourite candidate by a wide margin, for example:

• 74% in Japan
• 71% in Brazil
• 68% in Holland
• 64% in South Africa
• 61% in Britain
• 54% in Iraq
• 48% in Switzerland

The group, which so far has 250 members and counting, describes itself as:

We are Indonesian, we know our vote doesn't count, but we will vote with our heart.
We believe that America still is and should always be a land of OPPORTUNITY, a place of EQUALITY and HOPE.
We believe that Barack Obama should be the next American President!

Writing to the group, Kukuh Tw says:

if Obama failed, we, indonesian blogger will build party and ask him to be next candidate indonesian president for 2009-2014

Jesse Armand notes:

It's time for USA to make a change, to show that USA is not the evil that a lot of people thought of.

Gawain Arthur cannot agree more and adds:

Faith, Hope, and Love. I believe on them. Under Obama administration, the US will be on the right track, and come to her utopia! Stand for change!

Heru Susetyo further explains:

I strongly support Obama, not just because He used to live in Indonesia and I used to live in Illinois, but largely because he condemns Iraqi war and fighting for minority rights, so go for it Obama !

Meanwhile, Dyah Meirina Rimenta cannot hide her happiness as she writes:

Obama Leads Hillary ! Yeahh!

And Andrian Dwiadmodjo is impressed with Obama's linguistic skills and remarks:

OBAMANIA!!
His story of becoming a strong candidate is like a fairy tale. And thank God US can finally have a (future) president that can speak proper English.