Life imitating art?

I find it a bit creepy when reality starts bearing a weird resemblance to something I've written or drawn. I wanted a character who'd lost a parent in 9/11 and, as a result, had developed a great hatred of Islam - even converting to Judaism. Muslims tend to accuse their critics of racism although Islam is a religion, not a race (so this is inherently illogical and certainly doesn't counter objections to things like doctrine or the behaviour of Muslims). To dispel such accusations, I made this character of African extraction and appearance. I thought this character would have changed his name to something fitting his rather fanatical ideology. Barach was a good first name, as it means "Thunderbolt" and belonged to an Israelite warrior in Judges. Maybe his family name was originally Brown and he Jewized it to Gold. Then he needed a daughter so I called her Jael after the woman who killed the Biblical Barach's arch enemy. Then I discover there's a company called Barrat Gold. Then Barach Obama became a likely candidate for the next US pressident, the first black man to do so. Now I discover that he has a poor half-brother who's mother was named Jael!

Actually this is a bit odder because Obama's father was a Muslim but Barach and Jael aren't mentioned in the Koran and Barach Obama senior pressumably didn't name his wife!