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Barack Obama, the United States, and Islam

ccangelopearl1362

Well-Known Member
Fox News Channel: Obama Visits With Saudi King on Eve of Speech to 'Muslim World'
Washington Post: Cairo University prepares to host Obama
Fox News Channel: Muslim Brotherhood Members to Attend Obama’s Cairo Speech
ABC News: Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller: The Emergence of President Obama’s Muslim Roots

Touring the Middle East already? It would seem that we’re on another race through that chaotic region. I already assumed that this had happened in Turkey this past April, and I’ve already listed this area as one of my three most likely starting flashpoints for World War III, but I suppose that the new President of the United States is even more dedicated to this notion than he already is. Thus it is that as of this moment, American President Barack Obama is launching a visit to the Middle East in an attempt to establish a new level of “respect”, however subservient such respect might really be, with the Islamic world, and he evidently has chosen Egypt rather than Turkey for this endeavor. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may very well show up at Cairo University for this big speech, right alongside a group he’s been attempting to marginalize, so to speak, and as bad as he already is, this group is much, much worse: the Muslim Brotherhood, of all organizations. The expectations should be high… compared to the actual effects. I would like to imagine that somebody in Obama’s team of advisors managed to note the emerging Middle Eastern cold war, especially now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been assembling a sort of Israeli-Arab alliance against Iran. What are we in the United States to opine about the turmoil in the Islamic Middle East, especially the regimes still in place there? Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, Muhammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and their fellow oil sheikhs have to be tracking Obama’s moments and statements rather closely, so it may be appropriate that we of the Serebii Forums do the same thing. It’s a civilization that challenged America and its allies almost eight years ago, and its borders have only gotten bloodier ever since. I will relay more appropriate information onto this thread as this story unfolds, and anyone willing to share some comments about this (latest) attempted dialogue with Muslims in the Middle East and around the world on President Barack Obama’s part may certainly contribute them here, centered as the comments will most likely be around the United States’ overall position regarding Islamic civilization.
 

ccangelopearl1362

Well-Known Member
The Hard-line stance of the past administration has essentially detracted any attempts at nominal peace in the region. And the new hard-line Israeli government worries me in the future of the region.

Excuse me? The only real implacability I’ve detected is coming out of the jihadists, and I don’t just mean Al-Qaeda, either. President Obama may have far more trouble than he realizes as long as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and so on refuse to give up their Sharia supremacism, including their propaganda jihad against Israel, no less. As ever, Obama’s White House team was generous enough to provide an official YouTube video, so that we can dissect it ourselves.:

YouTube: White House: President Barack Obama speaks to Muslims from Cairo University
Daniel Pipes: A Rapid and Harsh Turn against Israel

It looks like Obama has attempted to continue George Walker Bush’s freedom agenda, however limited that agenda was initially… with a doubly unpleasant element of insisting on comprehensive Israeli self-displacement, so to speak, from those “occupied Palestinian territories”, if that’s the essence of what we’re hearing out of the likes of Al-Jazeera and Al-Azhar University. Speaking of Al-Azhar, it would seem that Obama and the Egyptian police decided to opt for a different location for this speech… without much in the way of considering the actual guest list. If Obama was trying to prepare a giveaway to the Islamists rather than appeal to genuine freedom for Muslims and non-Muslims, then I’d say that he succeeded to a most unsettling degree, and yet, there may have been some unintended consequences regarding such an initiative for this idea beyond the speech itself. This lopsided harshness toward Israel might in fact make that tiny beacon of liberty even more hesitant to offer the Palestinian Arabs any new land, and other Muslims no less eager for freedom can only be appalled that Saudi Arabia controls Mecca and Medina without any regard for non-Muslims in it.:

Investigative Project on Terrorism: Zuhdi Jasser: President Obama’s Message to the Muslim World: Walk the walk and then we’ll talk the talk

If countering political Islam with the ideas explained by Alexis de Tocqueville, Milton Friedman, Thomas Jefferson, and others like them can work with Dr. Jasser, then it will work with me. It may be doubly appropriate that we can also recall those protests by the people of China against the crackdown imposed by their rulers in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago today, and perhaps that in itself will deserve a distinct thread of its own once I wrap up my thoughts here. Freedom and democracy can only be comprehensive ideals to aim toward, no matter where these two go, and I was disturbed to see that Obama didn’t put more focus on Lebanon’s struggle against Hezbollah, among other exhibits of Iran’s expansionism into the rest of the Middle East. Then again, as Charles Krauthammer and Steve Hayes just argued on Fox News Channel’s Special Report, criticizing America and Israel is the easiest way to get applause in the Middle East, so I can only marvel at the willful irreconcilability displayed against both countries and America’s allies -- and the philosophical retreat I sensed from President Barack Obama early this morning. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising to any of us, but Obama should still do far better in taking the freedom agenda even further, leaving the equivocation out.:

Hot Air: Allahpundit: Liz Cheney on Obama’s speech: Unsurprisingly lame
Wall Street Journal: Paul Wolfowitz: Obama and the Freedom Agenda

Actual policies, or simple principles? As Paul Wolfowitz pointed out, most Muslim-majority countries have Islam as the state religion, unlike the United States, which has no state religion. The plight of those Coptic Christians in Egypt is filtering into my mind at this moment, and incredibly, other authoritarian regimes may actually pale in comparison to the ones in the Middle East… without any “misunderstandings” involved. These factors existed long before Barack Obama became the President of America, and they might even expand through Sharia finance initiatives by certain large companies in the United States.:

Family Security Matters: Sami Alrabaa: Will Obama’s Rhetorical Skills Help Him Succeed in the Middle East?
Washington Times: Subsidized Shariah

If we didn’t think that the Islamists could get any more despicable, then it would seem that they’re now seeking to use AIG’s money to fund certain jihad organizations, an issue that one might think would deserve at least some attention amongst Obama’s economic advisors in preparation for that speech, among other more… immediate issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran’s ayatollahs rejected this outreach and preferred to declare more time for themselves in building nuclear weapons, then launching their all-out war against Israel. American President Barack Obama has made his attempt to restore a sense of calm to the Middle East, but I still hear thunder rumbling in that area... especially over Tehran.
 
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