PRESIDENT Obama's "ad dress to the Muslim world" was a masterwork of equivocation and political naiveté.
Let's start with a sentence buried within his text -- possibly in hopes that few might notice. With it, Obama effectively accepts Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"No single nation should pick and choose which nations should hold nuclear weapons," he said.
He wasn't prepared to go further than warning that an Iranian bomb could mark the start of a Middle East nuclear arms race.
Unlike his previous statements, the Cairo speech didn't include the threat of any action -- not even further sanctions -- against the Islamic Republic. The message was clear: America was distancing itself from United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Obama also abandoned President Bush's freedom agenda in support of Middle East democratic movements, saying: "No system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by another."
Of course, America didn't "impose" any system of government on Afghanistan or Iraq. All it did was to remove impediments to democracy in those countries. A majority of Afghans and Iraqis, and perhaps even "Muslims around the world," don't regret the demise of Mullah Omar, a fanatical cleric, or Saddam Hussein, a brutal secular despot.
Obama said he was seeking "a new beginning between the US and Muslims around the world" -- implying that "Muslims around the world" (including Muslim Americans) represent a monolithic bloc, as Osama bin Laden and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claim.
Is the president unaware that there are 57 countries with Muslim majorities and a further 60 countries where Muslims represent substantial minorities? Trying to press almost a quarter of humanity into a single ghetto based on religious apartheid is the fruit of either woeful ignorance or dangerous provocation.
Obama's mea culpa vis-à-vis Islam extended beyond the short span of US history. He appropriated the guilt for the Crusades, Western colonialism and support for despotic regimes during the Cold War, and countered that with a flattering narrative about Islam's role in history, featuring outlandish claims that would astonish many Muslims.
Ignoring the role of ancient Greece, pre-Islamic Persia, China and India, he credited Islam with having invented modern medicine, algebra, navigation and even the use of pen and printing. He went so far as to trace the genesis of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to Cairo's medieval Al Azhar theological school.
Noting that Thomas Jefferson had a copy of the Koran, Obama stated that "Islam has always been a part of American history." He also exaggerated the number of Muslim Americans at 7 million, a figure designed to promote Islam as the second-largest religious community in America after Christianity.
Obama promised to help change the US taxation system to allow Muslims to pay zakat, an Islamic tax, and threatened to prosecute those who don't allow US Muslim women to cover their hair.
Despite his anxiety about being "respectful of the values of others," Obama had nothing to say about the abominable treatment of women in many Muslim-majority countries. The best he could do was this platitude: "Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons."
Emphasizing the Islamic aspect of his identity, Obama said: "I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed."
He then committed America's support to the Saudi initiative known as Interfaith Dialogue and the Turkish-sponsored Dialogue of Civilizations, both of which divide the world on the basis of religious creed.
Obama voiced no support for "Muslims around the world" who are fighting for democracy and human rights, making no mention of the tens of thousands of political prisoners in the 57 Muslim-majority countries. He had no warm words for those fighting for women's rights and equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities.
The president may not know it, but his "Muslim world" is experiencing a historic civil war of ideas in which growing movements for freedom and human rights are fighting a variety of despotic, fanatical terrorist groups that use Islam as a fascist ideology.
Obama refused to acknowledge the existence of the two camps, let alone take sides. So it wasn't surprising that the Muslim Brotherhood, which wasn't invited to hear Obama's speech, praised him for "acknowledging the justice of our case."
Meanwhile, Egypt's democratic movement Kifayah! (Enough!), officially invited, refused to show up. "We cannot endorse a policy of support for despots in the name of fostering stability," a spokesman said in Cairo.
Amir Taheri, NY Post, 6/5/09
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