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What Are The Ramifications Of Obama’s Speech To The Muslim World?

By Patrick L. Lang on June 4, 2009 at 7:50 PM in Current Affairs

Reprinted with express permission from The National Journal.

"How many hundreds of thousands would you like on the streets?"  This is a question that must have been asked of the "advanced team."  That question is much asked in similar circumstances in that part of the world.  There will be many hundreds of thousands, and why not?  For the Muslim World, (ah, excuse me, the "Muzlim World") Barack Obama is a great novelty.   Most inhabitants of that "World" would never have believed that the nasty, racist, heathen Americans would elect such a man.  Mufaja’a!  We did it.  There will be great rejoicing at the sight.   Mighty bloviations will be voiced on the air there and here.  That doesn’t mean that anything important will necessarily change.  It is very easy to exaggerate the importance of such an event.

It was opined below earlier that Obama’s visit "may well be the spark that revolutionizes the Middle East and at last makes it into Iowa."  (paraphrasing) 

That kind of thinking is so patronising and paternalistic…

"How many hundreds of thousands would you like on the streets?"  This is a question that must have been asked of the "advanced team."  That question is much asked in similar circumstances in that part of the world.  There will be many hundreds of thousands, and why not?  For the Muslim World, (ah, excuse me, the "Muzlim World") Barack Obama is a great novelty.   Most inhabitants of that "World" would never have believed that the nasty, racist, heathen Americans would elect such a man.  Mufaja’a!  We did it.  There will be great rejoicing at the sight.   Mighty bloviations will be voiced on the air there and here.  That doesn’t mean that anything important will necessarily change.  It is very easy to exagerate the importance of such an event.

It was opined below earlier that Obama’s visit "may well be the spark that revolutionizes the Middle East and at last makes it into Iowa."  (paraphrasing)  That kind of thinking is so patronising and paternalistic towards the Muslims that the worst excesses of Bush Administration hopes for the Middle East come to mind.  Islamicate civilization is changing and will continue to change but it is changing at the kind of glacial pace that is to be expected in a multi-faceted cultural matrix inhabited by over a billion people across the world.

Islam (the religion) is a faith built for laymen.  It has no clergy, only scholars.  It has no hierarchy.  Even the Shia divines are really just scholars with certificates of learning that entitle them to claim a due influence over the opinions of the faithful with regard to what Islam really is.  Ijma’, (consensus in religion) is the chief organizing principle of Islam.  You can find any number of Muslims who will tell you that the takfiri jihadis are not true Muslims.  Husni Mubarak and the Sheikh of al-Azhar can announce that from the top of the Great Pyramid, but so long as even a handful believe that Al-Qa’ida is true Islam, the "war" against these dangerous people will have to continue until they have been so discredited and reduced in numbers that they are merely a nuisance.

Israel/Palestine?  Who are we kidding?  Ourselves?  Natanyahu is dead set against a two state solution.  He is a man of principle, however wrong-headed.  He will not change his view of this.  What is the alternative to a two-state solution?  Is it perpetual helotry for the Palestinians or a secular one-state solution?  This is an insoluble conundrum.  Will Obama’s visit change any of that?

I hope he does not think that his visit will change any of these things.   Hard work and hard minds will change them.

  • aeguy

    Thank you Colonel Lang for an intelligent piece.

    I have a neutral view of Obama’s speech. It was a good start, but real actions and accomplishments are what a legacy is built on, not lofty rhetoric and a cool attitude. We’ll see at the end of his presidency. If nothing changes, then his Cairo speech will be forgotten. If he accomplishes a great deal with foreign policy matters, then the speech he gave will be viewed as the catalytic first-step in the peace process where the president set his overall vision for American-Muslim relations.

  • cathnealon

    I’m not an expert but I would assume that the majority of Middle Easterners are regular people who love and support their families and wish for peace. They, like us, want safety for their children. But the problem is the minority of fundamentalists who really believe in violence against those they don’t agree with–the groups like Al-Quaeda and the leaders like Bin Laden who have the passion and the resources to create havoc and BO’s speech means nothing to them, the only thing they understand is strength and force–they laugh at his words. In this respect, BO’s speechifying will do nothing–absolutley nothing to further peace. Don’t you think if we could have used pretty words to defeat ecery tyrannical government we would have?

    • lorac

      I think you’re trying to draw the distinction between regular Muslims and fanatical Muslims. But I’ve heard of lots of “loving” families who kill their own daughter/sister because of a rumor that a boy kissed her (the “honor” killing). My sense is that these are (relatively) non-extremist families, though.

      In other words, I suspect that even in the Beaver Cleaver Muslim families, there is something very wrong, some warped ideology. But I don’t know – I’d like to hear where the line is, and I’d love to know that there are some religious Muslims who don’t use various forms of violence (in which I include female genital mutilation) in a Beaver Cleaver life. After all, it IS the religion of peace. heh.

  • Mary

    What they HEARD was a pretty speech.

    What they SAW was the President of the United States pandering to the very same dictators in Saudi Arabia and Egypt that George W. Bush pandered to.

    The 9-11 terrorists were mostly FROM Saudi Arabia and Egypt. They were highly educated young men who RESENTED their leaders’ pandering to America.

    So how’s Obama any different?

  • SJ

    Of course the Muslim world is going to celebrate, here we have the POTUS telling them that he consider it part of his responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

    Now what kind of baloney is that? Since when is it the responsibility or part of the job of any American President to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam?

    What the hell is really going on here and yet some Americans will want to say this was a great speech by Obama, have we all gone nuts or are we all in a state that we no longer care what can happen in the future. Obama has once again humiliated the USA, I really don’t know what it will take for some people to wake up and understand what is going on.

    • Chicago Joe

      I agree with you. Was that little gem in his private inauguration with Justice Roberts. I don’t recall that being part of his job description. But he is getting away with all of it, being praised by the likes of O’Reilly and Judith Miller on Fox.

      Somebody has lost their mind, and it is not us.

    • pm317

      Now what kind of baloney is that? Since when is it the responsibility or part of the job of any American President to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam?

      You have got to the crux of it. Astute comment.

  • Patience

    Spot on. Remember all the lofty hoopla about the 1978 Camp David Accord?

  • hokma

    “Israel/Palestine? Who are we kidding? Ourselves? Natanyahu is dead set against a two state solution. He is a man of principle, however wrong-headed. He will not change his view of this.”

    First. Netanhayu in interviews said that he is not dead set against a two state solution. But he will be far more cautious than his predecessors in approaching negotiations with a Palestinian partner given the fact that Abbas does not appear to represent the Palestinian majority including Hamas who rejects Israel.

    Second. Obama and most anti-Israel individuals set up a false history of the region in order to make a claim that Jews don’t belong. The fact is that Jews can trace their history near 2,000 years before the birth of Christ to the Middle East region that encompasses far more than the country of Israel today. Back then there were no Muslims and certainly no so-called Palestinians, a nationality of people that was created after the first war against Israel and a group of people who are not accepted into any of the other Arab country. In fact Mohammed did not show up on the scene until nearly 2,500 years after Abraham journeyed to Canaan.

    As far as Obama’s presentation of his version of even more recent history in that region was either false or misleading and certainly left out certain elements.

  • http://moniquemonicat.wordpress.com MoniQue

    Keep up the good work guys! Haven’t been on this blog in quite a while, glad to see you’re still exposing this fraudulent therion monster Obama.
    **********************************************
    Once again the New World Order’s Prince Obama failed again.

    While he was speaking of religious rights in the middle east where almost EVERYONE IS MUSLIM and free to worship Allah, he completely alienated Christians in the middle east, you know, the ones that are beheaded and not allowed to practice their religion there?

    ARTICLE:

    Obama’s Speech Fails to Focus on Middle Eastern Christians

    By Chris Glazier

    Obama gave what many media outlets are calling a “historic” speech in Cairo earlier today. Designed to make a fresh start with the estranged Islamic population in the Middle East, Obama played to his rhetorical strength, crafting an articulate and balanced speech that tackled a number of big international issues. He straddled the line between conciliation and force with carefully chosen words, and initial reaction from moderate Muslims was positive. The president waxed eloquent on Israelis and Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghanis, Iranians and Hamas.

    But the one issue he didn’t hit hard was the issue most pressing to many Christians in the area: human rights, particularly religious freedom. One of the most underreported stories regarding the Middle East …

    *********************
    P.S. THE TITLE “PRESIDENT” WAS DELETED BY ME BECAUSE OBAMA IS ONLY ACTING PRESIDENT, HE IS AN ILLEGAL PRESIDENT BECAUSE HE IS NOT QUALIFIED (was not born in USA, was born in Kenya).

    A most blasphemous man that prince obama.

    • Eric Ro

      i agree with you about obamas illegal presidency demand his birth certificateus govt too stupid to ask he is prince of darkness wants armageddon to happen in israel by 2012

  • KmX

    What I heard from Presdient Obama is similar to what President Bush said. The onyl difference is in style and delivery. Soemone needs to do a split screen with Obama and pass GWB speeches. I am so tired of al lthis panderign to Muslims.

    And what arrogance for a President to have a major address to the Muslim World. Why does Obama persistently conflate the Muslim world with the Arab world.

    He needs to speak to the Arab world. They are the ones who have major problems with Israel and tyranical dictators. They are the ones who mistreat their women. They are ones who don’t care about rights of their citizens.

    Perhaps the Arab world should learn lessons from the Muslim world where women have served in the highest lected office of the land. Places such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka edcuate their women.

    So next time Mr. Presdient give this speech to the ARAB WORLD.

  • Karen

    obama is a wind-up toy that his handlers send out to make pretty speeches and of course, using his teleprompter. While making nicey-nice with Muslims, he is sending drones to Pakistan, killing innocent people – many of them Muslims. And here in the US, he has gone beyond bush with his “prolonged detention” policy. This guy is more dangerous than bush in that he has bamboozled the American people into thinking that he is about changing “everything” that is wrong in the US and the world. Wake up, wake up people – we have another power hungry and grandiose “leader.”