In this series of posts, I will discuss Obama's Cairo speech in detail in a point-for-point manner. His lengthy speech will be dissected more efficiently and effectively by breaking it up into 8 distinct parts: his introduction, six major points, followed by his conclusion. In this forum it will be broken up along those lines. I also chose not to curtail the text of his speech simply for the sake of easier editing, because I wanted to give the reader the absolute entirety of his remarks so as to not lose sight of the overall aim of his context. The goal here is to go point for point, facts vs. facts (or in the case where he makes assertions with no facts, facts will be provided). My comments will be color coded in red and/or indented to avoid confusion. Here we go.
Part 1: The Introduction
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al—Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning; and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. And together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I'm grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. And I'm also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: Assalaamu alaykum.
We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world — tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim—majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.
[Wait, modern technology has caused Islam to view us as hostile? Hmmm……the Amish don’t exactly view us as hostile despite not wanting much do with our technology. There might just be a cultural (cough…re…ligous) way to explain that. Let’s just get this straight, he is implying that he understands why muslims are mad at us……and that reason is….drumroll……because we made them that way by being who we are and by advancing the world through technology and innovation. Sorry, Islam, for allowing women to vote, and putting a man on the moon….and for our ancestors jumping civilization ahead 5,000 years by writing the ever-so insightful Constitution. We know all this excuses, or at least allows us to sympathize with, any or all hostility by you (Islam) towards us.]
Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims.
[The number of muslims worldwide is around 1.5 billion. That means if 1 in 20 muslims was a violent extremist (which is a conservative estimate) or at least sympathetic to those who are, then Obama’s ‘small but potent minority’ is actually 75 million. From Wikipedia: a survey taken in UK shortly after the 9/11 attack "revealed that 40% of British Muslims believe Osama bin Laden was right to attack the United States. About the same proportion think that British Muslims have a right to fight alongside the Taliban. A radio station serving London's Pakistani community conducted a poll which 98% of London Muslims under 45 said they would not fight for Britain, while 48% said they would fight for bin Laden."
A 2004 Pew survey revealed that "Osama bin Laden is viewed favorably by large percentages in Pakistan (65%), Jordan (55%) and Morocco (45%). In Turkey as many as 31% say that suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable."
What does he mean by potent? Stoning religious dissidents, pouring acid on women who don't submit themselves as sexual subjects, and/or killing or severely beating children for flying kites or listening to music? Is he talking about the ‘honor killings’ of women for wanting a divorce (where they perform a beheading to restore her 'honor' - it happens in America too, you know)? Is he referencing the beheadings of non-combatants in war, rampant hostage taking, the pirating of maritme shipping lanes, or the indescriminant bombing of crowded marketplaces? Or is he just talking about the genocide of millions of muslims by fellow, more extreme muslims (not in ancient times, but in the last 2 decades alone)? I just want to understand his terms.]
The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. All this has bred more fear and more mistrust.
[What would make anyone believe that? ----------------------------------------------------------------->
No shit. I think we were a little mad at the Japanese after Pearl Harbor too. I don’t like the idea that we need to feel bad for feeling mad when we are attacked (or beheaded). Why yes, a new antenna went up by those caught off guard in 2001 after a major attack (most of our country failed to recognize all the warning signs readily available for analytical consumption to anyone who cared to listen the 30 years prior to 9/11). Prior to 9/11, most people didn't have an antenna that was capable of detecting who our enemy was. With that said, once our system was up and running, there were Muslims in America that immediately showed up on our new-found radar as allies. They went out of their way to condemn the attacks and became very vocal about their unyielding position against Extremism. As a principled people we quickly guarded against violating their civil rights. In this way, we proved ourselves as true American citizens who love our country by recognizing that Allied Muslims love their country too; both our top priorities was the USA. Period.
On the flip side, we should however further analyze our judgement and response therein by continuing to allow muslim extremist groups to have their way in our streets and in our convention halls with their bloody chants. The UK has a bit bigger problem with this than we do. Ours is significant, though, and we can prove with video and concretely identify which muslims came out shrieking with joy at our pain, either blatantly in our streets or behind closed doors at their "conferences". What is not clear is how many muslims have simply remained silent throughout. That is perhaps most alarming of all.]
So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. And this cycle of suspicion and discord must end.
[Agreed, but I would caveat by pointing out that we would do ourselves a favor by truly getting a conceptual grasp in defining our enemy. Let's be 100% frank about precisely who they are. We need to stop censoring our TV; people need to see exactly who they are ... maybe even take a lesson from ol' Tommy Lee and realize that the success of Rock ‘n’ Roll has much to do with the marketing of visual images (in our case no special effects would be needed; we would only need to let the captured enemy video tapes roll uncensored). In Tommy Lee's case, success had to do with some talent, sex, and the flamboyant rock star drug culture. America's fault to date is the lack of luster; we've been talking about evil despite concurrently toning down real images on the news.
In modern day, the ever-streaming newscasts with overly negative we-can't win-the-war images, coupled with the censoring of the various harsh-but-real images which depict the barbarism of the world we live in is NOT cutting it. This defeatist, politically-motivated, potentially unable-to-cope attitude was not always the case in the media. For example, in 1943 everyone understood who the Nazis and Japanese were in vivid detail. They were informed by the silver screen with an update (in lieu of the "previews" we’re used to getting with our popcorn today) that powefully depicted the battle America was in. Today we still need to "show all" and "tell all" in vivid detail the absolute truth to both U.S. Citizens and Allied Muslims alike. That way, we can unite against the real enemy that exists by calling a spade a spade, no holding back. That is the only path to victory.]
I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. ------------>
I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. I know there's been a lot of publicity about this speech, but no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have this afternoon all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors. [Again, it would be helpful to call a spade a spade.] There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." That is what I will try to do today — to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.
Now part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I'm a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.
As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. [Much of the Renaissance, in fact, was more predicated on the centuries-long flight of Greek-speaking Byzantine scholars from Constantinople to Western Europe to escape the aggression of Islamic Turks. Many romantic thinkers of the Enlightenment sought to extend freedom to oppressed subjects under Muslim fundamentalist rule in eastern and southern Europe.] It was innovation in Muslim communities — it was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra [actually that was the ancient Babylonians]; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation [those were all the Chinese]; our mastery of pens and printing [the Chinese again]; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. [Huh? Could you be any more specific or any less vague?] Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.
[Christianity is NOT given credit for the invention of the airplane, the assembly line, the automobile, the telephone, the computer, or modern democracy. Either the individual gets the credit, as is the case with the Wright brothers, or credit is given to us as a nation. Christianity had nothing directly to do with the invention of the airplane. The point is, use the correct terminology. In this world we have cultures, ethnicities, religions, languages, nations (with borders, otherwise known as states), and nations without borders (dispersed people throughout the world that share a language, a religion, and a culture). The President needs to get it right, 100% of the time, when labels and definitions are thrown around in public speeches.]
I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President, John Adams, wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims."
[This is correct; in fact it occurred in 1778. However, he omitted the fact that shortly thereafter Moroccans captured an American ship and its crew to force the United States to sign a pay-for-peace treaty with Morocco's ruler. This tactic was almost identical to modern day muslim somali pirates off the coast of East Africa. The United States government paid the ransom (1 million dollars per year to Algiers alone) throughout the 1780s and 1790s, and by then Algeria and Tripoli (modern day Libya) muslims also began violently attacking our ships too, because it paid. By then over 100 Americans were held hostage from years of attacks – some for more than 12 years. And so its true that the United States officially did not have a problem with Islam by name, we just had a problem with pirates in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of North Africa who happened to be muslims. John Adams, ever-so cognizant of religious history, did not want to unite muslims in a jihad, and almost as if he were an ultra appeasor, would go on to say to the pirates, in the same statement Obama quoted, that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion." He despised the attacks, but until a better U.S. Navy could be built, he felt the ransom had to be paid. Thomas Jefferson vehemently disagreed, and felt this approach would only encourage more attacks and was a very unprincipled approach to the situation. From Wikipedia:
“In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Jefferson asked questions to the Ambassador "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury." The ambassador replied with sort of frankness in religious extremism, and Thomas Jefferson upon his return relayed the result of the meeting by saying this:
“It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.”
In the end, the only statement President Obama had as a factual and historically relevant reference was the Moroccan recognition of the United States as an early example of American-Islamic communication. However, the notion that this communication was one of friendly courtship could not be further from the truth. The John Adams-type diplomacy of the 1790s did not lead to tolerance or friendship at all. The Islamic states, including Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers continued to capture American trading ships. Over time, the United States built a more powerful Navy, and began frequently sending frigates to escort U.S. trading ships near the coast of North Africa.
The very day Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as President in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli demanded $225,000. Jefferson refused, and so the Pasha declared war. As a result the U.S. fought its first overseas war against Tripoli in 1801-05 and then in Algeria in 1815. In the end, it was brute force and several naval victories that caused a lasting peace, rather than the John Adams-type diplomacy of the 1790s. It was only then that the North African muslims stopped capturing American trading ships and taking its citizens hostage. The U.S. Marine Corps hymn sings ‘….to the shores of Tripoli...’ because of the famous valor displayed by its men in this conflict which became known as the Barbary Pirates Wars.To Barak Obama's credit, he was in the right for ordering the shooting of the somali pirates who held the Captain of an American freighter hostage. I just wish it hadn't taken so long to play out.
And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, they have served in our government, they have stood for civil rights, [is he referring to the United Slaves, who in the 1960s invented Kwanzaa? They also started the conversion of people of African decent to militant Islam (which is why names like Jamal, Mohammed, and Laquisha, etc, began to emerge in black communities). The United Slaves were so violent that they even killed Black Panthers whom they didn’t think were extreme enough in their cause. I think Martin Luther King, the Christian, pretty much personified everything we need to know about the Civil Rights movement. From him we learned that leading a divinely-inspired, peaceful, and principled movement in grace is the way in which those wanting change should dream.], they have started businesses, they have taught at our universities, they've excelled in our sports arenas they've won Nobel Prizes, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers — Thomas Jefferson — kept in his personal library. [Thomas Jefferson kept a copy of a lot of books on different subjects so he could better understand them. Since he was President during a U.S. war with North Africa, primarily composed of muslims, it is logical that he got to know his enemy through reading their holiest of books.]
So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam [Again, term usage: the United States of America is a state; Islam is a religion. Until we start using these terms correctly we really have no hope of getting anywhere. America cannot, and should not, make allies along religious lines. That sets a dangerous precident. It is a rule that should be true for all religions. Who we make allies with should be based upon any or all of the following: common culture, shared interests, human rights issues, and those countries who share common principles with us. Officially, it should be declared to have nothing whatsoever to do with religion] must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. [Is it also your responsibility to call for Imams and Clerics living within the U.S. to declare that they completely and totally denounce violence? ‘Bomb bomb USA, UK you will pay!’ – heard that before? No? Well I’ll give you something the FBI calls a clue – that rally cry is not from a Christian church service demonstration in Davenport, Iowa. It’s from an Islamic mosque sermon in New York City.]
The above title corrected: extreme American muslims hate America
But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words — within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum — "Out of many, one." [If we’re "one" then why are so many modern-day liberals kosher with using terms like "I’m-different-and-therefore-deserve-special-treatment- HYPHEN-American" to define ourselves on every form of registration, right down to the grocery store super saver application form?]
Now, much has been made of the fact that an African American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores — and that includes nearly 7 million American Muslims in our country today [Actually, the CIA world fact book as well as Wikipedia put the number of American Muslims at 2.3 million or .8% of our population. This ranks us 52nd in the world based on total Muslim population.] who, by the way, enjoy incomes and educational levels that are higher than the American average.
Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state in our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That's why the United States government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab and to punish those who would deny it. [Then why do I have to take my sunglasses off my head when I get my driver’s license picture taken? What if I worshipped Rah, the Sun God? The glasses don't cover my face. Muslim women are allowed to get their picture taken with a hijab (which is a headscarf) that covers the shape of their head leaving only their face exposed.]
So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. [What is that standard, exactly, to be part of America? Could it be identifying, understanding, and standing behind the Constitution? Or is it just showing up on our shores that makes one "part of America," with no real love of country or even merely a respect for it?] And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations — to live in peace [Does this statement make light of muslim protests in NYC and London where they chant "bomb, bomb, USA, UK you will pay"?] and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity.
Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.
For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. When innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.
And this is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes — and, yes, religions — subjugating one another in pursuit of their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order [Which you are the ruler of?] that elevates one nation or group of people over another [Aren’t you elevating yourself over others?] will inevitably fail. [So by this logic we need to shed 233 years of progress to level the playing field to whatever year various countries around the world are living at?] So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners to it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; our progress must be shared.
I always enjoyed Paul Harvey's, "The Rest of the Story" and listened whenever I could. The story, in white print, IS what was said, but the well-verbalized red print in the "Rest of the Story". Lex is spot-on!
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