President Obama: how has Islam shaped the United
States?
2009 April 8
tags: "the bow", Barack Obama, Camille Paglia,
islam, King Abdullah, Obamaworld, Turkish Parliamentby Jim Blazsik
As the President made his magical mystery tour through Europe,
he has entertained us with miscues, gaffes, and has succeeded quite well in the
“offending folks” department. His constant apologies for our country have come
to the point of being categorized as annoying. But his words and actions when
it comes to Islam have been very curious, and, well, troubling.
Of course there is “the bow” before King Abdullah thing - we
all know that the President of the United States
is an equal among peers, and is not to bow before anyone. Even liberal Camille
Paglia commented at Salon:
There has been one needless gaffe after another — from the
president’s tacky appearance on a late-night comedy show to the kitsch gifts
given to the British prime minister, followed by the sweater-clad first lady’s
over-familiarity with the queen and culminating in the jaw-dropping spectacle
of a president of the United States bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia. Why was
protest about the latter indignity confined to conservatives? The silence of
the major media was a disgrace.
But his statements before the Turkish Parliament have you
thinking: “whoa, where did he come up with that?” The “We have a very large
Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation”
statement will be discussed in another blog. There is another statement that has
one wondering how well the President fared in American history.
“We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith,
which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my
own country.”
Mr. President, what country are you talking about? Robert
Spencer from FrontPageMag.com shares:
Unless he considers himself an Indonesian, Obama’s statement
was extraordinarily strange. After all, how has the Islamic faith shaped the United
States? Were there Muslims along Paul
Revere’s ride, or standing next to Patrick Henry when he proclaimed, “Give me
liberty or give me death”? Were there Muslims among the framers or signers of
the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men – not just Muslims,
as Islamic law would have it – are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Were
there Muslims among those who drafted the Constitution and vigorously debated
its provisions, or among those who enumerated the Bill of Rights, which
guarantees – again in contradiction to the tenets of Islamic law – that there
should be no established national religion, and that the freedom of speech
should not be infringed?
There were not.
But then Spencer takes it another step: would Islamic
influence in our country yield the freedoms we cherish today?
Did Muslims play a role in the great struggle over slavery
that defined so much of our contemporary understandings of the nature of this
republic and of the rights of the individual within it? They did not. Did the
Islamic faith shape the way the United States
responded to the titanic challenges of the two World Wars, the Great
Depression, or the Cold War? It did not. Did the Islamic faith, with its legal
apparatus that institutionalizes discrimination against non-Muslims, shape the
civil rights movement in the United States?
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated equality of access to public facilities –
a hard-won victory that came at a great cost, and one that Muslim groups have
tried to roll back in the United States recently. One notable example of such
attempts was the alcohol-in-cabs controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul
international airport, when Muslim cabdrivers began to refuse service to
customers who were carrying alcohol, on Islamic religious grounds. The core
assumption underlying this initiative – that discrimination on the basis of
religion is justified – cut right to the heart of the core principle of the
American polity, that “all men are created equal,” that is, that they have a
right to equal treatment in law and society.
Surveying the whole tapestry of American history, one would
be hard-pressed to find any significant way in which the Islamic faith has
shaped the United States
in terms of its governing principles and the nature of American society.
Meanwhile, there are numerous ways in which, if there had been a significant
Muslim presence in the country at the time, some of the most cherished and
important principles of American society and law may have met fierce
resistance, and may never have seen the light of day.
So what’s the President talking about? Maybe it’s because he
is a radical leftist. I mean, I’m trying to be understanding here. Radical
leftists hate America
and it’s Christian heritage - so the “change” thing. But it doesn’t necessarily
explain his words and actions when it comes to Islam.
So, Mr. President, we leave it up to you: please tell us -
why the bow, and what country are you talking about?
http://jimblazsik.com/2009/04/08/president-obama-how-has-islam-shaped-the-united-states/
