Obama: You Know America Is Kind Of One Of The World's Largest Muslim Nations

No, no, a thousand times NO.

Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.

As Michael Goldfarb points out at the link, Obama is wrong on the math.

Obama is also wrong if he thinks there's any significant similarities between the Muslim world and the United States. The cultural, legal and political values this country was founded on have nothing to do with Islam,. To say or even intimate otherwise is quite simply a lie or reveals a lack of historical understanding.

America's proud traditions of religious tolerance and freedom allows Muslims to worship in this country as they please. Alas, that is not always a courtesy that is always or even often reciprocated.

Perhaps that's something Mr. Obama should be focusing on in his talk in Cairo tomorrow. That kind of honesty between the US and Muslim nations might be helpful. Each side should be forthright about what it values most. Cheap attempts to curry favor based on nothing but convenient untruths and personal narratives won't serve either side well in the long run.

In related news...

bin Laden (or the an actor playing bin Laden) welcomes Obama to the Mideast.

Obama insists that members of the Egyptian Parliament representing the Muslim Brotherhood be at his speech.

The Brotherhood has direct links with Sunni groups like Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Its standing in Egypt has suffered as of late because of a crackdown by the Egyptian government and a growing frustration that it is too conservative (anti-women's rights, the whole gamut) for a modern Middle East. Still, it's the largest Sunni opposition party in the world, and it's clear that the Obama administration wants to engage the Sunnis -- even the less moderate Sunnis -- in his "Mutual Respect" tour.

And the Israeli Foreign Minister says they aren't going to attack Iran.

The comments marked a softening of signals from Netanyahu's hardline government - particularly coming from Lieberman, one its leading hawks.

"We do not intend to bomb Iran, and nobody will solve their problems with our hands," Lieberman told reporters. "We don't need that. Israel is a strong country, we can protect ourselves.

"But the world should understand that the Iran's entrance into the nuclear club would prompt a whole arms race, a crazy race of unconventional weaponry across the Mideast that is a threat to the entire world order, a challenge to the whole international community," he said, in Russian. "So we do not want a global problem to be solved with our hands."

I really hope that's a bit of misinformation designed to pressure the US and the rest of the world to do something and not something Israel actually means. The world, including the US has made it pretty clear they have accepted the idea of Iran becoming a nuclear power. If Israel doesn't do something, no one is going to.

posted by DrewM. at 10:01 AM

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