Rainbows and unicorns and a world without the j-word
I talked for a few minutes about the latest History-Making, World-Changing Obama Speech on Fox and Friends this morning. He attemped to obfuscate his explicit anti-American apologism with a mixture of disingenuousness and naivete totally untethered to reality (including the “7 million Muslims” figure he hyped).
Despite all his supposedly frank talk, Obama insists on hiding behind the euphemism “violent extremism.” It’s not only the “t-word” — terrorism — that failed to pass from his lips. It’s the j-word — jihad, violent jihad — that Obama will not acknowledge. He clings to the myth that only a “tiny minority” of “extremists” subscribe to the deadly Koran-inspired mission to force infidels to submit. He refuses to acknowledge and confront the violent jihadi virus around the world and on American soil.
Even some left-wing progressives choked on all the pretty words.
While Obama basked in shouts of “We love you!,” let’s not forget how the Arab street really feels. Has always felt:
Fail.
***
Ed Morrissey has a more positive take and writes: “I don’t hear anything in this speech that Bush didn’t say himself.”
Er, that’s the problem. For all the hype about fresh starts and new beginnings, Obama embraces the same blind dhimmitude that plagued the Bush adminstration and foggy-headed bureaucrats that infect Foggy Bottom.
Same old, same old.
***
NYPost’s Charles Hurt: Obama sure buttered them up in Cairo.
Andy McCarthy revisits Obama’s revisionism on the Founding Fathers and Islam.
***
President Obama mentioned the “trauma” of the September 11 jihadi attacks in his speech. Here’s another reality check. Flashback, September 12, 2008, The Blame America poll and the Blame America candidate:
A poll released this week of more than 16,000 people in 17 nations revealed that “majorities in only nine countries believe al Qaeda was behind the attacks on New York and Washington that killed about 3,000 people in 2001.” A mere 46% of individuals overall said they believed al Qaeda executed the attacks – despite all the back-patting, fist-pumping video productions from AQ’s media arm, as-Sahab, claiming credit.
…Seven years after Mohammed Atta, Hani Hanjour, and their Allahu Akbar-screaming team succeeded in slaughtering nearly 3,000 innocent men, women, and children, large numbers of our putative allies in the civilized world are still blaming America and Israel.
“Israel was behind the attacks, said 43 percent of people in Egypt, 31 percent in Jordan and 19 percent in the Palestinian Territories,” the survey found. “The U.S. government was blamed by 36 percent of Turks and 27 percent of Palestinians.” The pollsters noted that no prompting was necessary: “These responses were given spontaneously to an open-ended question that did not offer response options.”
Among our great friends south of the border, Mexico boasted “the second-largest number citing the US government as the perpetrator of 9/11 (30%, after Turkey at 36%). Only 33 percent name al Qaeda.” Which, of course, is no shock to those who remember when the U.S. soccer team was taunted with chants of “Osama! Osama! Osama!” after a match in Guadalajara four years ago; or when the team was booed again in 2005 and plastic bags filled with urine were reportedly tossed on American players.
They hate us. They still really, really hate us. And it is not all about Iraq. As a Mexican soccer fan told the Christian Science Monitor: “‘Every schoolboy knows about 1848. . . . When they robbed our territory,’ referring to when Texas, California and New Mexico were annexed to the U.S. as part of a peace treaty ending the war between the two countries, ‘that was the beginning.’”
Not coincidentally, another world opinion poll was released this week that dovetails with the 9/11 survey. While the global community refuses to unite against al Qaeda as a common enemy to humanity, it has decided on who should be America’s next president. The BBC-commissioned poll named Barack Obama the world’s favorite candidate by an overwhelming margin of four to one. They see in their fellow “citizen of the world” a kindred spirit:
Someone whose former spiritual mentor shares the European elite’s “chickens coming home to roost” schadenfreude. Someone who has promoted the need for “empathy” toward the head-chopping jihadists. Someone who shares their fetishizing of terrorists as poor victims of imperialism in need more “understanding” and “education.” Someone who cynically hawks “Buy American” campaign stickers while courting the “Blame America” Left at home and abroad.
Obama is their man. Never forget.
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Trackbacks
- Obama’s Appeal to the Muslim World « NEOAVATARA
- Obama’s Nixon China speech « DaTechguy’s Blog
- “Yes We Can” in Hieroglyphics « Around The Sphere
- The Day In Israel: Thurs June 4th, 2009 | Israellycool
- Obama’s Speech in Cairo: 6,000 Words and What Some are Already Saying | All American Blogger
- Obama’s Speech in Cairo: 6,000 Words and What Some are Already Saying | All American Blogger
- Obama’s apologetic speech in Cairo | 2SecondsFaster.com
- First thoughts on President Obama’s Cairo speech | Unequal Time
- Hyscience
- Obama’s Speech and Related [Dan Collins; UPDATED]
- Obama’s Speech in Cairo: Platitudes A-Plenty, Reactions Mixed « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Is America “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world?” « Jim Blazsik
- First Things — The Anchoress
- The Snooper Report
- The Cairo Speech | The Lonely Conservative
- Holy Hell A Presidential Duty To Islam?
- Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s speech to Muslims in Cairo - Quoting the Koran instead of the Bible | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- obama’s cairo speech: just more apology and appeasement | Blatherings Blog
- Dhimmi in Chief: President Speaks ‘Troof to Power’ at Cairo University (Updated) | Hashmonean
- Bookworm Room » The voice of the blogosophere about Obama’s speech
- America, where the lunatics run the asylum: does he really believe he is pharaoh…? — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami
- Reactions To Obama’s Cairo Speech : Stop The ACLU
- Reactions To Obama’s Cairo Speech : Stop The ACLU
- Barely A Blog » Updated: B. Hussein In Wonderland
- Obama’s Planet Unicorn
- Obama gives much-hyped speech at Cairo « Wellsy’s World
- What’s up with the Czars? - rightofcourse.com
- Now that the Obama speech is over « The Western Experience
- “Osama, Osama…” the twice-told tale « The Mex Files
- Schaschlik « abseits vom mainstream – heplev
- 6000 Words of What? « Obi’s Sister
- When does patriotism turn into bullheaded jingoism, Ms. Malkin? « devocat blog
- Rightwing Reactions to Obama’s Cairo Speech « Conservative First
- Obama’s Cairo Speech: Revises & Rewrites Muslim History… AGAIN « Frugal Café Blog Zone
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Categories: Islam
Ed Driscoll
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That clown troll posted the same words on another thread this morning.
I don’t know but it was funny the second time as well.
Maybe this 7million figure comes from counting the increasing number of converts in our prisons
Any discussion in his speech about the fact of all the Muslim nations, only Egypt and Syria recognize Israel’s right to exist? Does Obama plan on overlooking that? Is anyone going to ask the question? Anybody? Hello?
I have two things to contribute:
Bob and Granite, I agree with you about his evil face and eyes. I actually hate to put into words what I think he is.
Second thing is this link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/04/ap/strange/main5060547.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.8
Please read the story. I have also seen the video of this and a transcript of the conversation. What is glossed over in this article is that the man came into the store carrying a stick or bat, the store owner pulled a shotgun and the would-be robber immediately dropped into a prayer position, crying and saying he would turn his life around and convert to Islam if only the store owner won’t kill him. The store owner gave him the oath of Islam conversion. Then, the store owner gave him money and bread and literally told him to go in peace. I saw an interview with the store owner describing how he (a Muslim) is a peaceful and loving person who only wants to be kind to others.
Am I the only person who views this as a put up job, piece of propaganda designed to get out a message of submit or die, we will give you help and peace if you convert?
Or sleeper cells.
Hat Tip Bonz at GCP
Link to American Thinker
On my comment #94, I was thinking Jordan but wrote Syria. Big difference.
Don’t forget, it wasn’t Christians or Jews who burned the Library at Alexandria. The greatest collection of ancient knowledge the world has ever known was vandalized by Muslims. And people wonder why the Middle East is a cultural backwater.
ECS
No need to value books when many in the muslim world can’t read. Besides, how much talent and education does it take to strap on a bomb and explode it? No need for a retirement plan either.
ed mahmoud; PRICELESS. i wonder who barry will blame after this heartfelt and inspiring speech to the world that he rejects all of the bush doctrines and now wants and expects civil discourse, when more islamic terrorists unleash the next murderous attack. i know, mondays murder of the soldier doesn’t count because it predates barry’s prayer to allah for peace. but next week … will it still be the bush legacy?
b-cat quoted(#47):
This is historically true. When the Christians of Spain were torturing and killing the Jews of Spain, the Muslim world took them in. The great Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides was born in Spain and lived most of his life in Cairo.
Ed Mahmoud abu al-Kahoul said (#81):
Every who holds their chin up is a Fascist? G-d save us from Peter Martins.
Re: 7 million Muslims in NYC
Yes, I can believe that figure’s about right — and growing. We have a nice sized fraction of that in NYC metro alone, so yea…
The one thing we ought be very careful of is, for reason or spite, fan a religious war here. That’s not to say Islamic leaders shouldn’t be called on the carpet to issue a condemnation of terrorism — they should — (like the Pope during WWII should’ve done of Nazism), but this broad-brush notion that all Islamics, especially those in the U.S., are terrorists in the bush is dangerously incorrect. I do know that a large majority of those of the Islamic faith in NYC are more apathetic than incendiary about Middle East issues; they’re like how much German-Americans are into what’s going on back in Munich. They’re too busy scratching out a living here than worry about “the old country” much less taking fires out into the street. Islam is like a continent, stuffed with different nations and states and sub-states, the sins of one or a few of which are not indicative of the whole, just like Tim McVey. If the entire Muslim universe were seethingly rabid to slaughter infidels on the spot, even turning our homes into Fort Bragg isn’t going to save us, so there’s a whole lot more indifferently peaceful Muslims out there than the news lets on. Islam can’t be wished or blasted off the Earth, so we must learn to deal and manage it via shrewd diplomacy and even draconian border control. The trick is not letting their fanatics grab the drivers seat over there, like in Gaza and Left Bank. The Palestinians severely need a postive example that “exiled” people can indeed prosper in cramped circumstances to mitigate their diverting idelogiocal beefs with a tiny neighbor, much as the Taiwanese have done. The Bamba should’ve cited this instead of stale “let’s sit down at the table” nonsense that desert despots love. Also, the one thing that doesn’t help you in that world is groveling with apologies for alleged wrongs you supposedly inflected on Islam. It’s a bad move, however sympathetic or compassionate it appears.
Anyway IMHO.
James Greenidge
Queens, NY
Excellent critical piece from across the pond.
A common theme with THE ONE…I’m the fix–whatever is wrong–I’m the answer. Never “this is the answer”.
I mean 7 million Muslims in the USA. I was rushed.
No, no. That is just a superficial similarity.
Obama and Mussolini are deeply, fundamentally linked by ideology and pathology.
Rush is dissecting O’s speech; at the moment, focusing on O’s assertions that we owe so many advancements to Islam… O’s a “student of history” my a$$….
History is just ANOTHER subject of which THE ONE is startlingly ignorant. Name a field, and he has very likely demonstrated his lack of understanding in it.
Not to mention lawyers.
Crack a history book and compare facist Italy to oabams America.
No it isn’t. When christian nations were abolishing slavery, islamic nations were raiding christians for slaves. Stop reading the PC talking points and read real history. The examples of Spain was an EXCEPTION, not the rule. Ever wonder where all the jews in Iraq went??
Tolerance my a$$.
Not in Saudi Arabia, that bastion of “religious tolerance.” I wouldn’t even be allowed to wear the small gold cross that my husband gave me, nor bring my own Bible into that country, even if it was inside my luggage and not taken out except in the privacy of my own lodgings.
A good trial lawyer is a good PR person. It’s all about persuasion…
Oh, Lord….
Yet again, ignorant, self-loathing, groveling Dhimmitude.
That poster should check out the following:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008873.php
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=9003
http://www.islamreview.com/articles/islamicintolerance.shtml
Also, the poster should read Bat Ye’or, Robert Spencer, and Andrew Bostom.
They allowed you to READ????
I just dont understand this morbid outreach to be nice to Muslims, to make sure that they know that we like and respect them. Muslims have been responsible for most terrorist attacks around the world for the past 35 years, as well as wars. Shouldn’t it be Muslims that are worried about how they are viewed??? I don’t give a rats azz what Muslims think of me, or the USA. Respect must be mutual, and Muslims do not return the respect that they are given.
Agreed.
Yep.
I’ve noticed for the last couple of decades that the expression “mutual respect” is often used by Muslims; an expression in which they do not in the least believe.
wow granite, thanks for the links.
Education is a good thing.
I’ve raised this analogy before, but…
How would it have gone over for FDR to praise Shintoism during WWII?
To apologize for American exploitation of the Japanese leading up to Pearl Harbor?
One thing our leaders seem to have always understood…you defeat enemies first, then you try to convince them of our good intentions.
You begin that process by recognizing we have enemies, and who they are.
There is only sanity behind that imperative.
Balderdash. Even if what you say were true, where is the evidence of it today?
Go easy on the troll.
It’s not easy or fun to prostrate oneself before the bully; and one cannot feel good about oneself while doing it.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6480/inquisition2.html
A good beginning to understanding the SECOND half of the myth recited by lgm.
Google “inquisition myth”. It will open a lot of eyes, and debunk a lot of anti-christian BS.
Obama is an international socialist supported by a substantial group of thugs and outright lawbreakers. it is obvious that facts mean nothing to him – particularly when he is pandering.
“Obama’s speech is an attempt to mislead people and create more illusions to improve America’s aggressive image in the Arab and Islamic world.” — A joint statement by eight Damascus, Syria-based radical Palestinian factions, including Hamas.
The word jihad is one of the first taught to children in muslim classrooms. Talk about indoctrination!
I could offer many comparisons that would elicit the word “outrage” from the one, but it would be counterproductive.
I would not take anything from that region of the world at face value.
Until proven otherwise, I assume every one of their statements – e-v-e-r-y o-n-e – to be nothing more than BS/deception; i.e., taqiyya.
Apparently, they feel the same about THE ONE’s words.
Frankly, I totally agree.
*fixed it for you.
Sitting here in Afghanistan watching the Obama speech was surreal. I would have turned it off when it became evident that he does not have a clue of the realities of the world (naivete is so painful to watch sometimes), but I was watching with a couple of American Afghani Muslims who wanted to see it. They applauded the use of the Koran (Quran) and nodded their heads with the recitation of the passages, but grew visibly more puzzled as the speech went on. The moment was encapsulated when one said “He (Obama) didn’t say what we are going to do!”. The other said “Palestinians are nobody.” I went into the other room to smother my chuckles.
Yep, or, “it’s all about spin and obfuscation.”
granite said (#113):
Despite the unnecessary insults, I’ll answer this. Read a book on sephardic Jewish history. Much of what is in your links is true. The Jewish time in Spain was not always a picnic. There were periods of fundamentalist Muslim rule when the Jews suffered. There were other periods when the Jews thrived. Maimonides lived freely and comfortably in Cairo, where he wrote his famous books. The Christians Ferdinand and Isabella expelled Jews from Spain under threat of torture and death.
Actually, he was excoriated by the Jewish communities world-wide because he reasoned that false conversion to ISLAM to save one’s life was acceptable as a last resort. Most rabbis of the day said you had to die rather than convert. There were rumors in his day that RAMBAM did just that in order to leave Spain, although, in reality, he left with his family as Jews. And he lived and was the leader of the Jewish community in Fostat (NOT CAIRO) for many years.
Rambam wrote his most famous book, Mishneh Torah in MOROCCO.
Res ipse loquitur.
There is no need to add a thing.
Try this link lgm. Learn some correct facts.
Wikipedia: Rambam
or this one:
Life of Rambam by Rabbi Berel Wein, one of the best Jewish historians of modern time. I have listened to them and they are very elementary, so you may be able to understand them.
You guys will quibble anything to death. There is a reason all those Spanish speaking Jews lived in Muslim countries. It has to do with where they were allowed to live and where they were not allowed to live.
Except maybe the proper gender agreement. Res ipsa loquitur.
Touche.
I stand corrected.
Res, res is feminine.
I thought ipse was a two-form (M/F & N) pronoun.
However, it is three-form.
After 35-40 years, I should triple-check my Latin.
“…part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
Huh? What happened to separation of church and state? When is it ever the President’s job to do ANYTHING at ALL about any religious matter? Where are the left loonies on this matter?
‘ANY WORLD ORDER THAT ELEVATES ONE NATION OVER ANOTHER WILL FAIL’…
So when the world squashed Hitler, Japan, Fascist Italy, came together to fight Apartheid, the world was wrong and so we failed?
“Even if what you say were true, where is the evidence of it today?”
You do know that in lgm’s world view that is irrelevant right? It doesn’t matter if it is irrelevant today. Pointing to some failure of Christianity regardless of WHEN it happened is all one on the left needs to do, in their minds of course, in order to dismiss it today.
Its goofy of course but they do it all the time.
So I refuse to go to a doctor today cause you know in the past, all they did was blood letting.
The left throws labels around when it suits their argument as well. So Isabella and Ferdinand, they were Christians, end of argument. No consideration given to that kind of label during that time frame was more political then a statement of personal faith.
But hey, who needs to keep tracks of facts.
Correction:
Res,rei, F.
Hey lgm, “quibble?”
I guess that’s what you’d call it when you were losing the argument.
As has been pointed out, where are all the jewish Iraqis today?
There used to be hundreds of thousands of them.
I know, pesky facts…..
Lgm is correct. This is why.
What happened to these Jewish women was typical.
More Muslims live in Israel than Jews living in Saudi Arabia and Iran, maybe Syria, Yemen, and Libya combined.
Actually, Rags, most of the Muslim countries are “Jew-free”. All of the Jews, at one time or another in modern times, have been told to leave the country. But they had to leave all their money and “stuff” if they left.
There are TWO Jews in Afghanistan. Two. That’s all.
Not even ONE in Saudi Arabia.
There is a small Jewish community in Iran that is scared spitless that the government will come and arrest them on some pretense (maybe they prayer in Hebrew and someone heard them) that they will be arrested as “Zionist Spies”. Happened in 1999 as a matter of fact to 13 men. On February 19, 2003, Iranian officials announced that they had released the five last remaining Jews imprisoned in the city of Shiraz. The charges: spying for the “Zionist regime” and “world arrogance.”
lgm:
The only thing that I knowingly agree with Peter Daou about is that his wife is pretty. Her singing is way overrated, but she’s easy on the eyes.
That’s presuming that the Peter Daou I refer to is the same person you wrote about. If he’s not, I haven’t the foggiest what you meant.
Next time you build a straw man, lgm, make the face recognizable.
1) How do you know he thinks his wife is pretty?
2) be careful about referring to the attractiveness of married women or bear1909 will bring down a world of hurt on you.
I think bear and I agree that a married woman may be attractive.
Not “hot”. Attractive. Very different concepts.
We can but hope that Mr. Daou finds his wife pretty, easy on the eyes, and attractive…if not, indeed, “hot”. Frankly, I wish that for every married man AND his wife.
And vise versa (as Archie Bunker would say).
As my southern belle grandmother used to say, “That’s what I know”.
Wiki working yielded a number for Jewish Iranians at between 10 and 40k in 2008, a variance so broad as to be inherently worthless. I would tend to believe the lower end of the scale, but that is subjective.
NO Jew…we are assured…sits in the legislative body of any of those nations, however. Muslims DO sit in the Knesset.
Actually, there is a token Jewish seat in the Iranian parliment. Probably just makes it easier to catch one when MA wants a “Swinging Jew” Party.
Not to me, nor to most in my generation I would guess. I thought bear had some good points in that discussion, but making the term “hot” into something way more than it really is was not one of them.
Robert Spencer Fisks Obama’s Cairo speech in the article below. It is VERY long and detailed. It notes that Obama screwed up throughout his speech ignoring realities of Islam left, right, center, front, rear,
left, right, up, and down.
Platitudes and naivete: Obama’s Cairo speech
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026426.php
And did I say it’s incredibly long?
{^_^}
Now THAT would be like getting “elected” in the sense used in The Magnificent Seven!!!!
I understand your point, but I agree with bear. I have sons that use the “hot” term in the “attractive” sense, but I too deplore the loss of nuance for the more omnibus “hot”. I like precision in language, and nuance in opposition to coarseness.
I’m not saying I would use the term in my next legal brief, but one also does not want to come across as a pedant (though I am certainly guilty of the same from time to time) or worse, an old fogie.
I have learned to embrace my uniqueness…and yes, even my inner fogie.
Well said.
lgm: We do when it deals with reality and today’s world, not the distant past.
Hey! I resemble that remark!