1.  Will the Islamic superhero, behead the enemy?
2.  If it is a female, will wearing a burqa make her fly?
3.  Is George Bush one of the villains?

Obama Pledges To Forge Better Ties With The Muslim World

President Obama today announced that Washington will set up exchange programs with business people throughout the Muslim world in order to establish better relations with the Muslim population across the globe.

The move is a part of the overall outreach program outlined by the president last year.  "The new beginning we seek is not only possible, it has already begun," Obama told the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C, quoted The Associated Press.

During the summit, Obama announced that under the new exchange programs Muslim business people will get opportunities to invest in Silicon Valley, technology, telecommunications, health care, education and infrastructure.  The delegates from the U.S. and Muslim countries were present during the summit.

Last June, Obama had said during his speech in Cairo that the US would maintain better relations with the Muslims in future.  "Over the past year the United States has been reaching out and listening," he said. Obama’s bid to forge better ties with the Muslims include withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq, working with Afghanistan and Pakistan to "isolate violent extremists," and resolution of the lingering conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Obama said that the US is also making outreach in cultural sector, including a comic book series in which American superhero Superman and Batman work with their Muslim counterparts.  "And I hear they’re making progress," Obama said.

A leading international Arab newspaper has hailed Barack Obama for officially removing the description "Muslim terrorist" as part of his campaign "to reach out to the Muslim world."  The op-ed did not note the radical Muslim background of the terrorists and reasoned they are equal to other terrorists whose religion is not connected with their acts.

Osman Mirghani, the deputy editor-in-chief of 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat,' which is owned by a Saudi Arabian company and published in London, wrote an op-ed last week under the headline "Why Didn't Obama Mention Islam?."  The Obama administration has broken from the Bush government's policy of using the term "Islamic terrorism" in official documents and "no longer [is] responding to extremist voices" that call for targeting home countries of terrorists, he explained.

He said Obama is carrying out his pledge in his "reaching out to Muslims speech" at Cairo University in June 2008.  Regarding his statements on the botched Times Square bombing, the editor praised Obama for not once referring to prime suspect Faisal Shahzad's being Muslim and for not "mentioning Islam in discussing the terrorist operation."

"Our campaign to disrupt, dismantle, and to defeat al Qaeda is part of an international effort that is necessary and just.  But this is a different kind of war.  There will be no simple moment of surrender to mark the journey’s end -- no armistice or banner headline.  Though we have had more success in eliminating al Qaeda leaders in recent months than in recent years, they will continue to recruit, plot, and exploit our open society.  We see that in bombs that go off in Kabul and Karachi.  We see it in attempts to blow up an airliner over Detroit or a SUV in Times Square, even as these failed attacks show that pressure on networks like al Qaeda is forcing them to rely on terrorists with less time and space to train.  We see it in al Qaeda’s gross distortion of Islam, their disrespect for human life, and their attempts to prey upon fear, and hatred, and prejudice."

So the threat will not go away soon, but let’s be clear: al Qaeda and its affiliates are small men on the wrong side of history.  They lead no nation.  They lead no religion.  We need not give in to fear every time a terrorist tries to scare us.  We should not discard our freedoms because extremists try to exploit them.  We cannot succumb to division because others try to drive us apart.  We are the United States of America.  We’ve repaired our union, faced down fascism, and outlasted communism.  We have gone through turmoil and come out stronger, and we will do so once more.

I know this to be true because I see the strength and resilience of the American people.  Terrorists want to scare us, but New Yorkers go about their lives unafraid.  Extremists want a war between America and Islam, but Muslims are a part of our national life, including those who serve in our Army.  Adversaries want to divide us, but we are united by our support for you -- soldiers who send a clear message that this country is both the land of the free and the home of the brave."

"Obama told me he is still a Muslim, who supports the Muslim agenda."

The occasion was another "post-Cairo" conference, following on the event that welcomed Islamist ideologue Tariq Ramadan to Washington in April.  Hussain also declared that Obama is "Educator-in-Chief" on the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which has produced diplomatic and political events around the capital for some years.  Hussain affirmed with satisfaction that presidential iftar dinners, where the fast is broken after sundown, and which had formerly been limited to diplomats from Muslim countries, now welcomed American Muslims from throughout society.

In his remarks, Hussain also congratulated Obama for sending Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser, to last year's annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, a notorious front for Saudi-financed Muslim radicalism.  Worse, Hussain has now divulged that the U.S. will support the OIC in the latter's United Nations effort to criminalize "defamation of religion" -- widely perceived as a measure to suppress criticism of Muslim practices that violate human rights.  "The OIC and the Obama administration will work together in the UN on the issue of defamation of religion, especially in Europe," said Hussain.  He had previously said, at the above-mentioned April "post-Cairo" conference, that the U.S. would work with the OIC to defend the Muslim head-scarf against prohibitions on its display in schools and governmental offices -- a measure common to secular France and now Islamist-ruled, but still legally-secular Turkey, as well as Muslim-majority Tunisia and Kosovo.

Obama, Hussain declaimed, has created an "overarching framework" for relations between Muslims and non-Muslims that is lacking in Europe.  The problem, according to the president's man at the OIC, is that a once-favorable relationship between the West and the Muslim countries has turned negative in the past decade -- presumably, since 9/11.  Put plainly, Obama's desire to educate Americans about Islam is founded on nostalgia for a warm and reliable friendship that rarely existed.

As noted by Hussain, Obama has called for references to "Islamic terrorism" and "jihadism" to be expunged from the official vocabulary employed by his administration, and has pronounced last year's Fort Hood massacre to be unrelated to Islam.  As the president has assured the world, terrorism is anti-Islamic and the term "jihad" has been misused.  Thus Obama presumes not only to act as "educator" on Islam to non-Muslim Americans, but to define the religion for its own adherents.

Hussain addressed his comments to an event assessing the impact of Obama's Cairo speech.  But Hussain employed a phrase that must have been chilling to those who heard in it an echo, saying "Islam is a solution" to the current global challenges emerging from Muslim ranks.  A "post-Cairo" phrase indeed: "Islam is the solution" is the slogan of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

To that end, early in its tenure the Bush administration began a serious effort to seek out and support moderate Islam.  Since then, Washington has funded mosques, schools, institutes, and community centers that are trying to modernize Islam around the world.

We should be encouraging groups like the one behind this project, not demonizing them.  Were this mosque being built in a foreign city, chances are that the U.S. government would be funding it.

Here at the White House, we have a tradition of hosting iftars that goes back several years, just as we host Christmas parties, seders, and Diwali celebrations.

For in the end, we remain "one nation, under God, indivisible."  And we can only achieve "liberty and justice for all" if we live by that one rule at the heart of every religion, including Islam -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country." -- Barack Hussein Obama, spoken at a White House dinner to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan!

"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable."

Democrats -- at least the ones willing to comment at all -- could barely contain their frustration over Obama’s remarks Friday night, saying they would further complicate campaign efforts by candidates struggling in an anti-Democratic year, particularly moderates in conservative-leaning districts who already are 2010’s most vulnerable contenders.

"I would prefer the president be a little more of a politician and a little less of a college professor," former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.), who once ran the House Democratic campaign arm, wrote in POLITICO’s Arena.  "While a defensible position, it will not play well in the parts of the country where Democrats need the most help."

Obama himself had steered clear of the issue for weeks, with his spokesman Robert Gibbs telling reporters that it was primarily a local issue.  But at a Friday White House Iftar dinner, Obama said that while he understands Ground Zero is "hallowed ground," he told a group of Muslims that he believes they have "the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in the country."

"And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said.

1. Obama's tone was not one calculated to persuade.  He both hectored and belittled those who oppose the GZM.  If you respectfully beg to differ with Obama, it is hard to like the persona Obama had on display Friday night.

2. Obama supported the GZM in his usual style, in which his position is juxtaposed with a straw man of his choosing.  It is an unappealing rhetorical habit that is made even more unappealing when applied to an issue on which people of good faith obviously differ with him.

3. Obama's statement begs the question posed by the GZM.  No one has questioned the right of Muslims to practice their religion the same as anyone else in this country.  Rather, those opposed to the GZM have asked the proponents, among other things, to recognize and give way to the feelings of ordinary Americans that a mosque does not belong at Ground Zero.

4. Obama's remarks alluded to the right of private property involved in the construction of the proposed GZM.  We haven't previously heard much about the right of private property from Obama.

5. Obama's remarks emphasized the First Amendment rights of Muslims in America.  Gone was the living Constitution and the vaunted "empathy" that may impel right (left) thinking judges to depart from a fixed reading of constitutional rights.  Whatever empathy Obama expressed for the opponents of the GZM, it was an empathy that had to give way in recognition of the First Amendment right of free exercise.  Now if Obama would just take the same approach to the First Amendment right of free speech at issue in Citizens United, for example, he might want to issue an apology to the Supreme Court.

6. It's good for Muslims to build the GZM in New York, but not for Jews to build apartments in Jerusalem.  Go figure.

7. In the remarks prefacing his formal speech, Obama recognized Rep. Andre Carson in the audience, who (along with Rep. Keith Ellison, whom he also called out) is one of the two Muslims in Congress.  We are still awaiting the the enterprising journalist who can ferret out the branch of Islam that comports with the tenets of the Democratic Party on the equality of women, abortion, gay rights and all the rest.

8. By Saturday, in the face of the response his remarks engendered, Obama was backing off from his support for the GZM.  He availed himself of the option of emphasizing the straw man he had addressed.  We were to believe that he was only addressing the issue in the abstract.  Both Friday's statement and Saturday's backtracking were remarkably unpersuasive.

9. Obama could have played a constructive role in resolving the deeply divisive issues raised by the GZM.  Instead he chose to put on display his belief in his superior nature.

10. With great reliability Obama stands athwart the feelings of ordinary Americans.  Indeed, he is a much more ardent defender of the faith of Musims than he is of the United States, of its history or of its people.  Although Obama framed his GZM remarks as a citizen and President of the United States, he seems to think of himself less as a citizen of the United States than as a citizen of the world and less as president than as philosopher king.

Obama’s Cairo discourse fits perfectly into his agenda.  It flatters Muslim sensibilities and expresses the Muslim view of historical tolerance and cultural superiority over infidel civilizations.  When Obama mentioned the "Isra" event, he referred to Muhammad’s ascension to heaven and his return in one night on a winged mule named Buraq.  There he greets two Muslim prophets, Moses and Isa [Jesus], who are not the biblical figures.  The image used here by the American president as a symbolic interfaith reconciliation between the three faiths is a meeting between three Muslim prophets and not the figureheads of the three monotheistic religions.  Besides, the Isra event is not recognized by non-Muslims, and it didn’t happen in Jerusalem, as this name does not appear once in the Koran.

Obama’s speech is similar to many such declarations by European leaders.  The question it raises is how much the West is ready to forgo truth and its basic principles in its supplication for obtaining peace with Islam.  Clearly, the full Islamization of the West is the quickest way to obtain it.  Obama’s political program in connection with the Alliance of Civilizations conforms to an OIC strategy that has already been accepted by the European Union.  In history, this policy has a name: the dhimmitude syndrome.

The administration’s marking of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan continues Tuesday when the State Department hosts an event geared toward young Muslims, and an Iftar dinner with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama hosted an Iftar meal breaking the day’s Ramadan fast on Aug. 13.  In his speech, he supported the right of the Muslim community to build the planned controversial mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, comments that touched off a firestorm including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) breaking with Obama and saying the Islamic center should be built elsewhere.

Tuesday’s dinner will feature a video address from Clinton.  Special Representative to Muslim Communities Farah Pandith will host a special "Generation Change" event before the dinner with speakers and discussion groups.

"Consistent with the Secretary’s commitment to engaging the 'next generation' at the grassroots level, this year’s Iftar will feature many guests chosen because they represent some of the best and most innovative American Muslim leaders under the age of 30," the State Department said in a press release Saturday.

"There is no moderate or immoderate Islam.  Islam is Islam and that’s it."

"These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion.  There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it."

"Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war.  Those [who say this] are witless."

and

"Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword!  People cannot be made obedient except with the sword!  The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors!"

"[T]he headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America, this will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment, this will put our people -- our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens -- under attack in the Muslim world and we have expanded and given and fueled terrorism."

"The bottom line is this -- if the Koran is burned, our troops will be in greater danger.  It’s that simple…"

jihad
[Arab. jihad struggle, contest, spec. one for the propagation of Islam.]

A religious war of Muslims against unbelievers in Islam, inculcated as a duty by the Koran and traditions.

"We do have a choice: We can choose to be defined by our differences, and give in to a future of suspicion and mistrust, or we can choose to do the hard work of forging common ground, and commit ourselves to the steady pursuit of progress....in the 17 months that have passed [since the Cairo speech] we have made some progress, but much more work remains to be done."

"In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim."

"The murder of innocent civilians in their place of worship during Ashoora is a despicable offence, and those who carried it out must be held accountable.  "This is a disgraceful and cowardly act."

"The US stands with the families and loved ones of those killed and injured, and with the Iranian people, in the face of this injustice."

"Although people of Muslim faith make up only 3 to 4 percent of the U.K.'s population, outreach to this key audience is vital to U.S. foreign policy interests in the U.K. and beyond. ... This is a top Mission priority."

•  "Empowering Muslim communities to mobilize against extremism."

•  "Empowering Muslim communities to build community resilience."

•  Encouraging community cohesion, respect for pluralism and integration across ethnic and religious groups."

•  "Increasing Muslim communities, understanding of U.S. foreign policy in Muslim countries and counter-terrorism objectives; countering the view that the West is at war with Islam."

•  Unemployment rates were higher for Muslims than any other religion, for both men and women.

•  Muslims were most likely to be unavailable or not actively seeking work due to reasons such as disability, being a student, or looking after the family and home.

•  Muslims had the highest rates of disability, with 24 percent of females and 21 percent of males claiming a disability.

•  According to a poll of 600 Muslim and 800 non-Muslim students at 30 universities throughout the U.K. conducted by the Centre for Social Cohesion, 32 percent of Muslims on U.K. campuses believe killing in the name of religion is justified, 54 percent wanted a Muslim party to represent their world view in Parliament and 40 percent want Muslims in the U.K. to be under Islamic law.

"We are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans" in the workplace, housing market and schools, he said, adding that he was making it "a top priority."

"Although people of Muslim faith make up only 3 to 4 percent of the U.K.'s population, outreach to this key audience is vital to U.S. foreign policy interests in the U.K. and beyond. ... This is a top Mission priority."

"The murder of innocent civilians in their place of worship during Ashoora is a despicable offence, and those who carried it out must be held accountable. "This is a disgraceful and cowardly act."

"We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation"... "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," and, "I know because I am one of them."

On Monday, Justice sued an Illinois school district for rejecting a Muslim teacher's request to take a three-week leave of absence to travel to Mecca.  The suit claims that the Berkeley School District discriminated against middle-school instructor Safoorah Khan, whose religion "required" her to perform the hajj, and is seeking damages for this so-called victim.

But it's not stopping there.  It seeks an order mandating school officials adopt policies accommodating all Muslim customs, no matter how unreasonable.

Attorney General Eric Holder is fulfilling a promise to pander to the special interests of Muslims.  In June 2009, he pledged "a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim community" that includes "robust enforcement" of "religious freedoms."

"We are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans" in the workplace, housing market and schools, he said, adding that he was making it "a top priority."

Earlier this month, Holder spoke in San Francisco at the annual dinner of an anti-FBI group called the Muslim Advocates, whom he described as "partners in our work to promote tolerance."

He told Muslims gathered there that all 94 U.S. attorney's offices were partnering with the department's Civil Rights Division to act as "force multipliers" in helping to protect the Muslim community.  He informed them that he'd brought a third of the nation's U.S. attorneys to Washington for an unprecedented meeting to work on being more "sensitive" toward Muslims.

"Last year," moreover, "I established an Arab-American and Muslim Engagement Advisory Group to help identify more effective ways for the Justice Department to foster greater communication and collaboration -- as well as a new level of respect and understanding -- between law enforcement and Muslim and Arab-American communities," Holder said.