Now, more than ever before, the Muslim leaders must respond.
This President has admitted to colonial wrongs committed way before his time.
The Republicans in their usually graceful respect for their opposition don’t wait for the leader of the most powerful country in the world to return home before condemning his rhetoric for being too apologetic and denigrating as a man of his position. They say he is making this country look weak by admitting to previously flawed policies. His blackness will cause consternation among those believing he has not the right to be there, yet must be accepted as a statement of pride for citizens of this country black, white or otherwise. For right wing or not, they are part of an experience no other country in Western Civilization has pulled off to date, that being have a person of color as the sole representative leader to the rest of the world. England, France, all of the countries of Europe that make up the western hemisphere of civilization, some have had women as leaders, but none a male of color, especially a black male.
Particularly interesting about this black male, son of a Muslim, though not one himself, is his position as a black man, coming from a country with probably the worst reputation for the treatment of black men and even less expectations for their contribution to our country. Oh yes, we can sing and dance, we can entertain, we can jump oh so high, but really, other than jazz, what have blacks contributed to the overall American culture as a whole besides crime. This is why such a large percentage of the black male population is locked up in this country because accepting anything else for them would increase the competition for resources already deemed not to be enough to go around. So, with this reputation existing worldwide about how America views its black population, that same world is mystified how our most talented President pulled winning this election off. Both of these experiences place this man in a unique position to read the international community the riot act for many things that have gone wrong because of prejudice.
The strength of his position in his speech to the Muslim world was from having the foresight to acknowledge verbally some of the colonial wrongs committed by the United States and many of the European nations before and during the cold war, but also being honest about how we got involved in our present situation in Iraq. The former leaders of this nation choose to commit to this war, it didn’t have to. Though the Republicans think this is a mistake, the rest of the free world is responding very well to the more humane approach to the tone of this President’s foreign policy. For all the grand video presentations and speeches by Osama Bin Laden, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, I have yet to hear them complain about Muslims dying unnecessarily during this supposed jihad with the western world. I have heard no Muslims leaders or Ayatollah’s even being the least bit upset about explosions taking place in the marketsplaces or the Mosque. One could maybe understand the attacks in this exchange of differing religious and secular perspectives if they were directed solely against the military occupying their country, but that is not the case. When will their leaders start saying that the taking of a life as any but the last option, is not the way to paradise for young Muslim men according to the Koran.
This man has taken such a step with many of the countries involved in conflict today in the Middle East, with Israel and the settlements, with the Iranian leadership and its statements about the Holocaust, to the Muslim treatment of their women. This speech for me was more than a statement of we are under new management, but a real attempt by an American politician to get resolution to the Middle East Conflict by opening up with honest engagement. The ultimate olive branch of life has just been offered to the Middle East Muslim community. They have lost the argument that United States is just looking to continue the relationship by force alone. The leaders of any warring factions of Al-Qaeda with the western civilization must now come up with a legitimate recruiting tool to counter the open hand President Obama has extended to the Muslim world.
© 2009, agentleman.
