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Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Anti-Semitism widespread in Muslim world, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News
Anti-Semitism widespread in Muslim world

A Jan. 21 item in the Jakarta Globe from Indonesia reported a speech by Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, at a conference in support of Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Mahathir was quoted stating that the lack of progress by the Obama administration in ending the war in Afghanistan, or in closing the terrorist detention centre at Guantanamo, was due to the “forces in the United States which prevent the president from doing some things. One of the forces is the Jewish lobby.”

He said Jews “had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettos and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom.”

Moreover, he continued, “Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world.”

These despicable words are not from the tongue of any common run-of-the-mill bigot. Mahathir was the elected head of government from 1981 to 2003 of one the more economically successful Muslim-majority countries.

The former prime minister’s remarks were not some carelessly expressed random thoughts. In October 2003, Mahathir was the chairman of the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference as Malaysia hosted the more than 50-member Organization of Islamic Countries. His opening address to the assembled Muslim leaders was punctuated with bigoted references to Jews and Israel.

http://newageislam.com/anti-semitism-widespread-in-muslim-world/islamic-world-news/d/2458


Obama names special envoy to the Muslim world, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News
Obama names special envoy to the Muslim world

In case you were out of the house Saturday doing errands and forgetting to get your special someone a sweet something for Valentine's Day, President Obama chose that day to make a surprise announcement.

The announcement came in a special video which he taped for the U.S.-Islamic World Conference meeting now in Qatar. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was there Sunday.

But it was Obama who announced, as a continuation of his determined outreach to the world's Muslim communities, the appointment of a special emissary to the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference that bills itself as the collective voice of the Muslim world.

He's Rashad Hussain, a deputy associate counsel, who, of course, has a Harvard degree. Obama, who spent his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has made....

...several such outreaches -- such as his special Hajj message here in November -- with special taped messages on Muslim holidays and his trip to and speech in Cairo last summer. So far, the gestures have gone unrequited.

The president said:

As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo. And as a hafiz of the Qur’an, he is a respected member of the American Muslim community.

One White House official called the move an "important part of the president's commitment to engaging Muslims around the world based on mutual respect and mutual interest."

Obama sends B team Biden to Canada's Vancouver Winter Olympics

Obama nears Day 400: What's happened to him?

http://newageislam.com/obama-names-special-envoy-to-the-muslim-world/islamic-world-news/d/2466


Monday, June 18, 2012

The Theology of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Speech, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs
The Theology of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Speech
Top Five News Stories

And most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan. These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God; the cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint—no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or the Red Cross worker, or even a person of one's own faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but I believe it's incompatible with the very purpose of faith—for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature. For we are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil. Even those of us with the best of intentions will at times fail to right the wrongs before us.

But we do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place. The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached—their fundamental faith in human progress—that must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey. … Let us reach for the world that ought to be—that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.

http://newageislam.com/the-theology-of-obama-s-nobel-peace-prize-speech/current-affairs/d/2288


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Afghanistan: India’s objectives are exactly aligned with America’s, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror
Afghanistan: India’s objectives are exactly aligned with America’s
The prize is India
By Fareed Zakaria
Nov 23, 2009

Barack Obama has been criticised for kowtowing to the Chinese and the Russians over the last few months. But so far, this is all about atmospherics. The administration has not made any unilateral concession of substance to either country. It is taking a strategic view that developing strong relationships with both countries, particularly China, will yield long-term benefits. Strangely, however, that strategic focus has been lost in dealing with Asia’s other rising giant, India.

At one level the administration is being friendly. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh comes to Washington this week for the first official state visit of the Obama presidency. There will be nice words said in public about the ties between the two great democracies. But underneath this lies an unease.

Indian officials worry that the Obama team does not have the same fundamental orientation as the Bush administration regarding India’s role in the 21st century. Some Obama officials publicly criticised the nuclear deal championed by George W. Bush, a deal that the Indians regard as basic recognition of their status as a major power. They worry that a Democratic administration could succumb to protectionism. They worry that it is too cozy with China.

These concerns will pass as the two sides get to know each other better. The more lasting danger is that the Obama administration, now intensely focused on the war in Afghanistan, will look at South Asia largely through that prism. Since Washington desperately needs Pakistan’s cooperation in that conflict, it is tending to adopt Pakistan’s concerns as its own, which is producing a perverse view of the region.

http://newageislam.com/afghanistan--india%E2%80%99s-objectives-are-exactly-aligned-with-america%E2%80%99s/war-on-terror/d/2127


India is indispensable to the US: Obama, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

India is indispensable to the US: Obama

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Tuesday given a rousing welcome at the White House where he was received by President Barack Obama

before they sat down for bilateral talks during which the two countries are expected to take their

strategic ties to a new level.

Obama and First Lady Michelle personally welcomed Singh, the first State guest of the Obama Administration, and his wife Gursharan Kaur at the White House.

Chilly, damp weather caused the White House to move the ceremony indoors, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Obama stood before photographers and television cameras in the East Room as a Marine band played the national anthems of both countries.

Singh's visit is the first state visit hosted by the administration, the highest honor extended to a foreign dignitary, and the two would discuss a wide range of bilateral

issues and the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan during their one-on-one meeting.

Speaking at the White House, Obama said: "India is indispensable to the US and the Indian Prime Minister's visit reflects abiding friendship between the two countries."

"Ours is a story of two great economic marvels. India is a leader in Asia and around the world and the two nations are dedicated to liberty, equality".

Stating that India and US are bound together by values of democracy Manmohan Singh said, "We seek to broaden and deepen our strategic partnership with US."

Manmohan also spoke on the issue of terrorism and nuclear weapons.


Thursday, June 14, 2012

Don’t write off Obama’s Middle-East peace initiative, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs
Don’t write off Obama’s Middle-East peace initiative
A Mid-eastern farewell photo at the UN?
By Rami G. Khouri
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Daily Star staffIt was exactly eight months ago that Obama, on the second day of his presidency, went to the State Department and announced both his personal commitment to Middle East peace-making and the appointment of George Mitchell as his special envoy to the peace process. The two other principals – Netanyahu and Abbas – have persisted in their traditional mode of personal behavior and policy directions. Netanyahu has dug in his heels, fortified by the knowledge that his right-wing coalition government and perhaps a small majority of Israelis share his hard-line positions, especially on resisting American pressure. Abbas and his government, heavily disconnected from their fellow citizens, are almost mystically absent from the negotiating process that will existentially define the future wellbeing of the Palestinian people.

The important question now is how the Obama team will respond to the realities it has encountered since January. These include the sharp and public Israeli resistance to Washington’s call for a total freeze on Israeli settlements and colonization of occupied Palestinian land, a limp Arab response to the American call for gestures of Arab normalization with Israel, and an unusually blunt Saudi public rejection of that call.

Obama has put his own and his country’s credibility and name on the line in his repeated demand that Israel freeze settlements unconditionally. Netanyahu responded by rejecting this, and by simultaneously expanding settlements. The United States cannot now just throw up its hands in exasperation and say that it tried and failed. What might happen next?

http://newageislam.com/don%E2%80%99t-write-off-obama%E2%80%99s-middle-east-peace-initiative/current-affairs/d/1789


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

America is not and never will be at war with Islam: US President Barack Obama, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
America is not and never will be at war with Islam: US President Barack Obama
4 June 2009

We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world, tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation but also conflict and religious wars.

More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims and a Cold War in which Muslim majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and western countries but also to human rights.

All this has bred more fear and more mistrust. So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, those who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. And this cycle of suspicion and discord must end.

http://newageislam.com/america-is-not-and-never-will-be-at-war-with-islam--us-president-barack-obama---/islam-and-the-west/d/1441


Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The New Great Game: Bring in Iran, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
The New Great Game: Bring in Iran
By Jyoti Malhotra
20 Feb 2009

In the first TV interview of his presidency with Al-Arabiya, a Saudi-financed and Dubai-based TV channel, Obama said: "It is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan. These things are interrelated."

The Islamic world is going to be at the heart of the Obama administration's foreign policy note George Mitchell's interventions in the Palestine-Israeli conflict, Richard Holbrooke's exertions in Afghanistan-Pakistan, the withdrawal from Iraq and the nascent engagement with Iran.

It couldn't get better for India. Even as New Delhi glowed after Obama rapped Pakistan's knuckles early on for not doing enough to fight the war against terrorism, the US president's willingness to examine the complexities of Islamist politics has opened a new door for Indian engagement.

With the second largest population of Muslims in the world, India is uniquely positioned because every strain of Islamic thought is found in this country. From the mystic Sufis to Wahhabis, from the Deobandis to the Hanafis and the Salafis, from Kashmiriyat to Kerala's Mappilas and Tamil Nadu's Maraikkayars, they're all here.

http://newageislam.com/the-new-great-game--bring-in-iran/islam-and-the-west/d/1206


Israeli terrorism: A boost for Islamism, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad
Israeli terrorism: A boost for Islamism
A boost for Islamism
Sunanda K Datta-Ray
Friday, January 16, 2009

Tel Aviv’s decision to ban two Arab-Israeli parties contesting next month’s election confirms that the radicalisation the world fears and may have to suffer in repetitions of the Mumbai, Twin Towers, London and Madrid atrocities has already begun. There is no reason either to disbelieve the Shin Bet head, Mr Yuval Diskin, who says that Hamas is using the crisis to liquidate Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party supporters, that is, moderates, in Gaza.

This should be an early charge on Mr Barack Obama when he is sworn in on Monday. He has already announced his determination to end the war in Iraq and make US foreign policy more than only a ‘war on terror’. To live down his predecessor’s disastrous legacy, he must also ensure that the 1967 Arab-Israel war is at last given burial, which means returning to their owners the conquered Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza. Only then can there be any hope of meeting the two conditions for peace — secure borders for Israel and a viable Palestinian state — that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown mentions.

http://newageislam.com/israeli-terrorism--a-boost-for-islamism--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1123


Will he succeed in remaking America? Barack Hussein Obama sworn in as 44th U.S. president, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
Will he succeed in remaking America? Barack Hussein Obama sworn in as 44th U.S. president
By Carl Hulse
January 20, 2009

Obama, the first African American to serve as president, spoke to a sea of cheering people, hundreds of thousands of Americans packed on the National Mall from the Capitol to beyond the Washington monument. The multitude was filled with black Americans and Obama's triumph was a special and emotional moment for them.

With his wife, Michelle, holding the Bible, Obama, the 47-year-old son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Africa, was sworn in just after noon, a little later than planned, and spoke immediately thereafter..

In his speech, Obama promised to take "bold and swift" action to restore the economy by creating jobs through public works projects, improving education, promoting alternative energy and relying on new technology.

"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America," Obama said in a prepared copy of his remarks.

The new president also noted the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the "far-reaching network of violence and hatred" that seeks to harm the country. He used strong language in pledging to confront terrorism, nuclear proliferation and other threats from abroad, saying to the nation's enemies, "you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

http://newageislam.com/will-he-succeed-in-remaking-america?-barack-hussein-obama-sworn-in-as-44th-u.s.-president--/islam-and-the-west/d/1136


Monday, June 11, 2012

Obama reaches out to Muslim world, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
Obama reaches out to Muslim world
In interview with Arabic network, Obama tells Muslim world
Americans are not your enemy'
January 27, 2009

The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately, and his new envoy to the region, former Senator George Mitchell, was expected to arrive in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama told the Saudi-owned, Al-Arabiya news channel, which is based in Dubai.

Obama said the United States had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

During his presidency, former President George W. Bush gave several interviews to Al-Arabiya but the wars he launched in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a massive backlash against the United States in the Muslim world.

Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.

http://newageislam.com/obama-reaches-out-to-muslim-world--/islam-and-the-west/d/1156


Saudi Arabia finally feels a slight prick of conscience over Gaza massacre, urges US to be even-handed, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
Saudi Arabia finally feels a slight prick of conscience over Gaza massacre, urges US to be even-handed

A prominent member of the Saudi royal family is warning the Obama administration that failure to alter US attitudes towards the Arab-Israeli conflict radically would threaten the kingdom's "special relationship" with the US and could force Riyadh to abandon its own support for a peaceful resolution of the dispute.

In an article in today's Financial Times, Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and former ambassador to Washington, says that if the US wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and maintain its strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, it "will have to drastically revise its policies vis-à-vis Israel and Palestine".

Writing days after the end of Israel's three-week Gaza offensive, he says the Bush administration, which supported the onslaught, had left a "sickening legacy in the region". And while Saudi Arabia has so far resisted Iranian calls to lead a "jihad" against Israel, "eventually the kingdom will not be able to prevent its citizens from joining the worldwide revolt against Israel".

The prince - writing before President Barack Obama made his comments on the Arab-Israel conflict last night - holds no official position in the Saudi government at the moment but his views reflect the mounting frustrations within the al-Saud royal family and the apparent need to exert immediate pressure on the Obama administration for a more even-handed Middle East policy.

http://newageislam.com/saudi-arabia-finally-feels-a-slight-prick-of-conscience-over-gaza-massacre,-urges-us-to-be-even-handed--/islam-and-the-west/d/1159


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Let's Speak the Truth about Afghanistan, Islam and the West , NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West
Let's Speak the Truth about Afghanistan
By Eric Margolis | July 30, 2008

One understands Obama's need to respond with martial élan to rival John McCain's chest-thumping about "I know how to win wars." Polls put McCain far ahead of Obama when it comes to being a war leader. But Obama's recent proposal to send at least 7,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and his threats to attack Pakistan's territory, and warnings about Islamabad's nuclear forces, show poor judgment and lack of knowledge.

The United States is no longer "fighting terrorism" in Afghanistan, as Bush, Obama and McCain insist. The 2001 U.S. invasion was a legitimate operation against al-Qaeda, a group that properly fit the role of a "terrorist organization." But, contrary to the White House's wildly inflated claims that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda was a worldwide conspiracy, it never numbered more than 300 hard core members. Bin Laden and his jihadis long ago scattered into all corners of Pakistan and elsewhere. Only a handful remain in Afghanistan.

http://newageislam.com/let-s-speak-the-truth-about-afghanistan/islam-and-the-west/d/363


Thursday, May 31, 2012

Read Barack Obama's acceptance speech, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs
Read Barack Obama's acceptance speech
29 Aug 2008
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who travelled the farthest – a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.