Smartly Written piece by Paul Wolfowitz

< Prev Article		Next Article >

Obama and the Freedom Agenda
Egyptian liberals like Ayman Nour should be able to take comfort in his words.
By PAUL WOLFOWITZ
President Barack Obama faces great challenges when he speaks to the Muslim world tomorrow from Cairo. He must counter some of the myths and outright falsehoods about the United States that are commonly believed in many parts of the Muslim world, and he needs to present his audience with some inconvenient truths. But he also has an opportunity, based in no small part on his own remarkable career, to make the case that the political principles and values that are sometimes mistakenly labeled as "Western" are appropriate for the Muslim world.
The challenge of addressing the entire Muslim world in a single speech can be appreciated if one imagines what the reaction would be if some other world leader attempted to speak to the "Christian world," with all of its diversity. For example, although Islam is the state religion in most countries with Muslim majorities, there are a number -- including Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world -- where it is not. Moreover, some countries have large non-Muslim minorities. And the second largest Muslim population in the world lives as a minority in India. There is an enormous variety of views among Muslims around the world on everything from religion to politics to family values.
Please click here to view entire article in the Wall Street Journal.

Please give the gift of independent reporting. Your gift goes far and is used for transport, lodging, living expenses, satellite communications and for repairing and replacing gear that fails due to the rigors of the battlefields. Millions of people, in more than a hundred countries, see these photos and words. Your generosity goes very far, and is greatly appreciated.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Muslim Nation?

So, the President of the United States, a melting pot of races, cultures, and reliigions united under one Constitution of equality, is going to address the Muslims of the world as a "nation" to appease and "dialog" and compromise to what end? At least he recognizes that global jihad has been declared (and made required on all Muslims, violently or passively--e.g. letting patrols be blown up by IED's) against the United States. (Their actual wording has been the Jews first and then the Christians.) But, stating we are not their enemy is naive because the goal of jihad is to conquer or force submission. Declaring we will accomodate Islamic jihad would be traitorous. Extending "firiendship" only serves as a hudna agreement wherein they make temporary peace until they are strong enough to force submission (as Mohammed did in the Hadith). His speech will be revealing for those who are not ignorant. For, President Obama was raised as a Musliim and if he were apostate, the Muslim world he addresses would call for his death.

Mary , June 04, 2009

Michael Yon