Many on the right are offering praise, however faint, for Obama’s speech to the Muslim world. I have a real problem with the very idea of speaking to “The Muslim World” at all. “The Muslim World” is the goal, the agenda, the ambition, the aspiration of Al Qaeda and its associates.
What Muslim world? Is there a Christian world, a Catholic world, a Lutheran world, a Buddhist world, a Hindu world? Does a Muslim in Indonesia or Chicago owe his primary allegiance to Islam in exactly the same way as a Muslim in Iran or Saudi Arabia? Do all Muslims everywhere see themselves as part of a global Muslim Ummah that transcends national borders?
Is this something that an American President should legitimize and encourage? Osama Bin Laden, surrounded by his constantly renewed 72 virgins, must be chuckling.
Update: I stand corrected. Apparently Obama never used the phrase “the Muslim world” anywhere in his speech. Since everybody else referred to it as his speech to the Muslim world, I assumed that it was.
Further update: The official press release headline on the State Department Web site: “President Obama Speaks To The Muslim World From Cairo.”
I wished we’d stop speaking to ‘others’…they’re so not with us, so why bother?
On a serious note, when you leave this plane of existence will your opinion matter then?