Obama and Islam
I sat throught the Martin Luther King sermon at Chuch Sunday and the unmentioned guy who crossed my mind as best living up to Martin Luther King's legacy, but failed to cross my minister's lips, was Ayat-Ullah Ali Al-Sistani.
Here's a quote from the petition to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize,
We belong to various religious, ethnic and various professions and system of thoughts – however, we united in respecting social peace and brotherhood of all races and cultures of Humanity.I sadly suspect Sistani was the furtherst man from Senator Obama's thoughts MLK day. Here's Eric Krol's column and a quote where the Senator tells us,
Mr. Sistani gave Muslims all around the globe a good example how to follow peaceful ways to resolve complex social-political challenges that face them, condemning terror and emphasizing to Millions of Muslims to follow rules of law and respect to humane, peaceful methods and civic norms to promote social peace and political-civic peaceful practices in the Iraqi , Muslim and Int’l societies. We deeply believe that the contribution of Ayat-Ullah Ali Al-Sistani has helped Iraqi society to avoid civil and multiethnic violent conflicts that terrorists intended to draw, and by this he has promoted peace and respect to human brotherhood in Iraq, the region, and all over the world- and that is why we believe Al-Sistani deserves the Nobel prize for Peace.
...Obama said he thinks a majority of the Senate will agree by week’s end to a nonbinding resolution against President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.Senator Obama surrounded himself with lots of Christian symbols Monday. I hope the politics of constraining Bush don't lead him to betray Muslim allies who honor King's legacy at risk of their lives better than many of us in Illinois.
“That will give us, I think, the impetus and the political symbolism to then start pursuing a more concrete plan to constrain the president,” said Obama, who is calling for the immediate draw down of troops from Iraq.
22 comments:
I sadly suspect Bill Baar is out on the furthest reaches of the sane world.
Bill, can you please explain what your post is trying to say? Or am I correct to assume it's your lame attempt to connect "Obama" and "Islam" every chance you have?
It's not only wrong, it's boring.
Just the opposite 47th... we're in a war with Muslim allies. I fear Obama will betray them.
I worry Obama thinks Bush is the greatest threat in the world and talks of constraining him and the result will be the US sell out of some bravel Muslims who are fighting against great odds with the understanding the United States will support them.
The guy with the Cross behind him scares me.
Put it another way,
Some claim Obama is discriminated against because of his name, yet Obama seems to be proposing selling out some noble Muslims while he's up on the pulpit surrounded by crosses.
I'm no Christian, and right now ready to convert to Sistani's brand of Islam when I see the heroic restraint his folks put up with in the face of slaughter. That's worthy of MLK.
"The guy with the Cross behind him scares me."
After your vocal support of the Bush administration, some might interpret this statement as the absolute height of hypocrisy.
-- SCAM
Yep. This is wrong. And boring. Baar's MO: Connect Obama to a controversial noun in blog headlines as many times as possible. Count the times that happens in his posts. What Baar believes in is much less definite than what he wants to discredit, which is anyone who criticizes Bush's war. Ill noise indeed.
47th Ward said...
am I correct to assume it's your lame attempt to connect "Obama" and "Islam" every chance you have?
I just find it audacious that Obama supporters claim discrimination about Obama's Muslim name while Obama sounds as though he's ready to sell out Muslims in Iraq.
That's some real audacity.
Bill, earlier I asked if you'd tell us what your orginal post was trying to say. You've since added little clarity, saying in part:
"yet Obama seems to be proposing selling out some noble Muslims while he's up on the pulpit surrounded by crosses"
and
"...while Obama sounds as though he's ready to sell out Muslims in Iraq."
What proposal/statement are you referring to? Is it possible you just imagined he said that, or am I missing something?
Do you hear voices Bill, or do you just invent this bs?
I am not a supporter of Obama. I don't know what Martin Luther King Day has to do with Islam. My prayer is Obama heeds the advice of the Iraq Study Group.
If lies were told to justify the invasion of Iraq, the American people deserve to know the truth. Congress has a responsibility to seek this truth and change our policies accordingly. The sooner this is done the better.
"Betray out Muslims allies"?
What if we just stopped fighting in the Middle East?
Do you believe that Muslims who fight Americans have grievances that they perceive as legitimate? Or do they fight us b/c they are "evil"?
Bill,
How about listening to the Iraqi people. The vast majority want our troops to leave. They don't view us as "allies."
Omaba attends a congregation affiliated with the United Church of Christ. That's just about as religiously liberal as you can get without crossing over into something like Unitarian Universalism.
You're right Bill. Sistani deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama is at best naive and gutless, going after Bush rather than the terrorists.
This war's made me respect our Muslim allies and their faith. MLK day was a opportunity to aknowledge them.
I'm a UU of secular humanist sort. My Minister took a swipe at the handful of shortsighted Americans who mocked Obama's middle name in her sermon.
But she said nothing about brave Muslims who fight and die every day in Iraq. I imagine she shared that omission with many Christians last weekend.
She certainly shared the omission with Obama's MLK speech last Monday.
Obama's focus on constraining Bush means a betrayel of the Iraqi Liberation Act passed and funded by Congress back in 1998. He's turnig away from Liberation, bungled as it may have been, to isolationism.
Bosnia was a political turning point for me. I had visited Sarajevo in the early 1970s. A family put me up when I couldn't find a hotel room. I experienced the generousity of the people there.
Later I worked for the US Army in the 1980s with NATO; when we practiced fighting WWIII against the Red Army. It sickened me to see the great and powerful NATO sit it out with Bosnia a few years later for fear of getting bogged down there. What happened to the Land-Air 2000 strategy where NATO would fight countless Red Divisions?
One of Nixon's last comments was the West would never have been so indifferent to Bosnia if it had been Christians getting slaughtered there instead. He was right.
We turned a blind eye to the slaughter of Shia by Saddam after the first Gulf War. They have good reason to distrust us. I'd hate to think we'd betray them.
Not quite what you suspected about Obama and Islam? Look at him through a Shia Arab or Kurds eyes instead.
Words of a great American Liberal that came to my mind after terrorists destroyed the Golden Dome of the al Askariya Mosque.
Few dramatists could match the poignant scene when Britain stood alone against the Nazi power that dominated a conquered or fawningly neutral Europe. Roosevelt sent his envoy Harry Hopkins to Churchill. At dinner Hopkins quoted from the Book of Ruth: "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people and their God my God," softly adding, "Even to the end." --From Meachem Franklin and Winston
Your God shall be my God, even unto the end.... that should be Obama's message to Sistani and the Iraqis we fight along side.
reference for the Nixon quote.
Equating opposition to the Iraq war with isolationism is pure BS. We don't need a history lesson from you. This website is supposed to be about Illinois politics.
Obama is gutless for going after Bush rather than the terrorists? Please.
Bring the money home to rebuild Harvey was Obama's statement.
Alsammare back home and talked about Tony Rezko's bid to build power plants in Iraq.
We weren't exporting Democracy to Iraq it seems but Illinois pay-for-play politics.
The nexus is amazing.
Bill,
Call your represenatative, Dennis Hastert, who was speaker of the House when we invaded, and ask him who had oversight from 2003-2006 - the majority party, maybe? Last time I checked, he was chief of that tribe.....maybe he was busy covering up for Delay, Foley, Cunningham, Ney, Abramaoff, etc...
I've called Hastert and said I was afraid Mr. Alsammarae would be sent back packing before Fitzgerald had a chance to talk to him, and before Congress had a chance to bring him before hearings on Iraq Reconstruction. I've written Durbin and Obama, and have been encouraging others to do so....
Bill -
Criticizing Obama for: opposing an unjustified war; calling for a diplomatic, not military solution; being a Christian.
I think you've pretty much missed th entire point of Martin Luther King's life.
- YDD
YDD, I remember when MLK talked of marching into nearby Cicero. He didn't but a splinter group did. I have a pretty vivid memory of the time as I lived not far from Cicero and knew the mindset south of 12th street.
Here's a photo of an Illinois National Guardsmen holding back thugs in Cicero from assualting the marchers.
I googled around for it because I remember the guy used the bayonet on Cicero guy and remember the red blood stain coming through his white Tee Shirt.
Sometimes you need the Illinois National Guard with fixed bayonet to protect the pacifists. You didn't hear many preachers praising this long forgotten African American in this picture either. A guy who was at some risk.
Diplomancy only went so far in Cicero. It would have been real bad to redeploy the guard as some would have wished. It's just as true today in Iraq.
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