OPINION - A Muslim View

I am posting this article as a way to present the "other side's" point of view. In the name of fairness and in hope of calming the rhetoric.

"A good show, but no applause yet" by Wajahat Ali, Briefings Altmuslim 4/20/2009

Excerpt

President Barack Obama is flying gracefully and confidently – albeit experiencing some minor turbulence – through his first 100 days, having ambitiously donned the uniform of the multicultural Superman of the 21st century.

Obama, the bi-racial, Hawaiian-born son of a Kenyan father and a white Kansas mother, adorned with a multisyllabic Arabic name, now emerges as the ideal aesthetic leader – and much hoped-for redeemer – of this brave new globalized world fragilely teetering on the edge of calamity.

Unfortunately, Obama’s hourglass allows only four years to remedy the paralyzing economic crisis at home and the smoldering fires of political and religious extremism abroad, primarily fueled by the belligerent tone and myopic policies of George W Bush’s trigger-happy administration.

Most noticeably, Obama’s inclusive and humble rhetoric immediately sets him apart from his arrogant predecessor, whose indignant adherence to right-wing fundamentalism and unilateral aggression were in strong contrast to Obama’s professed desire for mutual understanding, engagement and partnership. Unlike the profoundly anti-intellectual Bush, the Ivy League-educated, former law professor Obama can, thankfully, name the 20 countries comprising the G20.

Whereas Bush preferred cultural isolation, Obama’s Camelot resembles a global playground as he and his family – including their new dog, Bo – reach out to diverse citizens at home and spurned friends abroad such as Turkey, which Obama visited during his inaugural world tour.

If Bush was our Elmer Fudd, the classic befuddled cartoon character blind to his own ignorance and condemned to foolishly and unsuccessfully hunt “wily wabbits”, then Obama is emerging as this generation’s Bugs Bunny, a cool, savvy and cocky charmer who always acts as if he is two steps ahead of everyone else, even as he’s staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

Indeed, that shotgun is loaded as Obama seeks to mend frayed relations with alienated Muslim countries through his new policies to combat terrorism.

Obama’s interview with Al Arabiya and his recent visit to Turkey highlighted the end of the polarizing “Us vs Them” language and the beginning of dialogue and partnership.

“The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” promised Obama, despite a recent ABC/Washington Post poll showing that 48 percent of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of Islam, the highest unfavorably rating since 2001. Having shunned Muslim American voters like political kryptonite in his campaign, Obama now embraces them by stating: “Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country. I know, because I am one of them.”

Obama now invites American Muslims to become part of his “political family” with his recent appointments of several distinguished Muslims, such as Rashid Hussain, Dalia Mogahed and Eboo Patel, to influential positions in his administration.