QED

Obama’s Islamic Fairytale

alfred e obama IIThe American President’s speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque on February 3 was yet another exercise in countering the made-up malady of Islamophobia. Credit where credit is due, President Obama puts the case with conviction. Some right-wingers on the fringe think that this comes from him being a covert Muslim. However, it is much more likely – in having a Muslim father and then stepfather – that his view of Islam is drawn from his own personal experiences, which may well have been amiable.

To wit, when it comes to Islam he concocts his own insular narrative. He gives every impression of being blinkered, unread and self-absorbed. Call me a Democrat lackey, if you will, but I like this explanation better than thinking he is practicing taqiyya, like one of those unctuous imams that troll around compliant media outlets. After all, he is the US Commander in Chief. That he would knowingly deceive the American public about his true religious faith during these troubling times is unthinkable. Is it not?

Let me present some evidence of his disengagement from Islam to back my point. First he has no idea what the word ‘Islam’ means.

So let’s start with this fact: For more than a thousand years, people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace. And the very word itself, Islam, comes from Salam — peace.

According to my OED, ‘Islam’ comes from Arab for ‘submission’ through aslama, meaning ‘submit to God’. All of my readings on the subject including, for example, works by Mark Durie and Hirsi Ali, says the same thing. Islam as a word means submission to God’s will. There is nothing bad or controversial about this, so why avoid the truth and say that the word comes from ‘peace’. Is it because Obama wants to ram home the deceptive message that Islam is a religion of peace against all of the evidence of 1400-plus years? Or is it because he is relying on what one of his Muslim relatives or buddies told him? I plump for the latter.

Islam is rooted in a commitment to compassion and mercy and justice and charity. Whoever wants to enter paradise, the Prophet Muhammad taught, “let him treat people the way he would love to be treated.” For Christians like myself, I’m assuming that sounds familiar.

Ah, the so-called ‘golden rule’! Love thy neighbor as thyself. Christians do have a familiarity with that as, in various similar forms, do other religions. In Christianity it is never countermanded. It always applies. On the other hand, the Koran and the Hadith provide almost inexhaustible ammunition for those wanting to demonstrate that Islam is anything but neighbourly towards kafirs; that is to say, towards unbelievers. This is disconcerting, though it doesn’t seem to bother Obama. He probably doesn’t know. He just clings to his passage. But where is it?

I searched online and in numbers of books. I could be wrong but the prime place it seems to be is in ‘an-Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths’. Hadith number 13 records Muhammad saying this: “None of you believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” An extract from the longish Hadith number 35 provides context: “Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices one to another; do not hate one another; do not turn away from one another; and do not undercut one another, but be you, O servants of Allah, brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he neither oppresses him nor does he fail him, he neither lies to him nor does he hold him in contempt.”

Apparently, and unfortunately, it is not ‘people’ in general that Muslims must treat decently, as they themselves would like to be treated, but fellow Muslims. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that excludes Muslim sisters. Of all of this, Obama is blissfully ignorant – that, in any event, is my thesis du jour. I will back it up further with a final quote from Obama’s speech.

…across the Islamic world, influential voices should consistently speak out with an affirmative vision of their faith. And it’s happening. These are the voices of Muslim clerics who teach that Islam prohibits terrorism, for the Koran says whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind.

Where does this Koranic passage come from? It comes from Surah 5.32 and is specifically directed at Jews only, many of whom are admonished in the verse for rejecting Allah. It is quickly followed in verse 33 with a warning that Jews who “make war” on Allah and Muhammad “will be killed or crucified or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled from the land.” Cometh the hour, give me the latter option if I were a Jew. Peaceful this religion ain’t. Anti-Semitic it is.

The Opening Surah is instructive. It is recited as part of each Muslim daily prayer. It ends: “Show us the straight path / The path of those whom Thou has favoured / Not the path of those who earn Thine anger [read Jews] nor of those who go astray [read Christians].” (See Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p 46-47, for a scholarly commentary on this pointed prayer)

That Obama knows nothing of any of this is indicative, you will agree, of him being more dunce than deceiver. If you are not convinced, take note that the mosque at which he talked had reportedly been on an FBI watch list, was responsible for graduating a terrorist who plotted to blow up a military recruiting office, and which was led for a number of years by an imam with links to the Muslim Brotherhood — a cleric who expressed justification for suicide bombings. Surely Obama would not have picked this mosque if he was either a covert Muslim or, as his admirers once insisted, the smartest kid on the block. Would he?

He also mentioned that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams each owned a Koran, as though this were some telling evidence of their respect for Islam? At the time Barbary pirates were operating from Muslim North Africa and creating mayhem — pillaging, killing and enslaving — on the high seas. Anyone but a simpleton could connect those dots. For the president’s edification, Churchill read Mein Kampf. And later, by the way, in The Gathering Storm (1948) compared it with the Koran.

Of course, I feel obliged, in the cause of putting all sides of a question, to present an alternative hypothesis. It is the old double bluff: maybe Obama is pretending to be a simpleton in extolling the virtues of Islam to throw us off the scent? And back we come, full circle, to those disreputable fringe-dwelling right-wingers again.

End note: None of this is important, of course. Even if Obama were a Muslim, what in the world is wrong with belonging to the religion of peace and neighbourliness – particularly as all Europeans of high-caste (i.e., non- dhimmis) will belong to it in a few-plus generations?

15 thoughts on “Obama’s Islamic Fairytale

  • Jody says:

    Ok, everybody, take a breather and watch this!!! PLEASE

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7ZU5vGPy0

    • jenkins says:

      Very good Jody. I would add that an understanding of the limitations of human nature often develops with age. Old age and the wisdom it brings are now devalued in our society.

  • pgang says:

    It doesn’t matter whether or not he understands Islam if he wants to be a Muslim (and he is certainly more Muslim than Christian). This is the nature of the Islamic system – you’re not required to understand it (there is actually very little to understand). You just have to obey, because there is no such thing as individuals, just Allah and Islam.

  • bemartin39@bigpond.com says:

    Peter, I am always particularly glad to see your name at the top of a Quadrant article, and while I tend to be mostly on the same page with you, I don’t always share your sentiment. Your treatment of Pope Francis in a recent piece seemed to me to be far too generous.

    The same applies to this article concerning Obama. It seems extremely unlikely that he’d be as ignorant of the true nature of Islam as you give him “credit” for. Certainly, he’d be very likely to cling to some genial stories and notions he was exposed to in early childhood, at the most impressionable stage of life, at a time when Muslim extremism/fundamentalism/terrorism were unknown, unheard of terms. On the other hand, if he is only of average intelligence and curiosity, he could not have remained so completely isolated from, and ignorant of reality. It is likely that he promotes his particular “brand” of Islam, because, based on his childhood experience, it is feasible to a great many people, both Muslim and non-Muslim, which makes it eminently suitable for deceiving the largely ignorant majority.

    While his efforts in the cause of the advancement of Islam might be at a tentative, low level, they are unmistakable. His affinity with the Muslim Brotherhood, his refusal to acknowledge the “muslimness” of terrorism, employing devout Muslims in sensitive public service positions, all testify to his true attitude toward Islam. He may never do anything drastic to pave the way of Islamic domination of the world, but if it were to come about during his lifetime, he would not only be perfectly comfortable with that state of affairs, he would eagerly play an active role in its global leadership.

    • denandsel@optusnet.com.au says:

      I would agree with you Bill, Obama knows exactly what he is doing. Marco Rubio nailed it [and got pilloried for – even on FOX] with Obama’s economic policies. As I have said here previously – many leftists have this suicidal sado-masochistic delusion that they will be able to use Islamic terrorism to weaken the west to the extent that they will be able to establish their secular socialist totalitarian nirvana. Obama did/does not defend Islam innocently or unknowingly – it is deliberate and even if not meant to promote Islamic totalitarianism as such it is meant to deliberately weaken western civilisation.

    • prsmith14@gmail.com says:

      Dear Bill First thanks for your kind comment. But, on this occasion, I am not too sure that you have picked up my between-the-lines point; although in another way you have. Can Obama be quite as stupid and obtuse as one of the interpretations of his actions and words would suggest? That, as they say, is the question. Peter

      • bemartin39@bigpond.com says:

        Thanks for the response Peter. I readily concede that you did leave the door open in your article for my interpretation of Obama’s muslimness. I simply wanted to remove all doubt. Regards, Bill.

  • jenkins says:

    I was listening to an interview with Ted Cruz today. He seemed to be pointing out how the US foreign policy under Obama has invariably assisted Islam, even at the expense of allies. It’s an interesting interview between a potential future US president and a “disreputable, fringe-dwelling right-winger”.

    http://louderwithcrowder.com/ted-cruz-like-youve-never-seen-throws-gauntlet-on-refugees/#.Vrxf9Fn-DEw

    • bemartin39@bigpond.com says:

      Many thanks for this link Jenkins. Having avoided the tedium of US presidential candidate debates, this gave me a thorough and reassuring insight into Ted Cruz. He sound eminently suitable for the top job.

      • acarroll says:

        Cruz is bought and paid for like the rest of the GOP establishment (Wall St, Israel Lobby, Military Industrial Complex etc).

        More of the same can be expected from him (off-shoring, bankers escaping justice, market collusion and manipulation, continued massive immigration, wars in the middle east).

        So yes, eminently suitable for the “top job” as you say.

  • Matt Brazier says:

    Ah, yes. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

    • bemartin39@bigpond.com says:

      Thanks Jody. David Brooks is a swooning sycophant, his otherwise excellent prose is dripping with sickly, sticky treacle. Much of what he praises Obama for are the precise opposite of reality!

  • brian.doak@bigpond.com says:

    Am I correct in recalling that religious identity is passed on according to lineage, maternal or paternal. This means that in the ordinary scheme of things children of Jewish mothers are Jewish and children of Mohammedan fathers are Mohammedan [sometimes covert].
    I read in the Obama memoir that Obama senior was a persuasive talker and a good dancer, just like the admiring son. Obama snr was much married but the son to his credit seems as contentedly monogamous as was his mother who raised the son without much help from the absentee father.

    Your analysis Peter is most impressive. However an Imam would condemn it and say that only a cleric can understand and interpret the writings and that black at times means white and vv.

  • gardner.peter.d says:

    I’d like share Simon Heffer’s sharp comment in The Telegraph:

    Since George H.W. Bush left office in 1993 America has been ruled by a spin-obsessed sex addict, a dangerous halfwit and a clever incompetent.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/donald-trump/12154670/How-seven-years-of-Obama-created-Trump.html

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