The "Muslim World"

I want to shed a little "lyte" on President Obama's speech in Cairo.  Candidate Obama promised to address Muslims across the world early on in his term if he was elected President. He delivered on that promise yesterday, giving a nuanced speech that contained quotes from the Quran, the Bible, and the Talmud.

The President again demonstrated his stellar speaking skills.  He showed sensitivity to a people long inured to being lectured by American Presidents.  His speech was an exercise in understanding, showing a substantial knowledge of the Arab's love of deliberate word choices and surprising humility.

It was the humility that drove the rabid right and it's mouthpiece, Fox News, into the stratosphere.  Sean Hannity used some creative editing to make it sound like Obama was supporting 9/11 sympathizers.  Pundits again trotted out the idea that Obama was apologizing for the US.  They had some serious issues with the President calling the invasion of Iraq a "war of choice".  Conveniently forgetting that it was.

Oh! Not to move off topic, but did anyone notice that the new leader of the Republican party, Dick Cheney, admitted this week that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11?  After beating that drum incessantly for the last 6 years, now he says there was no credible intelligence supporting that contention.  He obviously forgot to tell his daughter, Liz, who got into it with ABC's Andrea Mitchell.  Demonstrating the right's complete denial of reality, Ms. Cheney simultaneously said that her father never tried to link Saddam Hussein and 9/11, while also trying to insinuate that such a link did exist. I got to find my Motrin. 

But back to Obama's speech.  It was well received in the mythical "Muslim World".  Since 9/11, the incredible diversity of nations that have a majority of citizens that follow Islam has been reduced to the term "Muslim World".  Now, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and there advertisers have created a place they call "Chicagoland".  I have noticed that there is no "New York Land" or "LA Land".  This is a moniker reserved just for the Second City.  But now we have the "Muslim World".  It sounds like a amusement park dedicated to the Prophet Muhammed.  Where is the "Christian World", or the "Hindu World"?  And we wonder why they don't like us?  After being colonized, invaded, and exploited, we now just refer to them as the "Muslim World".

Obama's speech made some inroads into the damage.  But his words will have to be followed by action.  Specifically in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  This conflict is the one issue that unites the "Muslim World".  Most Americans are totally clueless about this. When former President Bush met with Indonesian imans, he was shocked to find out that the issue they wanted to talk about was the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  So if Obama and his team could help bring about a two state solution, they would dramatically improve our relations with all Muslim nations and remove a major recruiting tool used by Muslim extremists.  But hey, I was just happy that he didn't call the Egyptians Austrians.