Making Believe; Obama’s speech was deep in fable, short on fact

National Review ^ | June 05, 2009 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[Sergeant Tim]

The president rehearsed the claim that Islam single-handedly “carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.” This is a myth. As Robert Spencer has ably recounted, it is not true that Muslims alone preserved the works of Aristotle, Galen, Plato, Hippocrates, and other pillars of Western enlightenment. More significantly, arrested development in the Islamic world owes to an anti-intellectualism that persists to this day in enclaves holding that no education beyond the study of the Koran is necessary.

The president, moreover, insisted on pulling from the Muslim apologists’ playbook the expurgation of Islamic scripture in order to render it congenial to Western sensibilities. We were treated to the hidebound claim that terrorist violence is anti-Islamic because what Obama takes pains to call “the Holy Koran” teaches that “whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind.” This conveniently decoupled Sura 5:32 from the next verse (5:33), which, though unmentioned by Obama, is well known by Muslims to read: “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land, is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: That is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the hereafter.”

[cripplecreek]

I especially enjoyed the part where he said he was closing GITMO and getting us out of Iraq. The muslims seemed to enjoy it as well. Wonder how they’ll feel a year from now when neither has happened?

[OldNavyVet]

“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land, is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: That is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the hereafter.”

See my tagline ...

[DooDahhhh]

Obama does not write his speeches; we need to look further to find out where this drivel is coming from.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No doubt the Muslim world is ready to receive the Gitmo folks with open arms.

[DJ MacWoW]

Thanks for posting. Good article.

Second, and related, there can be no peace unless Islam reforms — unless it purges its savage elements and compellingly condemns the violence committed in its name. This can’t be done as Obama and others would like to do it: by telling Muslims everything is fine, that their religion is wonderful as is, while making believe the bad scriptures don’t exist and radicals are merely a tiny fringe of crazy people. That is a strategy designed by liberals to convince other liberals who don’t need convincing, so desperate are they to believe all is well.

[Leg Olam]

He lies and spins with every word.

Nothing more than a sh#t salesman with a mouthfull of samples.

[livius]

Worse, assuming there is no credible counter-construction (which may very well be the case), there is an enormous amount of reform to be done — work that can only be done by Muslims. We cannot rouse them to the task by telling them we think Islam, as it currently exists, is promoting peace

Good article. The only thing that can "reform" Islam is its total erradication, because as McCarthy points out, it is vicious and violent, root and branch, and its scriptures are the very things that contain the violence. But they've got to realize this themselves, and the only thing that will make them realize it is not sweet reason - that might work on a few of the less brainwashed - but simply putting our heel down on them so that whatever violence they attempt in obedience to their religion is crushed immediately. That's the only thing Muslims have ever understood.

Some people think Bambi was being naive, but I personally think he's fully aware of this and it is not naivete but sheer arrogance that makes him think he can tell Muslims what their religion is. It's probably his religion, too, to the extent that he has one. But what he really sees is Bambi as the Great Leader of Islam, and this means that he has got to get them to accept him as its spokesman and the one who understands more about it than anybody in the world. That was what he was trying to do with Catholics at ND, and it's typical of his approach.

He doesn't think of himself as president of the United States (which is probably why his presidential seal on the podium in the mosque didn't have those words around it as it usually does), but as ruler of the world - on all levels. Obama is the firmest believer in his own cult.

[Oratam]

Let’s kill this “dark ages” myth while we’re at it, too.

[IceAge]

O seems to live in the moment only. He makes all these promises that thinking people “know” he can never fulfill.
It’s as if he has dreamed of these things his whole life and lives in a fairytale world where all he has to do is make promises and a magic wand will make them happen.

When it only take $$ to fulfill a promise, he just prints more $$ and it’s a done deal. What happens when he finds out the printing press is out of ink?????

He’s finding out closing Gitmo isn’t that easily done. Other nations don’t want to bail him out and he’s showing his true colors by dissing a couple of European leaders on this trip.

[FatherofFive]

there can be no peace unless Islam reforms — unless it purges its savage elements and compellingly condemns the violence committed in its name. This can’t be done as Obama and others would like to do it: by telling Muslims everything is fine, that their religion is wonderful as is, while making believe the bad scriptures don’t exist and radicals are merely a tiny fringe of crazy people.

Unfortunately, Islam cannot be reformed. Ann Coulter has the real solution.

[Matchett-PI]

“He lies and spins with every word. Nothing more than a sh#t salesman with a mouthfull of samples.” ~ Lee Heggy123

Or as Krauthammer puts it:

Charles Krauthammer tears into Obama on his speech today calling it “Abstract, vapid, and self-absorbed”
VIDEO (2 minutes) http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/06/04/the-kraut-tears-into-obama-speech-calling-it-%e2%80%9cabstract-vapid-and-self-absorbed%e2%80%9d/

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Krauthammer Blasts Obama on the Israeli Settlement Issue
IBD/The Lid ^ | 6/4/09 | The Lid
Posted on Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:32:54 PM by Shellybenoit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2265149/posts

Via his actions over the past two weeks or his speech in Cairo today, it is clear that president Obama is putting most of the blame for the lack of Middle East peace on Israel and the settlements. His demand of a settlement building freeze requires a prohibition on construction inside the footprint of communities that today are de facto Israeli territory. These are the city-settlements that have long been slated for inclusion into Israel in any final-status agreement, with equivalent Israeli territory awarded to the future Palestinian state through land swaps.

Obama has chosen to ignore previous agreements between Israel and the United States. Agreements that were used to sell Israel on agreeing to the “road map.” The President talks a lot about the importance of dialogue, diplomacy, and humility. He even says that the United States will no longer impose its will on other nations, his actions toward Israel are very much at odds with his words.

Obama has been turning up the pressure. His demand during today’s speech in Cairo was nothing less than throwing Israel under the bus. Charles Krauthammer agrees, he suggests that Obama’s stance toward the settlements is not only bad for Israel, but bad for the United States: ...... (End excerpt)

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TARIQ RAMADAN, ‘MUSLIMS WANT RESPECT AND HUMIILITY’ (Obama read Ramadan’s script)
ANSAmed ^ | June 3 2009 | ANSA staff
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2265223/posts

[Miss Didi]

RUSH: Okay. I know we're not supposed to criticize Obama's speech here. I know it's going way off the reservation here to do this. But, folks, that is outrageous. This is simply outrageous. It was absurd, in fact. Let's see. Where do we start here? "It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra." No. The origins of algebra trace back to the ancient Babylonians. They were not Muslims. Algebra was temporarily developed by the ancient Greeks and later the English. "Our magnetic compass, tools of navigation," Islam gave us these? No. "Recent research suggests that the compass may have been discovered by Central Americans, but if they didn't do it, the Chinese are then its discoverers. In either case, be it the Chinese or the Central Americans, the compass was discovered centuries before the advent of Islam."

Now, what am I supposed to say? I'm not supposed to say this stuff. Now, let's see, let's see. "Our mastery of pens and printing..." Has anybody ever heard of Gutenberg? I didn't know Gutenberg was a Muslim. "Our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed..."? Are there Nobel Prizes for Medicine awarded to Muslims I have missed? "Islamic has given us some majestic arches and soaring spires..." Well, sorry, folks, but arches and spires predate the arrival of Islam by centuries. I mean, come on, folks. Arches? Anybody heard of Rome? He also talked about the great gift, "timeless poetry and cherished music." The only problem there is that music -- and musical instruments especially -- are forbidden in most Islamic traditions. And it should be unnecessary to have to note Islam's "religious tolerance" has been demonstrated. Okay, I'm... Take it away.

President Obama's Cairo Speech: Outrageous, Absurd, Embarrassing

[Califreak]

What else can we expect from a pretend president?

[meandog]

Worse, it was full of historic inaccuracies! Our great leader failed in noting that Morocco, a muslim country, was the first to recognize the new nation of the United States in 1777 without explaining WHY it did so...it was because Mohammad III, the Moroccan sultan at the time, was trying to appease the Barbary Coast pirates which we eventually had to subdue—thanks in part to Navy hero Stephen Decatur. He also claimed Arabs were the first to use the compass well, hello, did he forget the Chinese used it (as documented by Marco Polo in his book) centuries before it appeared on any Arab dhow. As well he claimed Arabs invented pens and writing—I suppose he believes that cuneiform applies here—but writing was also a part of Asian culture long before A-rabs began dabbling in clay.

[two23]

Affirmative Action Figure gives speeches written by a government employee...I’m not impressed.
The lies and inaccuracies are obvious to anyone who has enough brains and religion to not become brainwashed.
It’s all delivered in manipulative, 3-word bursts, designed to make the audience hang onto every word while they are mesmerized by his his hand, head and chin motions.
Fools indeed.
Pray for America and Israel

[achilles2000]

You can thank Petrarch for that one.

[achilles2000]

Why always go to the East? Moses and Plato didn’t know how to write? Arabs have created virtually nothing on their own except the misery of Mohammadanism. The “achievements” were really those of the Christian cultures the muslim Arabs overran in North Africa and the Middle East.

[SeminoleSoldier]

No doubt the Muslim world is ready to receive the Gitmo folks with open arms.

Red carpet, parades, confetti, medals, and honor guards too. In the movie Munich, the scene I found most infuriating was the (accurate) scene where the released terrorist's receive hero's welcomes in their raghead country.

[MrB]

Notice that he does a lot of this and his fawning crowds never really catch on.

He’ll say something right now to get an applause line, implying that the implementation is imminent, then “something” always comes up to “delay” the implementation.