Posted on 06/13/2009 4:26:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
For the past eight years, the Muslim world has heard and seen relentless hostility from the Bush/Cheney administration.
In a welcome change, President Barack Obama’s masterfully written, artfully delivered recent speech in Cairo was filled with just what the Muslim world had been waiting to hear: an intelligent, respectful address calling for normalised relations with the Muslim world, including former “betes noires” Iran and Syria, co-operation, and advancement of democracy and human rights.
Very nice, to a point. But the Muslim world was not as taken by Obama’s silver-tongued oratory as many Americans. The general response was, “actions speak louder than words. Show us some positive actions”.
Unfortunately, rather than the newly-friendly, helpful US, many Muslims saw Obama expanding the war in Afghanistan which he could easily have ended or at least put on hold upon taking office. They saw the US-rented Pakistani Army create 3mn refugees in its Swat offensive against rebellious Pashtun tribesmen, the continuing US occupation of Iraq, and CIA’s covert campaign to destabilize Iran and Syria.
Muslims saw Israel’s rightist government thumbing its nose at Obama’s sensible calls for a halt to its illegal colonisation of the West Bank and Golan. They listened to the US Congress applaud like trained circus seals Israel’s refusal to cease building settlements or to respect the human rights of Palestinians. They heard US neoconservatives baying for war against Iran.
These facts speak a lot louder than the president’s mellifluous oratory.
We would like to give the new president the benefit of the doubt. He has been in office only four months and will need a lot more time to begin repairing the catastrophic damage inflicted by the Bush administration on US interests and standing in the Muslim world and Europe.
Here in Greece, for example, anti-US sentiments reached an all time high under Bush, but is now declining thanks to Obama’s worldwide appeal.
However, the White House’s recent actions contradict the new president’s promises.
Exhibit A: Obama unfortunately chose Egypt from which to deliver his message of amity, democracy and human rights to the Muslim world.
Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has held power for 37 years. Rather than setting a progressive, democratic tone for the Middle East, Egypt has become out of step with the times. Egypt’s human rights record is lamentable, as even senior US officials have complained.
Yet Egypt is America’s most important Muslim ally. Is this what Obama means when he calls for democracy and human rights? He should have given his speech from democratic Indonesia, or the progressive United Arab Emirates and Qatar rather than Egypt.
Exhibit B: Lebanon’s June 7 parliamentary elections. A US/French-backed coalition of Sunni, Christians, and Druze was pitted against a Syrian-Iranian backed Hezbollah-led coalition that included Armenians and a Christian splinter faction.
Late last month, US Vice President Joseph Biden went to Lebanon and threatened to cut off all US aid to that nation of 3.9mn if the democratically-elected Hezbollah coalition won. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made similar crude threats.
Imagine the uproar if an Arab leader came to the US just before elections and threatened to raise oil prices if Democrats won.
Is this what Obama means by promoting good government and democracy in the Muslim world?
Many Muslims and non-Muslims alike see Obama as an honest, decent, well-intentioned leader who has not yet managed to impose his will on the aggressive financial-military-industrial complex that seemingly remains the real power in Washington.
I am gonna get sick here.
Glass over Mecca..
I remember a soldier saying we need to make the whole ME a glass factory, and that was back in the summer of 1990. August. When good ole Saddamn invaded Kuwait.
Except Israel, of course.
Eric S. Margolis: For the past eight years, the Muslim world has heard and seen relentless hostility from the Bush/Cheney administration... But the Muslim world was not as taken by Obama's silver-tongued oratory as many Americans... many Muslims saw Obama expanding the war in Afghanistan which he could easily have ended or at least put on hold upon taking office. They saw the US-rented Pakistani Army create 3mn refugees in its Swat offensive against rebellious Pashtun tribesmen, the continuing US occupation of Iraq, and CIA's covert campaign to destabilize Iran and Syria. Muslims saw Israel's rightist government thumbing its nose at Obama's sensible calls for a halt to its illegal colonisation of the West Bank and Golan. They listened to the US Congress applaud like trained circus seals Israel's refusal to cease building settlements or to respect the human rights of Palestinians... Here in Greece, for example, anti-US sentiments reached an all time high under Bush, but is now declining thanks to Obama's worldwide appeal... Obama unfortunately chose Egypt from which to deliver his message of amity, democracy and human rights... Rather than setting a progressive, democratic tone for the Middle East... Egypt's human rights record is lamentable... Obama... should have given his speech from democratic Indonesia, or the progressive United Arab Emirates and Qatar rather than Egypt... Late last month, US Vice President Joseph Biden went to Lebanon and threatened to cut off all US aid to that nation of 3.9mn if the democratically-elected Hezbollah coalition won. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made similar crude threats. Imagine the uproar if an Arab leader came to the US just before elections and threatened to raise oil prices if Democrats won... Many Muslims and non-Muslims alike see Obama as an honest, decent, well-intentioned leader who has not yet managed to impose his will on the aggressive financial-military-industrial complex that seemingly remains the real power in Washington.
>>>For the past eight years, the Muslim world has heard and seen relentless hostility from the Bush/Cheney administration.<<<
Yeah, all that religion of peace and loving freedom crap from Bush and his minions. The writer needs to know that starting an opinion with demonstrable falsehoods will probably cause the reader to go elsewhere.
“CIA’s covert campaign to destabilize Iran and Syria.”
This is an obvious lie. If there were such a campaign, it would have already succeeded.
Give them the elightenment “of a thousand suns”..
What does Greece have to do with all this?
Eric S. Margolis is a half-Albanian muslim shill and a violent hater of Orthodox Christians.
No one should believe anything he says!!!!
Here in Greece, for example, anti-US sentiments reached an all time high under Bush, but is now declining thanks to Obama's worldwide appeal.
Yes, and this is an excerpt of his bio from Wiki:
Margolis was born in New York City in the 1940s to Henry M. Margolis, a New York businessman, restaurant owner, theatrical producer and investor, and Nexhmie Zaimi, his American-Albanian mother who was a journalist and author.....Margolis is best known from his coverage of Palestine and Kashmir. Margolis' mother, Nexhmie Zaimi, was also a journalist who spent a long time in the Middle East documenting the plight of the Palestinians during the 1950s[1]. Her influence, plus Margolis's role as a foreign correspondent in the Mideast and travelling with the mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War, invested Margolis with a strong interest in the Muslim World.
Well yes, I saw that. But of all the lands that we could care about “hating” the USA, Greece has to be near the tail end of the list.
We have to consider the source though. The writer of it is obviously some America-hating nimrod.
Nexhmie Zaimi.....Muslim or Christian? Can you tell? Eric Margolis father was Jewish but he hates Israel
Eric S. Margolis is a half-Albanian muslim shill and a violent hater of Orthodox Christians.........
His mother was Albanian. How do you know she was Muslim?
I do not know whether Margolis’ mother was muslim or not.
I do know that Margolis is half-Albanian, and that he is a long-time muslim shill. So that’s the meaning of my statement.
Well, y’all, I just found something that clinches the issue once and for all:
http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/gjakova-l/2001-February/000027.html
........DAUGHTER OF THE EAGLE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ALBANIAN GIRL.
Nexhmie Zaimi. London: Blackie,1938. 244p.
” This autobiography was written by the daughter of a well-to-do Muslim
goverment official in Vlora. It contains interesting eye-witness accounts of
the successful armed struggle to drive the Italian occupying forces from Vlora
in 1920, and of the life of the nomadic Vlachs. The spectre of disease and
premature death is never far away, even from affluent families like
Zaimis. The most gripping part of the story tells of the girl’s victorious
struggle to go to high school, resist the veil, escape an arranged marriage
and finally emigrate to the freer atmosphere of America. The story provides
an excellent background to the study of Albania just before the Second World
War.”........
By the way, one does not need to be a muslim, or of muslim descent, to become a muslim shill. I know legions of muslim shills who are Lutheran or Episcopalian, as well as Roman Catholics, Jews, and even Orthodox Christians. There are some Albanian Orthodox Christians who say “Kosovo is Serbia!”, and others who shill for KLA terrorists left and right.
Then there is paid muslim shill (”scholar”) Michael Sells, who claims to be Serbian Orthodox (as his mother was). But he spreads horrible propaganda against the entire Serbian people whenever he can. Yikes!!!!
Thanks a lot! A Muslim Jewish marriage is very unusual especially back then. I now know what motivates Eric Margolis who I always assumed was Jewish....Margolis a common Jewish last name
Margolis will always take the Muslim side...not a mystery now
Yes, Michael Sells is about as "Serbian Orthodox" as Stephen Schwartz is "Jewish!
From Sells own bio:
John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature in the Divinity School
Michael Sells studies and teaches in the areas of qur'anic studies; Sufism; Arabic and Islamic love poetry; mysticism (Greek, Islamic, Christian, and Jewish); and religion and violence. The new and expanded edition of his book Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations appeared in 2007. He has published three volumes on Arabic poetry: Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes, which focuses upon the pre-Islamic period; Stations of Desire, which focuses upon the love poetry of Ibn al-'Arabi; and The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Al-Andalus, which he coedited and to which he contributed. His books on mysticism include Early Islamic Mysticism, translations and commentaries on influential mystical passages from the Qur'an, hadith, Arabic poetry, and early Sufi writings; and Mystical Languages of Unsaying, an examination of apophatic language, with special attention to Plotinus, John the Scot, Ibn al-'Arabi, Meister Eckhart, and Marguerite Porete. His work on religion and violence includes: The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia; and The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy, which he coedited and to which he contributed. He is currently completing a book with the working title of God of War: American Power in a World of Religion. He teaches courses on the Qur'an, Islamic love poetry, comparative mystical literature, Arabic Sufi poetry, Arabic religious texts, and Ibn al-'Arabi.
Sells also did a joint presentation with CAIR on "War as Worship".
Every ethnic has its set of self-haters, I guess and Professor Michael Sells is a doozy! Sells even went after basketball player Vlade Divac as being "threatening and offensive to Muslims" because Vlade used the three-finger representation (Father,Son & Holy Spirit) when he or the team would make a basket.
Michael Sells can bite me! And I can't believe that American parents would send their children to be educated by a guy like this!
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