Critical Thinking on Cairo

    Accuracy in Media


Critical Thinking on Cairo

AIM Column  |  By Malcolm A. Kline  |  June 9, 2009

    "There was not one reference to terrorism, let alone Islamic
    terrorism," Gaffney observes of Obama's Cairo speech.

    Critical thinking seems to have eluded the media and academic elites
    in their mostly gushing reaction to the President's speech on the
    Middle East, given in Cairo. Fortunately, the people who really know
    something about the issues involved are attempting to fill the void.

    "The Speech contained a number of statements about the laudable
    qualities of America, the need for freedom in the Muslim world, about
    women's rights and the desirability of peace," Frank Gaffney, Jr.
    concludes. "But its preponderant and much more important message was
    one that could have been crafted by the Muslim Brotherhood: America
    has a president who is, wittingly or not, advancing the Brotherhood's
    agenda of masking the true nature of Shariah and encouraging the
    West's submission to it."

    And who is the Muslim Brotherhood and what is Shariah? "By and large,
    President Obama's address yesterday in Cairo has been well received in
    both the so-called 'Muslim world' and by other audiences," Gaffney
    observed on June 5, 2009. "Nobody may be happier with it, though, than
    the Muslim Brotherhood-the global organization that seeks to impose
    authoritative Islam's theo-political-legal program known as 'Shariah'
    through stealthy means where violence [sic] ones are not practicable."

    "Egyptian Muslim Brothers were prominent among the guests in the
    audience at Cairo University and Brotherhood-associated organizations
    in America, like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR),
    have rapturously endorsed the speech."

    Gaffney served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the
    Reagan Administration. Prior to his service in the Pentagon, he worked
    as an advisor on foreign policy and defense for several prominent
    Democratic senators in the 1970s.

    "There was not one reference to terrorism, let alone Islamic
    terrorism," Gaffney observes of Obama's Cairo speech. "Indeed, any
    connection between the two is treated as evidence of some popular
    delusion."

    "The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the continued efforts of these
    extremists to engage in violence against civilians has [sic] led some
    in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America
    and Western countries, but also to human rights," President Obama said
    in Cairo. "This has bred more fear and mistrust."

    "At least as troubling are what amount to instances of presidential
    dawa, the Arabic term for Islamic proselytization," Gaffney writes.
    "For example, Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to 'the Holy
    Koran.'"

    "It seems unimaginable that he ever would ever use the adjective to
    describe the Bible or the Book of Mormon." Additionally, Gaffney
    claims, the commander-in-chief engaged in some fuzzy math that went
    well beyond the bounds of diplomacy.

    "If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of
    the largest Muslim countries in the world," the president had said in
    an interview before the speech had been given.

    "Unfortunately, a pattern is being established whereby President Obama
    routinely exaggerates the Muslim character of America," Gaffney
    argues. "For example, at Cairo University, he claimed there are nearly
    seven million Muslims in this country-a falsehood promoted by the
    Muslim Brotherhood and its friends-when the actual number is well-less
    than half that."

    "I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United
    States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they
    appear," the president said in Cairo.

    "Note that, although he referred in the context of the
    Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict to 'vile stereotypes' of Jews, he
    did not describe it as 'part of his responsibility as President' to
    counter anti-Semitic representations," Gaffney himself notes.
    "Unremarked was the fact that such incitement is daily fare served up
    by the state media controlled by his host in Egypt, President Hosni
    Mubarak, by the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas and by every
    other despot in the region with whom Mr. Obama seeks to 'engage.'"

    "Worse yet, no mention was made of the fact that some of those 'vile
    stereotypes'-notably, that Jews are 'descendants of apes and pigs'-are
    to be found in 'the Holy Koran,' itself."

    "The Koran is actually a very confusing book," Jim Kouri points out in
    an article in the New York Examiner. "It does not provide
    practitioners of Islam a clear and unambiguous roadmap to heaven."

    "In fact, Arabic scholars have explained that the Koran is divided
    into two contradictory-opposing-viewpoints of how Muslims should
    interact with one another as well as non-believers." Kouri also serves
    as vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

    "Scholars divide the Koran as written by Muhammad into the Mecca
    period from 610 to 622; and the Medina period from 622 to 632," Kouri
    points out. "Mecca is best described as a period of tolerance, even
    pluralism."

    "It was a belief in 'live and let live.' ('You shall have your
    religion and I shall have mine.')

    "However, the Medina period can be characterized as a religion delving
    into politics, power and armed conflict in the name of Allah. ('And
    kill them wherever you find them.')

    "So when we hear Islamic leaders discuss their beliefs, we come away
    as confused as the Muslims themselves. The fact is that some may be
    referring to Mecca, some may be referring to Medina, and some may be
    referring to both the Mecca and Medina.

    "Besides the confusion caused by the Koran, add other components of
    Islam such as Sunna, Hadith and Rivya, and it's no wonder that Koranic
    scholars are at odds with one another."
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    Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
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