Obama and Islam

a US university student wrote recently..

Barack Obama represents “the only hope for the US in the Muslim world,” according to Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Because Obama’s father was a Muslim, he “could lead a reconciliation between the Muslim countries and the US.” With any of the other candidates as president, Hersh said, “we’re facing two or three decades of problems in the Mideast, with 1.2 billion Muslims.”

Hersh, who writes for The New Yorker about the Bush Administration in Iraq and Iran, spoke to my history class at UC Irvine on Tuesday. In Obama’s 2006 book The Audacity of Hope he wrote that his Kenyan father was “raised a Muslim,” but says he was a “confirmed atheist” by the time his parents met. His parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced.

Of course if Obama did win the nomination, one can only imagine what the Republicans would do with the fact that his father was a Muslim. We’ve already had Mitt Romney smiling next to a campaign sign in South Carolina that said “No to Obama Osama.”

Hersh did not hold out much hope for improved relations between the US and the Muslim world. “The only good news I can bring you is that tomorrow morning there will be one less day of the Bush presidency,” he told an overflow crowd in a public lecture at UC Irvine. Bush “doesn’t care about” his low standing in the polls, and as a result “he’s going to keep going until 11:59 a.m. on January 20, 2009.”

Even after Bush’s term ends, “much of the damage is yet to come,” Hersh said. “The problems for the next president may be intractable.”

“They say the surge has worked,” Hersh said. “But do you think someday we will get an oil deal in Iraq? They’ll burn the fields first. We’re hated in Iraq.”

As for Afghanistan, “we became more of a threat to the people than Taliban,” Hersh said. We’re “losing the war there,” he said, and concluded that “Afghanistan is a doomed society.”

Hersh said he had just returned from Syria, where he was working on his next New Yorker piece, on the mysterious bombing carried out by the US and the Israelis. “The Syrians have a much longer-term perspective than we do,” he said. “They say ‘we’ve been here for 10,000 years; we’re not going away.'”

As for the short term, Hersh said, “Cheney thinks war with Islam is inevitable, so we might as well have it now.” Administration plans for bombing Iran call for targeting the Revolutionary Guards. Iran’s response, Hersh said, is likely to be “asymmetrical” – instead of striking back directly at the US, they will “hit the oil” in the Gulf. The result will be oil prices of “$200 or $300 a barrel,” double or triple the current price.

But will Bush bomb Iran? Hersh’s answer: “How the hell should I know?”

Obama and Islam
Jon Wiener

Barack Obama represents “the only hope for the US in the Muslim world,” according to Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Because Obama’s father was a Muslim, he “could lead a reconciliation between the Muslim countries and the US.” With any of the other candidates as president, Hersh said, “we’re facing two or three decades of problems in the Mideast, with 1.2 billion Muslims.”

Hersh, who writes for The New Yorker about the Bush Administration in Iraq and Iran, spoke to my history class at UC Irvine on Tuesday. In Obama’s 2006 book The Audacity of Hope he wrote that his Kenyan father was “raised a Muslim,” but says he was a “confirmed atheist” by the time his parents met. His parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced.

Of course if Obama did win the nomination, one can only imagine what the Republicans would do with the fact that his father was a Muslim. We’ve already had Mitt Romney smiling next to a campaign sign in South Carolina that said “No to Obama Osama.”

Hersh did not hold out much hope for improved relations between the US and the Muslim world. “The only good news I can bring you is that tomorrow morning there will be one less day of the Bush presidency,” he told an overflow crowd in a public lecture at UC Irvine. Bush “doesn’t care about” his low standing in the polls, and as a result “he’s going to keep going until 11:59 a.m. on January 20, 2009.”

Even after Bush’s term ends, “much of the damage is yet to come,” Hersh said. “The problems for the next president may be intractable.”

“They say the surge has worked,” Hersh said. “But do you think someday we will get an oil deal in Iraq? They’ll burn the fields first. We’re hated in Iraq.”

As for Afghanistan, “we became more of a threat to the people than Taliban,” Hersh said. We’re “losing the war there,” he said, and concluded that “Afghanistan is a doomed society.”

Hersh said he had just returned from Syria, where he was working on his next New Yorker piece, on the mysterious bombing carried out by the US and the Israelis. “The Syrians have a much longer-term perspective than we do,” he said. “They say ‘we’ve been here for 10,000 years; we’re not going away.'”

As for the short term, Hersh said, “Cheney thinks war with Islam is inevitable, so we might as well have it now.” Administration plans for bombing Iran call for targeting the Revolutionary Guards. Iran’s response, Hersh said, is likely to be “asymmetrical” – instead of striking back directly at the US, they will “hit the oil” in the Gulf. The result will be oil prices of “$200 or $300 a barrel,” double or triple the current price.

But will Bush bomb Iran? Hersh’s answer: “How the hell should I know?”

What is Jihad?

In the classical manuals of Islamic jurisprudence, the rules associated with armed warfare are covered at great length. Such rules include not killing women, children and non-combatants, as well as not damaging cultivated or residential areas. More recently, modern Muslims have tried to re-interpret the Islamic sources, stressing that Jihad is essentially defensive warfare aimed at protecting Muslims and Islam. Although some Islamic scholars have differed on the implementation of Jihad, there is consensus amongst them that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression.

Jihad has also been applied to offensive, aggressive warfare, as exemplified by early movements like the Kharijites and the contemporary Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization (which assassinated Anwar Al Sadat) as well as Jihad organizations in Lebanon, the Gulf states, and Indonesia. When used to describe warfare between Islamic groups or individuals, such as al-Qaeda’s attacks on civilians in Iraq, perpetrators of violence often cite collaboration with non-Islamic powers as a justification. The terrorist attacks like September 11, 2001 planned and executed by radical Islamic fundamentalists have not been sanctioned by more centrist groups of Muslims. This kind of terrorism has often been condemned by Muslims all arround the world.

When Muslim populations are attacked on the basis of religion, Jihad becomes mandatory on the government of that particular state (and all Muslims) until all hostile forces are either eliminated or negotiated out of the occupied land. If the threat continues to persist, the Islamic State may have to eliminate the threat through force.

The word itself is recorded in English since 1869, in the Muslim sense, and has been used for any doctrinal crusade since c. 1880.

Non-violent jihad

Some Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad regarded the inner struggle for faith a greater Jihad than even fighting [by force] in the way of God, and quote the famous but controversial hadith which has the prophet saying: “We have returned from the lesser jihad (battle) to the greater jihad (jihad of the soul).”

In Modern Standard Arabic, jihad is one of the correct terms for a struggle for any cause, violent or not, religious or secular (though ???? kif?? is also used). For instance, Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for Indian independence is called a “jihad” in Modern Standard Arabic (as well as many other dialects of Arabic) even though it was neither an Islamic struggle nor conducted violently; the same terminology is applied to the fight for women’s liberation.

In modern times, Pakistani scholar and professor Fazlur Rahman has used the term to describe the struggle to establish “just moral-social order”, while President Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia has used it to describe the struggle for economic development in Tunisia.

“Peace starts with a smile”

Mother Teresa

“Without inner peace, it is impossible to have world peace.”
His Holiness Dalai Lama

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
Matthew 5:3

“The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: ’That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God’s creatures. Belief in God is to love one’s fellow men.’”
Abdul Ghaffar Khan

“Love Thy Enemy”
Matthew 5:43

Do you want long life and happiness? Strive for peace with all your heart.
Psalm 34:12,14

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.
Indian Proverb

“Hatred can be overcome only by love”
Mahatma Gandhi.

“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”
The Buddha

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Albert Einstein

“Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Peace is its own reward.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.”
Albert Einstein

“One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.”
Agatha Christie

Wizart,

I think you’re attempting a hijack of this forum… Isn’t that terrorism? 🙂

Shai,

That’s a pretty peaceful way to define a controversial concept!

Are you familiar with “cognitive behavioral therapy?” it’s what we need to do on a massive scale to help people see the world in a more positive, hopeful, peaceful and productive way.

We need to make fun of stupid concepts..humor maybe the way to peace because peace is like business..too important to be taken seriously 🙂

Wizart,

I’ll second that! … the part about humor.

Wizart,

I recommend that you help (a) start AAPAC (second A=Arab), and (b) post your Jihad article (with some editing for enhancement) on the OP-Ed pages of the NYTimes.

Oh, I must be at the wrong blog. This is WIZARTComment. Sorry.

The Other Point of View,

Your point is well taken.

I failed to mention earlier the Jihad part (credit) belongs to google which as you know has a freely circulated encyclopedia.

Are you familiar with http://www.ADC.org? It’s the closest thing to an American Arab Political Action Commitee with thousands of members.

They have annual conventions usually in June in Washington, D.C.

One of their first founding officers was killed in Los Angeles allegedly by some secret agent working for a foreign government.