The truth behind Obama's speech in Cairo | News & Politics | News & Comment

FIRST POSTED JUNE 5, 2009

wag of the head. "Athens of the North? Come on!"

Probably Obama's speech will be most vivid in its impact not across Islam but throughout the large portions of America that remain Christian in basic assumption.

I spent a large portion of Wednesday in a car radiator repair shop in a small town here in northern California. The proprietor is a man of conservative views.

As he dunked a radiator in a tank of terrifying green liquid on which floated a small wooden duck, he said with gloomy glee: "You see that Obama's saying America isn't a Christian nation? You see that? Well, the Founders were Christian! The pledge of allegiance calls us 'One nation under God'! And, it says right here on the dollar bill, 'In God we trust'." He winched the radiator out of the green poison and the duck bobbed up and down.

'In God we trust' was first put on coins amid a surge of religious sentiment

His facts were off, just like Obama's. Many of the Founders, Jefferson pre-eminently, were Deists at most. The phrase 'One nation under God' was added to the Pledge of Allegiance (drafted in 1892) in 1954, during the Cold War.

President Eisenhower explained that "in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."

'In God we trust' was first put on coins in the early 1860s amid a surge of religious sentiment in the Civil War. A pastor from Pennsylvania successfully urged the phrase's addition 'to relieve us of the ignominy of heathenism'. It disappeared and reappeared on metal money down the decades.

Teddy Roosevelt thought it was cheap hucksterism, writing that "it seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins."

In 1955 Congress passed a law requiring the phrase to be on all US currency since "in these days when imperialistic and materialistic Communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, it is proper" to "remind all of us of this self-evident truth" that "as long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail."

Obama's calls for mutual tolerance were replaced by talk of America's greatness

Obama, who can parade his Christian beliefs when it suits him, was historically on the money by quoting in Cairo what was in fact America's unofficial motto in the early years: 'E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.'

Given the acrid tirades of my radiator man and of right-wing radio commentators on Obama's speech, it was certainly bracing to listen to a black American president evoke his childhood in Indonesia: "I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk."

But Obama's initial, irreproachable calls for mutual tolerance and respect were soon overwhelmed by his boilerplate about America's greatness and the need for an alliance of tolerant religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism, in case you're wondering) against 'terror'.

"I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States," Obama declared in Cairo, "and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year."

Sharply in the minds of many Muslims listening here would have been the fate of Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih - a

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Brave effort by BO, given the gloating glee with which the RWDBs will parse every phrase and syllable for proof that he is a Muslin Manchurian candidate. Which would still be preferable to the mad Manichaeism of Shrub & Darth Cheney. Lotsa luck lad, you're gonna need it, given your unlovely compatriots. To paraphrase the Iron Duke, "I don't know what effect they'll have on the enemy but, by God, they terrify me..."

Posted by allan kessing at 11:33am on June 5, 2009

Only when religion can be divorced from governments will people see real peace. Islam will always be at loggerheads with other religions because Islamic governments churn out citizen after citizen of primed fanatics. Look at Saudi Arabia, a nation that is allowed to operate religious aparthied by refusing entry to Medina and Mecca to Jews and christians.

Posted by Andrew Longworth at 3:13pm on June 5, 2009

What is responsible for the hatred and venom of Alexander Cockburn and The First Post against this president. Everything you publish about President Barack Obama beginning with the campaign and since his inauguration has been negative.You were not this hard on the previous president in the eight years he was in office.His speech in Cairo ,an attempt to bridge the cultural divide and help in bringing peace to the region,instead became an exercise of Alexander calling him naive and calling him a liar and bringing up everything the United States has ever done. Like everything else that you and this columnist print about this president (who is not even 6 months old on the job) it is just designed to portray him in the worst possible light . Heaven help the world if Alexander Cockburn and his ilk on the right have to power to rule the world.

Posted by angel at 10:41pm on June 5, 2009

I want to correct to Mr.Andrew longworth, i think you are wrong, because islam haven't been at loggerheads with christians and jews who live in Islamic and Arab countries!! in Lebanon for example christians form almost 45% of population in Lebanon and they are living their lives very freely now a days. In Egypt also there are 7 Millions christian and most of them are copts, and also they are living freely and interact with muslims every day. And yes there are jews in arab countries, in Yemen, in Egypt and in Kuwait also there was jews in the past but now they all have emigrated to Israel, after Israel send invitation to all jews to emigrate to them and offer them Israelian Nationalities! and guess what ? Israel have named a street in it's land by the name of two kuwaiti jewish brothers, they were singers in Kuwait but have emigrated in the 1950's to Israel, Their name were: "Saleh & Mahmud ALkwaiti". So you point isn't right ! I think you can't judge islamic world without studying the situation or by living in the Area. But yes you are right Saudia arabia don't allow christian and jews to enter Madina & Mecca, First, that's because of religious reasons, and I guess there are alot of places wre muslims aren't aren't welcome to them, and you can name them ! and second, I guess that's because these two cities "Madina & Mecca" are very very sensitive places to muslims, and maybe because alot of muslims have already suffered in losing the possibility to attend one of the three main mosques in world, which is AL-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Thanks to Israel!! so I guess because of this wound and the fact we are not capable to reach AL-Aqsa safely, so we won't like to risk the other two mosques which are located in Madina & Mecca. Thanks !

Posted by Zeyad Saleh at 3:38am on June 6, 2009

"Angel" (10.41) is completely right. The anti-Obama tirade continues. Or is it simply anti-Democrat ? Move on, Cockburn. Nobody is listening to you.

Posted by martin gowar at 10:39am on June 8, 2009

Thank you Angel for pointing that out. Just today i was watching Al Jazeera where the Taliban has fined every Sikh living there 1000 rupees per person for refusing to convert. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Pakistan-Taliban-Extort-Money-From-Refugees/Video/200906215299134 I live in the UK where tensions between christians and muslims run very high,infact, we now have a far right racist party that has made massive inroads into the political system based on their anti muslim stance., and if you look at the European election results, you will see people voted in power because of religious tensions. I am rather troubled by your defence on why Saudi practices religious aparthied. You must remember that Christianity is 600 years older than Islam and that Islam is an offshoot of christianity. Can you imagine if we christians said that no muslims were allowed in Rome, i can assure you there would be churches set alight throught the Islamic world,so why is that your religion is alowed to do that. For those that dont know, Adam,the very first man in the bible is buried in Mecca, and Eve in Jeddah. You mention Al Asqa mosque,which takes me back to my original point, only when religion is divorced from politics will we see peace. So you justify the banning of crhstians from Mecca and Medina because the Jews have limited the access to Al Asqa to muslims.Two wrongs dont make a right. I once asked a Saudi Iman why christians were barred from Mecca,and without even stopping to think about it,he replied,"Ours is the pure and untainted relgion". So much for tolerance and understanding.

Posted by Andrew Longworth at 12:40pm on June 9, 2009

First of all Barack Obama is not Islamic. That is a myth perpetrated by the weak minds of the religious. Perhaps you can look over your own posts and find the connecting thread of your discourse. Religion. It does nothing but stunt the mind and starve the rational world with useless, uncritical information and cheat ourselves of self reliance and self responsibility. Stop cowering behind your gods and join humanity on it's own terms. Step out of your blissful ignorance and into the warm light of education. Only then will we, as a united rational people, begin to watch as our differences evaporate and it becomes clear that we all, for however short a time, inhabit together this small rock hurdling through space.

Posted by Billy Hutton at 5:56pm on September 21, 2009