The truth behind Obama’s speech in Cairo

The history of the USA makes the president's assertion that his nation has no quarrel with Islam ring hollow, says Alexander Cockburn

FIRST POSTED JUNE 5, 2009

As they drafted his speech to the Muslim world, delivered in Cairo yesterday, President Obama's speech writers strove to suggest that cordiality towards Islam is securely embedded in America's cultural history.

The first Muslim congressman, Obama told his vast audience across the Muslim world, was sworn into the House of Representatives with his hand on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Koran.

No names were mentioned, but this would have been Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a Democrat elected in 2000. At Johnson's victory night rally the local crowd shouted "Allahu Akhbar!". During the race Johnson understandably downplayed past associations with the Nation of Islam.

Obama also pointed out that Morocco had been the first nation to recognise the infant United States, signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, which declared that the US had no quarrel with the Muslim religion and was in no sense a Christian country. The second US President, John Quincy Adams, reiterated that America had no quarrel with Islam.

China will be upset that Obama credited Islam with printing and navigationIt's a stretch. As my father Claud famously said: "Never believe anything till it is officially denied." Adams and Jefferson both saw it as a vital matter of national security to settle accounts with the Muslim world, as represented by the Barbary states.

America needed free access to the Mediterranean and the Barbary 'pirates' controlled the sea lanes and, furthermore, had several hundred thousand Christian slaves, all no doubt using the opportunity of captivity to imbibe the first principles of algebra, whose invention Obama took the opportunity in Cairo to lay at the feet of the mathematicians of Islam.

He also credited Islam with the invention of printing and navigation which should surely require the Chinese People's Republic to withdraw its ambassador in Washington DC in formal diplomatic protest.

An early version of the Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key, written in 1805 amid the routing of the Barbary states, offered a view of Islam markedly different from Obama's uplifting sentiments in Cairo:

In conflict resistless each toil they endur'd,
Till their foes shrunk dismay’d from the war's desolation:
And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscur'd
By the light of the star-bangled flag of our nation.
Where each flaming star gleamed a meteor of war,
And the turban'd head bowed to the terrible glare.
Then mixt with the olive the laurel shall wave
And form a bright wreath for the brow of the brave.

In 1814 Key rehabbed this doggerel as the Star Spangled Banner. So America's national anthem began as a gleeful tirade against the Mahommedans. And of course every member of the US Marine Corps regularly bellows out its anthem, beginning: "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli".

In short, America's march to Empire was minted in the crucible of anti-Islamic sentiment. This is not to detract from Obama's laudable efforts to rewrite history into a parable of tolerance and mutual respect, but it signals the problem with presidential speeches professing moral purpose of the purest ichor.

It's like a Scottish comedian some years ago, who used to begin: "They're calling Glasgow the Athens of the North." Pause. Incredulous

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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