I was reading my morning paper today when I coughed up my english muffin reading this op-ed. I quickly penned a response and emailed it to the paper. It'll never get published (mine haven't yet) so here it is anyway.
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Anwer Mahmood Khan's op-ed today made me sick to my stomach with its ridiculousness. He claims President Obama has made great strides toward peace with Muslims already, showing "that he is willing to negotiate terms with the Muslim world on (sic) an equal and reconciliatory terms," while President Bush represented "an aura of bigotry and policing." Such statements could only be made by someone who willfully ignored the situation that Muslim nations, not the United States, have put us in today. The idea that, as Khan claims, Obama "loudly declare(s) that he certainly wants to establish peace in the world" imagines that Bush, or America for that matter, previously did not! Nothing could be further from the truth. A more newsworthy statement would be one where Iran or Syria or some other terrorism-sponsoring Muslim nation reached out to the United States, loudly declaring that THEY wanted peace in the world.
Khan laughably claims that Obama, as opposed to Bush, represented those of us who cherish "freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, all of which are and should be the hallmark of Islamic society." Really, Mr. Khan? Really? Islamic society embraces NONE of those freedoms. Where was the freedom of speech respected by the Iranian government after the last election? Where was freedom of the press (all the news we got came from bloggers with cell phone video cameras because the press was ousted)? Where in the Koran does it say that those who choose religions other than Islam, moreover those who convert to other religions from Islam, should be respected as equals? In fact it says exactly the opposite.
I will agree with and even commend Mr. Khan for calling on Islamic governments worldwide to embrace peace and turn away from hate. But I will not pretend, as many liberals do, that the United States is the one at fault in creating the tension in this relationship. President Bush declared Islam to be "a religion of peace" and embraced American Muslims in New York while the World Trade Center was still smoldering. The USA is the only thing standing up against Muslim aggression throughout the world right now. If you want world peace, support the U.S.'s continuing (not "new") efforts to stand up for individual liberty and against Islamic law being imposed far and wide. Don't instead act as if the Islamic world would coexist peacefully with everyone else if only they were given the opportunity.
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