Is Obama Blind To The Danger Of Radical Islam?
By CHQ Staff | 10/1/12
We are still puzzling over the meaning of President Barack Obama’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly – can Obama truly be that blind to the danger of radical Islam?
We already noted how Obama walked away from the foreign policy of every president since FDR to embrace a new moral equivalence between attackers and those being attacked – if the attackers are Muslims, that is.
One could make the argument that such a policy amounts to non-intervention and is a positive break with the neo-con idea that we ought to remake the world in our image.
While we are inclined toward non-intervention, we think that is a mistake.
How does that square with the rest of Obama’s speech where he speaks in defense of freedom of speech and religion?
In the eyes of many, if not most Muslims, any advocacy of another faith or the advocacy of no faith at all is prohibited.
Sophisticates, “realists” and partisan Democrats may not like the idea of applying moral terms like good and evil to our foreign policy. Fair enough, but how about freedom versus tyranny?
Because when it comes to freedom of speech and religion, there is none in Islamist countries.
In our society, and under our Constitution, each human being is a free agent, endowed by the Creator with certain “unalienable Rights,” among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The concept that each person should be able to speak and freely pursue happiness in their own way is totally at odds with traditional Muslim society, and with the social order in Islamist countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, or even in allegedly Western-oriented Muslim nations, such as Pakistan.
In Saudi Arabia for example, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice -- also known as the Religious Police or mutaween -- roam the streets of the Kingdom enforcing the government’s version of the Sharia or traditional Islamic law.
The mutaween are most noted in the Western media for their campaign against loosening restrictions on women, such as the ban on women driving and the strict Saudi female dress code, but they have broad powers beyond those most covered by the media.
Among them are many that are directly at odds with Obama’s self-professed defense of free speech.
The mutaween have the power to ban and seize media regarded as anti-Islamic, including newspapers that have articles critical of the Saudi version of Islam, CDs, DVDs or other recordings of Western musical groups, television programs and videos which have material contrary to the Sharia or Islam. Additionally, they actively prevent the practice or proselytizing of other religions within Saudi Arabia, where all religions except Islam are banned.
Despite Barack Obama’s attempts to convince Americans that Islam is no threat to our values and Constitution, the record is there for everyone to see; in countries where Islamists hold sway, freedom is extinguished.