My Reaction to President Barack Obama’s Speech in Egypt, Africa: An Africanist Perspective

By

Dr. Viban Viban Ngo, FRGS.

The open hand of amity by the leader of the Western World, President Barack Obama to the Arab and Moslem world of 1.5 billion is not a wooden horse that the Trojans brought to the Greeks. It is a genuine hand of parley he had promised to extend to the Arab and the Moslems during his 2008 electoral campaign. Whatever this talk is, it is gesture, a long journey that must be begun and should be listened to open-mouthed. It should not be dismissed as another political gimmick that is not backed with actions. There was no apposite location for his talk to be trumpeted around the world than in the advancing Middle East Arab/African nation state, Egypt.

Analogies

Once in a while an opportunity arises out of the blue and sometimes we ignore it perhaps because we had encountered similar situations in the past that had turned out to be frustrating, negative to our lives or mirages. Oftentimes we are born in a system and we stoically believe to be incomparably supreme to others we think or feel we know and we do not know. This could be in the domain of politics, philosophy, ethics, economics or religious beliefs. It may turn out to be like the foods our parents gave us when we were young. We sincerely believe that they are the best foods as compared to foods eaten by other persons who are not of our communities, families or geographical regions. We sometimes turn round to laugh at those who do not eat our foods as if they were doing something awry. We forget that we relish the foods we are eating now because they were the only foods our parents could afford or could grow in their localities and not necessarily what they could have chosen if given opportunities. When we relish their foods, be they high in food nutrients or poor, we think they are the best and would defend what we eat or do even to the point of giving up our lives. We are sometimes using our hidden animalistic instincts when we throw rationality out of our windows and dabble in chaffs. We forget that if our parents were in the tropics, they could have been relishing Dacryodes edulis, plums and Ogoja yams instead of meat as in Australia, and if they found themselves in Europe they could have been enjoy bacon, hogs, and if in Argentina they could have been enjoying lamp chop every day. With this knowledge, do we have a platform to stand on and castigate others when we see those eating dogs, cats, snakes and fish which we cannot touch even at the point of starving?

I am going to switch my analogy now to religious beliefs and you will see that we believe what is preached in our locality when we are growing up. We are not given a choice to decide for ourselves what we would like to be when growing up as we do not see anything wrong with the tradition we grow in or the status quo. We may waiver but we just switch and follow the crowd with the conviction of vox populi vox Dei. We may be influenced by our shrewd, well-intentioned but badly informed and persuasive local leaders or mentors and they are not necessarily preaching the gospel truth which in some circumstances is hard to define. The system or paradigm we may be born in may be the better for us when viewed with our naive or untutored eyes. But is that true? In the following write-up I will demonstrate that we are sometimes born in a deadly paradigm and the only way forward for us is to change.

The ablative better, as truth to me is relative and may be subtractive. Apparently the status quo or paradigm is superlative for us because we have never even been exposed to others that may be better or even allowed to cross-compare. The ones over there we do not know are made to be seen as formidable monstrous succubus that kill people who are not of their kinds on mere sight. Is that true? As a Christian, I unflinchingly follow Christianity for it was established by Jesus Christ, the Son of God as the only true religion on earth; if not in the universe we aspire to people. It does not mean that I will eschew or look down upon non-Christian beliefs. However, I will voice out without fear or favor wherever I glean destructive patterns in other beliefs or philosophies particularly when they are dangerously off beam. I am not an ombudsman but it is my right to right the wronged and some of my rationales are outlined here.

The same comparison could be made from the use of drugs. The one we are familiar with is the best for us but there is one out there that is better than ours. Owing to what we have been used to or had acquired taste, we may reject the new one offered to us that may be the only drug to keep us alive and that may signal our extinction. Many of us will relate to this in other disciplines or experiences in our lives and not necessarily in health matters. We may not even see their goodness because we have been brainwashed and anything that is not naturally from our locale is bad. Is that a right way of reasoning? No. I met a student who studied in France for six years and upon his return to Africa vowed that he would never talk to any French man nor speak French till he would breathe his last. He was badly treated while as a student over there and what he experienced did not necessarily mean that all other Africans were to have similar experiences. Therefore, his decision should be learned but it should not necessarily make us draw the same conclusion that all French men were or are bad. With me, I was laid a red carpet. It could have been a unique case. Consequently, I disproved of this erstwhile African scholar and it does not necessarily mean that I am accurate.

We use only what we have as a measuring yardstick ignoring any coming from outside our confined society and for that reason we do not make good use of our full potential on earth. We end up in shenanigans and wasting time on trivialities owing to our false foreknowledge earlier defined as ill-informed, inculcated by our society. We care and want to reach the apex and achieve the maximum. We do not know the reason why we do not progress in whatever we want to do because we have confined ourselves in that restricted space called our tradition, our wrong religion, what is led down by peoples we do not even know. We assume that they know us better when they are pseudo scientists. The space we are confined in is governed by fear instilled in us by our manipulative and sometimes crooked and ill-schooled men in our society. They may not be crooked having inherited what they have been made to believe was right when it was/is incorrect. It was right to them for they have never ever been allowed to compare what they had at infancy with any other elsewhere. We do not see its faults for we have been taught to see it as a straight line even though it is all dangerously skewed. We dare not cross the Rubicund else we will be ostracized by our society as bad pennies or what had been instilled in our hearts as paragons. Even when we cross others still fear us and then we wonder if we should have risked our lives to enter the dens of wolves who only like us as their food or providers of food.

Heart of the Matter

When we are not careful we turn to use our naivety that has no bases to hate, apathy, discrimination that are not inherently our values. For instance, other may say that Christianity or any other religion they grow up having in their society is the best and see no reason why they should rob shoulders with Jews or Hindus or Buddhists whom they have been told by their chaperons are infidels, kaffirs? They are furthermore told that they will contradict their elders or regulators, their strong will and their God. Is that true? You have not asked why you are a Christian, a Hindu, a Moslem or any other believer. It is because you were born in that religion or philosophy. You were not allowed to make your choice or explore other religions or beliefs. Well, the idea of allowing children to make their choice of anything in life when they have not been exposed to a variety of choices is frightening and dilemmatic. You do not allow a child to choice what he would like to eat. He would prefer marshmallow and other sweets that are harmful to his teeth and not of high nutritional values. You might even have been following nothing if you were allowed to grow up not inculcated with any of these beliefs. Then the tradition is what a parent inculcated in his or her siblings. It a custom parents or a society feel is the best for their siblings. I have never seen a parent who would in his or right frame of mind offers his siblings a lump of excrement instead of nutritious food. I have seen some who were ready to die so that their children could live. I know of one, who rather went to prison than to allow her daughter to be expelled from college because he could not pay her tuition fees. This is my godfather who is my role model. He went to prison so that her beloved daughter, Evelyn Takwa could be educated. He had borrowed money from a neighbor to pay at a stipulated time but was unable to pay back this money and was sent to prison. In the past days of darkness, he could have been sold into slavery. The attention of my reader is drawn to the classic story of Merchants of Venice by William Shakespeare below in Shylock the Jewish money lender and Antonio the trader and lack of mercy.

Appropriately, do you have a true platform on which you could stand to say that Islam is a religion of violent; do you have any to stand on to say that Christianity is a religion of infidels and so on? On violence, we do not mince our words for we see wonton destruction of lives among the Moslem believers, tit for tat, and endless cycles of vendetta falsely pivoted on God. God is an embodiment of love and love does not kill or hurts but intertwines broken hearts. To loosely schooled Moslems, the Christians, Jews and Westerners are generalized as infidels and they, Moslems could die to impose their religion on non-Moslems. Contrariwise, a true Christian does not call a Moslem a pagan. He calls him a non-Christian believer. He therefore respects his ‘belief’ or philosophy. He expects the Moslem to respect his Christianity and he should not use force to recruit a Christian to come to his mosque and vice versa. Having advanced this point, there is no compulsion in the recruitment of people to Christianity, they recruit through examples and by coming to the doorstep of Islam to offer his friendship, President Obama is showing the Christian ways of making friends.

I have seen many former Muslims who have become apostates and if they were to return to their homes of origin they might be stoned to dead for having changed faith. There are Christian apostates who had turned to Islam as one I am editing his book but Christians would never ever stone him for being an apostate or choosing a philosophy of the flesh alien to his society of birth. Why should they when they know that God gave a free will to every normal person to do what they like. Why should they do things out of fear? Who had never committed a sin before turning round to cast the first stone on an assumed sinner? To many a Moslem, there is a false belief that a civilized Westerner is barbaric and son of a Lucifer and that is not called for. From that perspective, the Moslems are stoic and generally naive. President Obama’s grand desire is to tune them down to reason. How can he do this as Christian? It can be through moral persuasion and that is all that is asked of every Christian. Do not imposed but let others follow your good examples and love of brothers and sisters. You must love and love without even being loved till you die without reciprocation. The question is how this can be possible when our values are diametrically different. It is by parley outlined below.

A contradictor is not a provocateur

Where are the differences? You will see it in the following secrets revealed. In Islam, the woman has her place. She is not supposed to sit in front of a car with a stranger. She is not allowed to go to the market. She must not be seen out without an equerry who is related to the husband. She may not even attend formal schooling. Denying her basic rights, which most Arabs and Moslem believers generally consider as Western decadence and abuse of human right, are utterly wrong and outrageous. I do stand to challenge this as not progressive in a world that is becoming more and more book learned. You may have your reasons embedded in the questioned sharia laws as the Taliban or Al-Qaeda to challenge me but I am talking from my life history. He who contradicts rationally is not a provocateur and it should not be insinuated that he is sable rattling. Reply by reasoning it out or debating it without a shred of tantrum in your heart else it mars your objective reasoning.

To educate a woman is to educate the world. When you look at the pockets of inferiority and areas of poor economic developments in the world, you find the suppression of women as being one of the raison d’etre. Africa, the Middle East and some areas of South East Asia and Latin America are economically backwards because the men in these areas still feel that the place of the woman is in the farm, kitchen and their role is to make children and should neither be seen nor heard. Women are still bought and sold and denigrated to third class citizens who are not even to be seen and heard Their sole purpose in life is to produce men who will turn round to use them as door mats. Not in the 21st century when slavery was stamped out in 1807 in the British Empire. Are they right?

Europeans had long passed that stage and that is why they are relatively far advanced than the rest of us. I know that many are going to go back to history to dig into other facts. I live now and the problem of women’s rights abuse in the field of economy and education had to be addressed. If the Arabs and their Moslems’ cohorts were to address this suppression or oppression of the woman, the standard of living in the world would improve in leaps and bounds. If there are 1.5 billion Moslems in the world and half are women, it means that half of that productive manpower is denied besides their basic rights, their contributions in the economic growth of the world, simply because they are viewed by these men as only good for conjugal gratification. They employ philosophical beliefs as smokescreen. No loving God will allow any of His creatures to be under such darkness because of Him. The perpetrators do not have a clue of God they purport to be worshiping. I know that they will rhetorically ask me if I know God.

Still on this aspect, I have a concrete example of the fact that to educate a woman is to educate the world. My mother educated six of us single-handedly plus five of her grand children before I took over from her. She laid that foundation without which I would not have been able to sit and share this story of President Barack Obama’s strive to living amicably with the Arabs and Moslem world with you. Of the six of her children, five became university graduates and the rest had basic education and are enjoying a relatively better standard of living. By virtue of this, I am a proponent of educating women even more than men.

A lady remarked the other day that men were just parasites in the world and that the true earthlings were women. Come to ponder upon that statement, it bore a shred of truth. That is why neurosis of some Arabs and Islamic men makes them fear women holding the reign of power. The Arabic and Islamic women know of this but are cowed to be subservient to the man as they have no choice. Somberly these women are programmed at infancy to glamorize their slavery and that is unacceptable in our global village where we want everyone to progress. Why? It is because their heads had ever been hooded by kinky men. I do not think that it is comfortable being under the kabhuka, the hooded dress, juju under scorching sun year in year out. Let a man wear that for one hour and he would see the hell he had put his woman into. Arab and Moslem men, this is cruelty. I am calling on you to free these goddesses from the shackles you have put on them. I am calling on you to do it as Ronald Reagan called on Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down that Berlin Wall. It was torn down and some children will grow up to only read in history text books of the tribulation in what was called the East and West Berlin caused by a concrete wall, the last bastion of moribund communism fortified by a corridor of mine fields. Will you allow your women to remove the hoods, attend school, and go to work, shop, drive vehicles, have to choose their spouses, travel where they want and when they want and to stop suppressing them as slaves in the 21st century? You infringe on their freedom everyone is born with irrespective of his or her gender or creed. If you men owe your existence to women, why do you make their lives a living hell for spurious reasons? Are they not your goddesses?

We got to halt and look at new vistas of thoughts from a different perspective other than that we already know. This proposition is difficult for some inherent ways are hard to be changed as a matured tree is difficult to be bent. If we adopt this reasoning we may find out that the animals in the bush we had been taught to believe is dangerous to us may be the friendliest of all the animals that exist in the world. What Jews and Arabs run away from may turn out to be the friendliest. Jews are cousins not only of the Arabs but Africans where their original homes were. All of them have demonized love.

Before the Second World War (1939-1945, the Soviet Union looked as Westerners with malicious eyes and given opportunities they could have wiped them out from the face of the earth for not adopting another hood of communism. Their passion was to propagate communism they fervently believed was the best system for the world. Was it? Time and experience proved them woefully wrong. When the Nazidom crossed its bounds and attacked Russia on June 22, 1941 with the tacit support of Mussolini who had molested Africans and occupied Abyssinia. Guess who turned to help the Russians? It was Britain and the USA that supplied the needed ammunition to the Russians to ward off the stubborn Germans who had stupidly and treacherously occupied their land in the heart of winter. That was the greatest mistake. They could not have learned from Napoleon Bonaparte’s lesson on his Russian campaign in winter. The Russians with the help of the British, and Americans’ ammunition and artillery and logistic defeated the Nazis in their land and those who managed to reach back in the Teutonic lands were just rags that were cornered to submission by Africans, the Republic of the United States of America, Britain and others Dominions. If not of the UK accepting the crammed Isle to be turned to an American launching war field, the Germans could have defeated the Russians and then the world and the history of the world would not have been the same. The language factor did help in the cementation of the Europe and America in their joint efforts. If not of the assistance of the Westerners more Russians could have been butchered. The Nazis had massacred 20,000.000 Russians and 6,000,000 Jews respectively, regrettable fact no man in his right frame of mind should dispute as their rise to political stardom as the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prior to the June 12, 2009 election.


Parley without Delay is a stitch on time

The Russians had their homeland. The Jews were a roving state within European nation states and it was deemed fitting to have a permanent home for them. The consequences of the Second World War and the implantation of a homeland for the Jews in Palestine are some of the remote causes of these interminable retributions of the Jews, Westerners and the Moslem world. To the Arab and some Moslems, Israel had to be annihilated to have the grandeur of Palestine before the Second World War. To the Jews, and Westerner Christians, that is not being realistic. That is the heart of the matter Obama is trying to convince the players to sit down and discuss. The Arab had tried the belligerent way, the Six Days’ Wars of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the Intifada, suicide bombings by Arab martyrs and they never worked or work. What is their opportunity cost? Parley being outlined by President Barack Obama is the sure way forward. They must forgive 70 x 70 and agree to share their cake with their neighbors no matter how bitter it may taste. That is a modicum of Christianity that paves the way to heaven and not sable rattling. Some Israeli youths could not conceal their resentment of Obama that he had the audacity to talk to an Arab audience and offer a hand of friendship. To the Jewish friends and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leader of the Likud Party, the fact that the Iranians are on the verge of having nuclear weapons and could fire them on Tel Aviv Jaffa should not be taken lightly. Most of them were alive and saw the 911 incident. It was unprovoked and the most despicable thing I ever witnessed in my life beside the massacres in Sierra Leone, Darfur, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. People who could mastermind these could fire nuclear warheads to annihilate peoples without remorse. Thus the ranting of the Iranian president Mohmoud Ahmadinejad and his denial of the Jewish holocaust during the Second World War should also be taken seriously. It is true that there is some stuff there in the Negev desert ready for action, but you will recall history that military superiority does not necessarily mean success. If that were the case, the Huns, Teutonic race under Nazidom could have been ruling the world now. There is no reason to threaten President Obama instead of applauding him for his initiative to bring elusive peace in the Middle East

Today’s Enemies, Tomorrow’s Friends

What I am outlining is that your enemy today could be your friend tomorrow. So we got to ratiocinate before we do things as we have to account for them sooner or later and no stone will be left unturned. Do we still recall the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa? To some extreme right-wingers in the USA, Israel and Europe, it was a terrorist organization. What is that organization today? The Russians were victorious after the Second World War owing to the unflinching support by the British Prime Minister Wilson Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) of the USA. After the Second World War (1939-1945) the Russian easily forgot what the Westerners did for them and woefully failed to cooperate with the Westerners. They even benefited from the Marshall Plan to rebuild their war torn Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Africans who also died fighting the Germans under General Montgomery, General Charles de Gaul, General Eisenhower, with the gallant Desert Rats …in the deserts of the then French North Africa, Libya, the Middle East where Hitler thought he could inflict heavy casualties on the Allied forces and those Africans who fought the Japanese in the jungles of Burma got nothing. Have Africans ever targeted the Westerners? No!

In spite of the help given by the Americans to bolster the Russian economic, ironically they started building nuclear bombs targeting Western cities and all nearly spiraled out of all proportion. They secluded themselves from the rest of the world in the hope that Communism was the panacea and they were deluded. All their state machinery was going towards the preparation of wars against the West. Their obsessed people were suppressed and oppressed and they were living in a hell on earth under successive tyrants. Their peoples were never allowed to think of parliamentary democracy.

Then came in a farsighted man called President Mikhail Gorbachev who preached to them the only way out of their economic mess was perestroika. [see his book Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, 1987]. They adopted it and they are able to flex their economic muscles with the Westerners today. The Westerners are even friendlier with Russians of today than they are to some Africans states. I will elucidate this. Behind close doors, some Westerners ignore how their forefathers screwed Africans with slavery, colonialism and through asinine head of states and they use the backwardness their parents created way back to assault Africans and African Americans of today. That is not right and will never be. As alluded to above, Africans also took part in the great European wars (WW). Did they benefited from the Marshall Plan the American dished out to the affected countries after the 2nd WW including those who killed Americans during that war like the Italians, Japanese, and Germans come to Africa? No! What did Africans learn from that? Was it due to racism of the Americans or they simply forgot Africans?


‘There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face,’ William Shakespeare

There are more revelations yet to come. At the height of the cold war, I told a friend in London that those weapons might one day be facing colored peoples, when the Russians would join hand with their rosy cousins in the West to start looking the world from the color point of view. I made that statement when a blond Russian lecturer who I had accidentally met in 1989 in London, UK sat in the train adjacent to me and (Caucasians) Britons could not sit near me but they sat near him without knowing. You might have conjectured that I was a ragamuffin. Not at all! I was dazzling and could have been taken for a bureaucrat as a research scholar. When they did so, it was grudgingly, that was when there were no seats left apart from the two next to me. I laughed at the stupidity because I knew that they might have been sitting near their formidable enemy and avoiding me because of my swarthy color. They erroneously thought I was a bad guy because of some myths or ill-information their parents might have forced fed them aforementioned. Was I? Some extreme white racists or anti-Semitic persons do not care a damn if their enemies are whites, Jews or blue-black Africans or East or West Indians. Some religious fundamentalists who are human timed-bombs do not care how you look when they want to carryout their dastardly acts. Timothy McVeigh who set the fertilizer/oil bomb at the federal building that took the lives of 168 innocent blacks and whites on April 19, 1995 did not care a damn what color the earthlings were. Those hunting for right wingers who are a big threat to the national security of say the USA should be careful not to focus all their attention in the hunt for a skinhead Caucasians or Middle East looking chaps.

In my old London, the commuters who snubbed for color reasons were still living in the past where the dark-skinned man prostituted by white phrenologists was only good as a slave as some extreme right-wingers sadly feel hitherto. Color may not be the lead to the search for the bad guys. Your child of any color may turn out to be anti-status quo and nothing should be taken for granted when hunting for the bad fellows. Some Moslem extremists as Osama Bin Laden will not hesitate to butcher Westerners as his cohorts are doing in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. A right wing extremist, James von Brunn who had openly denied the massacre of the Jews during the Second World War, did not hesitate to come to kill more Jews at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. The Jews he was after on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 were light skinned before he was confronted by an African American guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns whom he mercilessly gunned down.

Reverting to the train, I knew the bad guy might have been the Russian professor and the predominantly Caucasian commuters did not know. This Moscow university professor might have been in London on a spying mission but the burning question he posed to me was why the degrees Africans students had from Patrice Lumumba’s University in Moscow were not recognized in most African states. From that day, I wrote in my chronicle that one day the Russians and Westerners would partner up to fight colored peoples who would be more numerous and might not allow themselves to be used as slaves and be colonized as in the past. An Oxford don (name withheld) smiled over my statement.

So you can see that the hand of peace starts from the citizens and not the governments. What efforts are you making to talk with your Arab and Jewish neighbor? Can a Jew fall in love and marry an Arab? I once posed this question if a Boer from South Africa could marry a dark-skinned Zulu. I was surprised when I saw a mixed couple from South Africa at the height of apartheid walking hand in hand in the streets of London, UK. Their explanation was that they rather went into exile and be in love than to remain in their country of birth and aimed guns and daggers at each other. I applauded their efforts.

The Western world is leaning over the fence to have a parley with the 1.5 billion Moslems in the world and there is apprehension. Some Westerners, particularly the extreme right-wingers are looking at President Obama as sell out. We earlier on referred to the fact that some Israeli youths were against President Barack Obama imploring the Arabs and Moslem world to bury the hatchet and to sit down and seriously look for peace with the Jewish state. If they were angry, then you will know that even if Obama were to mince himself and give some people as food, they would still not be satisfied. Some people are perpetually disgruntled. All of us know that the route to the kingdom of peace is painful, hazardous but it must be trudged. With such individuals, if they pray for peace they could get it. They have never had a place in their hearts for fear and apathy. I do not think that he is a sell out. If it is wealth, Obama could have been complaisant. What I believe he is sincerely doing is for our children and posterity.

Nations do Change: China partnering with the Republic of the USA?

Of what good is it for us building an ivory tower that will be destroyed the moment we die? North and South Vietnam are now united and is one country. They are talking now with the Americans and no Americans are dying in droves to enforce what the French started to enforce, Capitalism and were unsuccessful. Very soon Cuba will be friendly with America and they will rob shoulders than you can believe.

There was a time the Americans were advising Africans not to venture go to China. They even used a propaganda book, An African Student in China. It was a story of the bad treatment of an African student in China. They gave this free to Africans as their attempt to tell Africans not to have anything to do with China. I want to ask you now who the friends of America are. Where do you have the highest US investment in the world today? Is it in Africa or in China? It is in China. Who are threats to American interests in the world today? Africans or Chinese? Chinese? Who lend Americans most of its hard currency in today’s global economy? The Chinese. How much of the American investment is attracted to Africa vis à vis the rest of the continents of the world? Minuscule! Why? China is suddenly become the darling, the manufacturing and lending house of the USA and not the Arab or the Moslem world that had not been subjugated.

What we have learned is that in politics, countries do change like chameleons. It was not long before China just changed over night and is opening up. There are Chinese coming now to settle in Africa for good. They are not coming to colonize as Europeans did and look down on Africans as inferior and exploitable noble savages as was erroneously the case with Europeans of the past. They are coming to naturalize and be Africanized. Many are already settled and could live in homes called theirs for the first time in their lives. They openly say that Africa is the continent of the future. That is something they could never have dreamt of in China or even in Western Europe until they were shading tears and blood from their brows. They do that with ease and a hard working Chinese with a Restaurant in Lagos, Abidjan, etc. soon gets enough cash to build or buy a home and run luxury cars he could not have got had he remained in China.

What do we learn from William Shakespeare

Where I am leading you? The Moslem cannot stick to their belief and say that they are not going to change and adapt to what Westerners look at decadent barbaric ways; we mean modernize, educate their women, be democratic and stamp out outmoded attitude for the good and unity of the entire world. They are deluded when they think that they are cut off from the rest of the world and should infringe on others’ economic and civil rights and will not be questioned or touched. The ephemeral riches and wealth from the oil that is made possible by Westerners will one day finish and the skyscrapers that are mushrooming in the Middle East could stand as mirages. So it is important to invest in friendship when the oil wells are not yet dry. Money from oil that fuel war machinery could be curtailed. If the Americans were to withdraw now from Iraq and Afghanistan an irreparable damage had been done. This war is cautionary and calls for tolerance acceptance of the Jewish state to stand shoulder to shoulder with other Arabs states. It is a known fact that Israel can never be abandoned by Westerners. It is a known fact that where there is not talk, the enemy becomes more suspicious and arms itself to the teeth. This is true of the countries in the Middle East. The balance now is in favor of Israel. Then of what good is a country that is like the old racist regime of South Africa where the white supremacist never traveled without loaded guns for fear of being gunned down by a black kaffir? This was settled since it began in 1910 when Africans started fighting for their political rights and the whites kept on postponing. In the end, South African majority rule came through the ballot box in 1994. One thing was clear, clear as this broad day that guns did not help or solve the problem but dialogue between the minority Caucasians and African South African. That is what President Barack Obama wants both parties in the Middle East to adopt.

To the Jews, they should not be Shylocks in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice wanting the pound of flesh all the time and showing no mercy. Don’t as on what compulsion must you as Shylock asked by Portia to show mercy on Antonio and spear his life as in this excerpt from Act IV of this play. Portia had the following to say in the hope of convincing Shylock a Jew to forgive and be agreed but it did not help:
.
The quality of mercy is not strain’d
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes
“Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throne monarch better than his crown:
His scepter shows the force of temporal power.
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this scepter sway,
It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doeth then show likest God’s,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy pleas, consider this, -
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy.
And that same prayer doeth teach us all to render
The deeps of mercy. I have spoke thus much,
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.


In the end, the currish Shylock could not win as it was impossible to have the stipulated quantity, a pound of flesh cut off nearest the heart of Antonio his debtor who owed him three thousand ducats, mentioned in the bond without spilling blood thus exceeding the agreed amount. If he were to spill any blood there were consequences, namely, all in Shylock’s estate in Venice would have been confiscated by the state.

Again the defendant Portia had this to say:

Tarry a little: there is something else,-
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;
The words expressly are, a pound of flesh;
Take then thy bond, take though thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if though dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods,
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto they state of Venice.

Do no say that you are not bound to please the world with your action or answers. Remember that we are striving now to build‘inclusionary’ governance where no nation will govern another and all of us could have one government. That is why what you do thousands of miles away in the Middle East affect North Americans, Africans, and many more. Do not look at it from the oil revenue point of view. Look at it as a perfect fearer of God who understands that all are his or her neighbors no matter where they live and what they do and how they pray or remorsefully do not pray to God. It is through that neighborly love that Disraeli and his British cohorts suggested the creation of the homeland for the Jews. Perchance if they had foreseen this interminable antagonism hitherto, they might not have suggested the historic land of Palestine. Well, South Africa; the Pearl of Africa, Uganda and even Madagascar were suggested but the British turned them down.

Again to the Jews, do not say that you have not exceeded the pound of flesh for you are grapping more lands that belong to the Palestinians and you cannot win as Shylock under this circumstance. It should be remembered that it is the winged termite that leaves and not the land. We are winged termites. We have to prepare these lands for the next generations by attempting to cut only that pound of flesh or not to negotiate our deals with a pound of flesh as we can never get our flesh without spilling blood. That is impossible. We will be tempted to look for bizarre ways to do it and we would be accused of being hawkish and ostracized. We must adhere to this warning, that in the end we usually stand at a poor man’s estate to look at the ruins of a rich powerful man’s castles.

Hope for a Positive Change

I am not all that pessimistic. Did I not say at the very beginning that nations do change their temperaments for the good of others and peace of the world. We once called Mahmoud Ahmedi-Muammar Ghadaffi-nejad, the President of Libya a terrorist after the Lockerby, Scotland fatal plane crash and his sponsor of terrorist group, Hamas in the Middle East. We bombed some of his towns in attempt to capture him alive or dead. Today he is our friend and we imbibe tea with him in his desert tents. He invites African kings and chiefs in an attempt to foster African unity. He has changed. President Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who was once feared as being too hawkish can change too. At the time of writing, (Sunday, June 14, 2009) he made one of the strongest and welcomed statements of his life. He promised to accept a Palestinian State on condition that it does not arm itself so as to be another threat to the State of Israel and stressed that fact that Israel will remain Jewish. He meant that the exiled Palestinians who had been away from their homes since 1948 or those born outside Israel were not to be welcomed “home.”

There was a time the Jewish state was classed as racist with the apartheid South Africa. South Africa has since joined the club of respectable nation states and will host the coveted world cup this year (2009). All of the Middle East could do the same by ironing their palaver out and yield to President Obama’s pressure. It is possible and we should not shelve it. Premier Netanyahu should be applauded for asking the Palestinians to recognize the State of Israel and for them to halt wonton attack of the Jews wherever they are. However my plea to the warring factions is this, ‘The souls of animals must not infuse themselves in the trunks of men,’ (William Shakespeare, ibid). The Jews could be stoic if attacked but they should also imagine how they would feel if their ancestral lands were being grabbed and they tossed out. If their answer is yes, then, they better are a million times prepared for wars. I do not think that Israeli soldiers are truly thrilled when their bulldozers enter the Gaza strip and pull down houses of innocent occupants in their search for Islamic fundamentalists who fire home-made rockets into Israel. All of us want to leave in peace. Wonton destruction instead inflames and never mends fences.

The world is not static. Africans cannot be enslaved by the Arabs, Turks and Europeans as in the 15th century. Why? In the same vein Arabs will like to talk with the Jews not because they are the strongest militarily, but by reasoning. We saw that if it were the question of military might, no European country could have stood near the Germans, Huns. There was no European power that was prepared militarily than Germany but towards the end they were inferior and had an ultimatum from Roosevelt who was ill, the shrewd Stalin and Sir Winston Churchill to lay down arms or be destroyed. Where is the Berlin Wall today? How was it pulled down? Was a single bullet ever fired to pull it down? No. If tomorrow Iranian supposed nuclear facilities for alleged peaceful purposes advertently or inadvertently targeted Israel, then that is when Islam may face the might of not only the Jewelry from all over the world, but that of the rest of the world. What happened in Germany when mainland Europeans were defeated by the Nazis and turned into slaves in their homeland could be a child's play!

We create no monsters and Dr. Bernard Fonlon’s Counsel

With the parley that President Obama is offering now, a lot of positive development could take place and Islam could grow as it had been burgeoning in North America and Europe without the use of threat or diatribe and acidic animosity that come from certain Arab countries particularly from Palestine and Iran. The present attitude of defiance against Westerners of the Moslems is repulsive. Whereas Christians are turning churches to residential homes, others sold, abandoned or burnt down owing to internecine simmering racial conflicts among Christians or disgruntled arsonists as St Paul Church in the city of Aylmer, Western Quebec Province (Thursday, June 10, 2009) as in the Southern USA; Muslims are buying some and turning them to mosques. PICTURE HERE. They bury Korans in places where the Holy Bible used to be placed. Owning to a loose way of worshipping some marginal Western Christians are being wooed. These are those who on Sundays turn to washing their cars, refurbishing their homes, cutting their lawns, and do leave their children to be brought up by the Internet that sadly has become their parents and teachers and a source where they copy and paste essays and pass to their teachers as being original; going to shop, and having huge barbecues instead of going to their churches to pray only for one hour a week on Sunday. Some feel that Sundays are just waste of time and God and churches do not exist. They are wrecking the very foundation upon which Westernization, parliamentary democracy is built and we beg to ask if they have other solid bases in the pipeline. Without Christianity in the middle, it will not only be the Westerners who will be void but the entire world and enormous chasms that are gradually sutured by Islam that is impregnated with lots of doubts and unfounded hate for Westerners and their cohorts.

I have my reasons for underlining the aforementioned points particularly the vital importance of Christianity. It had not puzzled me and given me sleepless nights alone but others before me as in this citation:

If you put the question today …to a group of young lads, just what those things are that this country needs for its development, the answers would come quick and clear: money, schools and colleges, good government, and (I will add) religion. These things are so important to the progress of a country that, were even one of them lacked, that progress would be greatly marred, though there were an overabundance of the others.
The thing is clear: without money, you cannot run a school; you cannot run a government; you cannot run a church. Without education, neither commerce nor government, nor religion can thrive. Without a strong government, every man will do just what he likes; and no man will be safe. Without religion, man being what he is (creature with a high potential for doing bad things) money-making, government and education are bound to go wrong, are bound to frustrate the very things that they were intended to foster: traders will become thieves, statesmen will become wolves, and teachers will poison the souls of the youngsters entrusted in their care.
Thus, to my mind, it stands, and stands out, clearly, and stands out from the very nature of things, that wealth and government and education and religion are things without which no country can even so much as exist, not to talk of advancing (Dr. Bernard N. Fonlon, 1971, As I see It. p. 36).

Are our houses in order?

Why did Communism crumble? It was because the Communists expurgated God from their midst. If Westerners want to experiment and replace God with Dollars, it is their free choice but it is will not be gratis as their younger generation feel. The attendance of mainstream traditional churches is getting sparser and sparser in the West. Boys and girls are worshipping money and accumulation of wealth instead of praying and not thinking of life after this one. Many believe that there is no life after this one. Is that true? It is the older persons who go to the church. A good number of children go to night clubs where their holy communion is cocaine and their frankincense is smoke from hashish and their aspersion is alcohol. As soon as they reach that age of 19, they are just as freer than the wind that blows outside.

Where do we go? On whose rostrum will Westerners stand on to attack the Taliban, Arab and Moslem extremists, Al Qaeda? Are some not persecuting God and throwing Him away from their midst? Is He not the magnetic power of Islam that is often badly used? Many will tell me that I am too critical and hawkish. Instead, I am dovish for if I am given the sanction to reveal all the secrets I know, many will plead with their governments to adopt a four-day week so as to give them room to use one full day per week to pray to God and change to a new leaf.

This may apply to us Christians, Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, other non-Christian believers looking at other regions or beliefs through the only spectacle we had ever known, the blurry one we were born with. It is for this reason that we hope many of us, of all beliefs or philosophies will look at life and others by wearing different spectacles.

President Obama's is setting precedence and should be taken seriously by all earthlings. As said, he is doing what President Ronald Reagan did to pull down the Berlin Wall. I saw that wall in 1984 and lamented over it as it was dividing my people in Africa. I prayed over it with a Berliner called Gorge…and it was not long before it was pulled down with not a single bullet fired. It is how I pray that the Moslems will pull the hood away from the faces of their women and stop defending their torture by falsely citing the Koran and open the doors of modernization to them for the sake of peace in the world and growth of our civilization. Do we not pray for the Wall of Jerusalem to be pulled down? We once prayed for the wall of Jericho to fall down and it did. Are we tired of praying today? How many walls of Jerusalem does man want to see before he can accept that it is the centre of the world open to all? Do we still recall the etymology of orientation?

The freedom of the Arab and Moslem women no matter where they are in the world will not only benefit the Westerners but all of us, no matter our creed and political inclinations. When abolitionists were fighting to stamp out slavery, proponents of it were looking at it lopsidedly or one-sidedly. It was not long before they saw that it was beneficial not only to Africans but to Caucasians, Arabs, Persians and Turks who were also slave dealers.

It is in peace that we can move forward in many fields including globalization and political progress. Consequently, peace is due to our countries talking to each other, rapprochement and being realistic. It is for this reason that talking with the Arabs or the Moslem world is the right thing for the Leader of the Western World to do. As alluded to above some right wingers have started castigating President Barack Obama the 44th President of the USA as a sell out. There are some persons who voiced out over my conservative radio 580 CFRA (Ottawa) that there should not be any talking with the Moslems and Arabs but they should be defeated in the battle field for that will demonstrated to them that Westerners are still the strongest in the world. Where is the Teutonic world that once demonstrated that they were the best in the world? We do not dismiss parley with a weaker people because we are superior. Remember that if Giant Goliath spoke with David, Goliath would not have been killed by a single sling shot. It is just a civilized way of doing things and that is accepted even in the animalistic world. Obama once joke that he had been sent to rescue the world from collapsing and his open hand of friendship is the right thing to do. It is true that some mistakes were made by our forefathers, by our leaders; the fact is we have to look forward and try hard to give in for the sake of the present day peace and that to come. Let us assume that there was no other place on earth for the diasporantic Jews, would the Arabs and Moslems not offer them land to settle for free. If their answer is naught, I would ask who gave them the land they presently occupy. They are going to tell me that it was Allah, God. If God gave them life, land and their cousins the Jews, to which God do they pray to that would allow one of His creatures in the cold and admit another into His warm house?

Moslems should be grateful to Westerners and should reciprocate by opening up

If the Moslems could turn like those in Egypt where women are getting modernized what a difference that would make in their human rights. The shrewd, rich and wealthy Arabs know this and when it comes to looking for spouses, they head to relatively westernized Egypt and Tunisia where there are educated Mademoiselles to marry.

Moslems and Arabs ought to be realistic and overt and halt addressing Christians, Westerners as infidels. Christians are human and in fact Moslems owe a lot to them. It should be Christians who should call Arabs and Moslems infidels. I will tell you why: Is it not the Christians who allow the Moslems to build mosques in their midst? Go to Regent’s Park in London, once the capital of Westernization, Parliamentary Democracy and you will see the Mosque there whose doors are opened every Friday for thousands and thousands of Moslems to come and worship; visit Geneva and go to Grand Seconni Ward and you will see the Mosque occupying the most prestigious location, Come to Ottawa, Paris, New York, Rome the capital of Christendom, go to Berlin, and other Western Capital cities and you will see land sold to the Moslems to worship there in peace. Go to the Moslem land of Saudi Arabia and ask for a pocket handkerchief-size plot to be given to build a modest Christian chapel where they can also worship and you will see people sable-rattling before your face. Some will not only pray that you are hidden away from the face of the earth but be decapitated or stoned to dead after prayers on Friday with murderers and adulterers. Their interpretation will be that you are offering your head to be decapitated as that of the British Governor of The Sudan, Governor Gordon who was decapitated by Mhadi and his cohorts. It will be as if you have threatened Mohammed himself. Why is there not a single Christian church in Mecca whereas there are Mosques in nearly all Western big cities and villages where Moslems want to build their mosques in predominantly Christian countries? It is because Westerners are weak? It is because Westerners believe their Islam is better than Christianity? By denying the Christians what they have given you, are you Moslems being fair? Who are fairer and humanistic towards you, the Christians or you? Or are you still considering them in the 21st century as infidels and their gesture of good will cannot be reciprocated? There are intellectuals among the Moslems all over the world and I would like them to reply to may reaction to President Barack H.Obama’s appeal to you to reason with the Westerners.

We are all God’s children and I believe that there is no other better way of saying prayers to God other than extending the warm hand of amity to your neighbors and brothers and sisters as President Obama did on June 4, 2009 in the Cairo University. He was not stirring hornets’ nests but being realistic and those he was referring to should not sit back and say that he had to backup his talk with action. Action had to start from all of us. We have to say that we do not have any intention of wiping out Israel from the face of the earth. If we allow you to start with Israel there will be not end in sight for you will turn to follow us as erstwhile friends of the Jews. What does a Jewish child born ten years ago feel if he over hears his Arab neighbors ranting that they will wipe out his country of birth, Israel? Do you conjecture he would sit quietly that God will come and protect him as happened in the Old Testament? As we love the Jews to live peacefully, so do we love all the Arabs and Moslems to live peacefully in this world?

St. Patrick used the Shamrock; can I use River Niger and borrow from Sir Winston Churchill?

I am talking from the experience I want to share with you. I am a Christian and my two sisters are Moslems who have visited Mecca. When we meet before our parents who are Christians we leave our faiths at the threshold of our country home. We try to bypass each other by the way we behave towards each other. Our parents know where we stand and accept Asalamelekum and ‘God bless you,’ Nyuy servi wo with a broad smile. When it comes to praying we head to our Church and my sisters go to their mosque. Never had we ever crossed swords with them. Our meeting is like that of the Rivers Niger and Benue after meeting at the confluence at Lokoja in Nigeria. At the embouchure of these Great Rivers that are now one, as they flow by the city of Onitsha, you cannot in a billion years tell the differences and that is how God expects us to live as one and we all will be allowed to flow into the Atlantic Ocean, heaven in this case, as these great rivers. You cannot say that the water from Benue is different from that from Niger that had flown all the way from Futa Djalon. Why can man of whatever religion be like this on earth when he is facing one God as this great river which is a combination of two main rivers up stream and one at its Atlantic estuary? What a pacific world that would be. That is what God expects all of us to be like that great River Niger and we could make it on earth as it is in Heaven. When we say our prayers in our different places of worship they reach God as the mighty River Niger reaching the Gulf of Guinea. It is that way because God is for all of us and does not favor or take sides. Why cannot all of us understand that in the end we have to enter the Atlantic Ocean like this River no matter how much erosion and havoc our tributaries have caused in the areas where we take our rise?


Finale

Arabs, let your women go to schools and colleges, open their hoods, smash the barriers separating you and westerners by the adoption of parliamentary democracy and if you could accept that Israel can exist as you and share with the Christians where ever they are in the world, there will be progress and peace. You will harvest the yield. It should be categorically clear that Westerners are not monsters; they are no extirpators of nations as is the erroneous assumption when they are seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. If there were parliamentary democracy and no infringement of human and economic rights of Moslem women, there will be no tangible reason of Westerners being there to enforce democracy. So long as the Moslems will continue to abuse women’s rights and support Islamic fundamentalists that threaten the peace of Westerners, there will never be any shortage of Westerners coming to promote democracy and peace that will ascertain their very survival. Any dictator, be he any where in the world masquerading as democratically elected government will not be accepted, as tyranny is a threat to world peace. I will like to substantiate what I am saying and why I stress tolerance from all of us the critique writers, and the factors concerned for tolerance and democracy from Sir Winston Churchill, P.M. one of the greatest champions of democratic government the world ever had:

Democracy… is not based on violence or terrorism, but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting other people’s rights as well as their ambitions. Democracy is no harlot to be picked up in the street by a man with a Tommy gun. (Winston S. Churchill, 2003, Never Give In!, p. 369)

If they insist that the decision will be through the barrel of the gun, the Westerners could even give them nuclear weapons and other ammunition as ruses and if they make the mistake of ever using them, for inability to accept the Jewish state, Westerners or other archaic philosophies that have no place in the modern age of enlightenment, that may signal a decisive battle whose outcome I dare not say. Experience has shown that the Moslems are ready to die as they have proved and the Christians and Jews are not ready to die. That is bogus, as the two world wars showed that many could absorb bullets and fight back when they know that it was their last fight. But should I die to prove my point before someone I cannot convince to be just through moral persuasion? They have to reason and should not masquerade under religious sentiments to advance their political agenda or defend outmoded values. We do not want to revert to the days of the crusaders and jihads. This is the 21st century and we are in the space age.


Revised edition Tuesday, June 16, 2009.









June 4, 2009

Text: Obama’s Speech in Cairo

The following is a text of President Obama's prepared remarks to the Muslim world, delivered on June 4, 2009, as released by the White House.

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end.

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." That is what I will try to do – to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. 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. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.

As a student of history, I also know civilization' s debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library.

So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words – within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one."

Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores – that includes nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average.

Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.

So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations – to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity.

Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.

For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

This is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes subjugating one another to serve their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared.

That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. Indeed, it suggests the opposite: we must face these tensions squarely. And so in that spirit, let me speak as clearly and plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together.

The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms.

In Ankara, I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.

The situation in Afghanistan demonstrates America's goals, and our need to work together. Over seven years ago, the United States pursued al Qaeda and the Taliban with broad international support. We did not go by choice, we went because of necessity. I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.

Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case.

That's why we're partnering with a coalition of forty-six countries. And despite the costs involved, America's commitment will not weaken. Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists. They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths – more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam. The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.

We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced. And that is why we are providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend upon.

Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: "I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future – and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. That is why we will honor our agreement with Iraq's democratically- elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all our troops from Iraq by 2012. We will help Iraq train its Security Forces and develop its economy. But we will support a secure and united Iraq as a partner, and never as a patron.

And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.

So America will defend itself respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer.

The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world.

America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.

Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.

On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.

For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.

That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest. That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome with all the patience that the task requires. The obligations that the parties have agreed to under the Road Map are clear. For peace to come, it is time for them – and all of us – to live up to our responsibilities.

Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It's a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end. It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered.

Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build. The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist.

At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society. And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel's security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank. Progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people must be part of a road to peace, and Israel must take concrete steps to enable such progress.

Finally, the Arab States must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities. The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state; to recognize Israel's legitimacy; and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.

America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.

Too many tears have flowed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.

The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons.

This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically- elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.

It will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America's interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.

I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation – including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.

The fourth issue that I will address is democracy.

I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.

That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people. Each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.

There is no straight line to realize this promise. But this much is clear: governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful and secure. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world, even if we disagree with them. And we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments – provided they govern with respect for all their people.

This last point is important because there are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others. No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.

The fifth issue that we must address together is religious freedom.

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it is being challenged in many different ways.

Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.

Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.

Indeed, faith should bring us together. That is why we are forging service projects in America that bring together Christians, Muslims, and Jews. That is why we welcome efforts like Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's Interfaith dialogue and Turkey's leadership in the Alliance of Civilizations. Around the world, we can turn dialogue into Interfaith service, so bridges between peoples lead to action – whether it is combating malaria in Africa, or providing relief after a natural disaster.

The sixth issue that I want to address is women's rights.

I know there is debate about this issue. I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous.

Now let me be clear: issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead. Meanwhile, the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life, and in countries around the world.

Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity – men and women – to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams.

Finally, I want to discuss economic development and opportunity.

I know that for many, the face of globalization is contradictory. The Internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence. Trade can bring new wealth and opportunities, but also huge disruptions and changing communities. In all nations – including my own – this change can bring fear. Fear that because of modernity we will lose of control over our economic choices, our politics, and most importantly our identities – those things we most cherish about our communities, our families, our traditions, and our faith.

But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradiction between development and tradition. Countries like Japan and South Korea grew their economies while maintaining distinct cultures. The same is true for the astonishing progress within Muslim-majority countries from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.

This is important because no development strategy can be based only upon what comes out of the ground, nor can it be sustained while young people are out of work. Many Gulf States have enjoyed great wealth as a consequence of oil, and some are beginning to focus it on broader development. But all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century, and in too many Muslim communities there remains underinvestment in these areas. I am emphasizing such investments within my country. And while America in the past has focused on oil and gas in this part of the world, we now seek a broader engagement.

On education, we will expand exchange programs, and increase scholarships, like the one that brought my father to America, while encouraging more Americans to study in Muslim communities. And we will match promising Muslim students with internships in America; invest in on-line learning for teachers and children around the world; and create a new online network, so a teenager in Kansas can communicate instantly with a teenager in Cairo.

On economic development, we will create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries. And I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.

On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create jobs. We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new Science Envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, and grow new crops. And today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.

All these things must be done in partnership. Americans are ready to join with citizens and governments; community organizations, religious leaders, and businesses in Muslim communities around the world to help our people pursue a better life.

The issues that I have described will not be easy to address. But we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek – a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God's children are respected. Those are mutual interests. That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together.

I know there are many – Muslim and non-Muslim – who question whether we can forge this new beginning. Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn't worth the effort – that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur. There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country – you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world.

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort – a sustained effort – to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples – a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian, or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the heart of billions. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.

We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.

The Holy Koran tells us, "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.