From The Metro, Obama's speech to the Turkish parliament:
"The Islamic faith has done so much over centuries to shape the world for the better...
Well, I agree that most major religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism etc.) have had a huge civilising influence, which probably outweighs all their downsides, as opposed to Islam, whose influence appears to be totally malign, but that's just 'opinion' rather than arguable fact. What's terrifying is that Obama ended that sentence with this:
...including my own country."
Dude, WTF?
Apart from Utah, which is a kind of Islamic sub-State (very strict licensing laws, misogyny, polygamy etc) and the disastrous experiment with teetotalitarianism in the 1920s, how the f*** has Islam 'shaped' the USA? Did 9/11 "shape the USA for the better"? Or is Obama talking about Nigeria or maybe Indonesia? Is that what he means by "my own country"?
All That’s Wrong
3 hours ago
13 comments:
It shaped the New York Skyline a few years ago.
Who the hell does know what Obama means when he opens his mouth? Is brain connected to mouth? Is brain there?
Obama and Brown share the same thing - their surnames both have 5 letters, which although different, translate into one end result - ruination
R, sure, but did it reshape it for the better?
WFW, I also watched the first few minutes of Obama's speech in Prague, it was vacuous crap along the lines of "Good to be here in the heart of Europe" (like popstars say at concerts), but he was getting tumultous applause after every platitude.
MW in which case my last question also applies to those giving the applause!
Saying what your current audience wants to hear is the essential craft of the modern super-politician. Kennedy was probably the first to do it in the era of mass communication, the art was almost perfected by Clinton then the sleazy slime-ball Blair took it to new heights.
Each of them had no substantive policy platform to set them above the banal so they had to rely on smooth words and nice teeth. Obama is just following the trend of these vain and empty egomaniacs. His difficulty is that he is facing a real problem that needs a solution and the only possible solutions involve harsh realities not cuddliness.
With any luck the obscenity of his comments in Turkey will be reported in the US so that he can enjoy an even longer period of approval ratings lower those of his predecessor.
What did the Ancients do for us Muslim special says:
Perfume, distillation, the windmill, the trade caravan,science, algebra and soap.
Normally street lighting and bath houses and irrigation are in there somewhere too.
And medicine, universities,the dome and art.
How these could be specific to Islam is a mystery. Islam is 7th century. Cave paintings and Greco/Egyptian/Roman art alone are much much earlier. Egyptian medicine and Greek schools and academies.
But maybe he meant banking. That's a definite from the Mid east and that's certainly shaping modern America.
Well, maybe they did! After all, the US does have 57 states. Who can say for certain it didn't happen in one of them..? ;)
It's a bit of a late addition, the no drinking. It was even allowed in Saudi until very recently.
Most other Muslim countries allow it.
JuliaM, it's "57 varieties" and "50 states". Or "46 states and 4 commonwealths" if you want to be really pedantic.
JuliaM, my bad, the penny has dropped and I withdraw my previous comment.
If it were not for those great advocates of Musliness, the Barbary Corsairs, the US Marines would not have their fine marching song. I rest my case.
Yeah, mea culpa, I should have linked it myself, just in case :)
Most of what passes for Islamic is merely Arab culture of a particular time and place; equivalent to the dog collar worn by Church Of England vicars which is a remnant of the neck Ruff, fashionable in Elizabethan England.
All politicians have different agendas when addressing domestic or foreign audiences but these statements will come back to haunt Obama.
On the make up of the USA, love the way they deny being an Empire despite it containing the formerly Sovereign Kingdom Of Hawaii and the formerly Sovereign Republic Of Texas together with two territories purchased from previous European land Empires with no input from the Aboriginals, Alaska and Lousiana.
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