Indonesia’s largest Muslim group calls for welcoming President Obama and condemns hardline protests.
(Via an emailer.)
Latest Updates: Obama RSS
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thabet
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aziz
Obama announces the list of charities to receive his Nobel Peace Prize money. I’m particularly gratified to see Greg Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute on the list – of Three Cups of Tea fame.
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abunoor
Fox News is coming after Rashad Hussain, recently named by the Obama Administration as envoy to the OIC and previously working as Deputy Associate Counsel in the White House. The charge is allegedly sympathetic comments (or more accurately criticisms of the prosecution of) Sami al-Arian that were attributed to Hussain when he was a law student in 2004.
The publication that originally attributed the quote to Hussain later changed the story on its website and claims the quotes were actually those of Al-Arian’s daughter and not Hussain’s. The original author of the story, who’s also working for the administration, claims she was always very careful about attributing quotes and would not have made such an error.
The right wing anti-Muslim bloggers will be working to find some other connections, such as to MSA or ISNA, which they will find very suspicious.
Mr. Hussain seems to be a dream as a Muslim appointment as he is a hafidh of Qur’an but at the same time seems to have been ambitious enough from a young age to try his best to avoid doing anything controversial.
It will be interesting to see if these kind of flimsy charges blow over quickly or if they become an issue. If they do become an issue, the message to politically ambitious American Muslims will be crystal clear, you must separate yourself from the Muslim community completely from high school.
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aziz
The lunatic fringe: christians praying for Obama’s death.
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arif
Two separate but related stories.
Shah Rukh Khan sees no reason to apologise
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8498039.stm
Nevada politicians slam Obama’s Vegas comment
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0203/Nevada-politicians-slam-Obama-s-Vegas-comment
I find Obama’s story interesting from a Muslim’s perspective. As a president he called for a personal responsibility with gambling and ended up affecting the economy of the citizens he governs. This would be as same as asking citizens to not spend money on drinking while you bankrupt the liquor industry, and so on and so forth.
Media ultimately is turning out to be the biggest destroying (terrorizing) element of all. Add social-networking activism of bloggers/twitters/facebookers, you are looking at a dangerous world ahead as things mature.
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johnpi
A new poll of more than 2,000 self-identified Republican voters finds that more than half believe or are at least suspicious that Obama “wants the terrorists to win.”
I’m not optimistic about how those Republicans view US Muslims in general.
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aziz
Well, here’s my take on the MA SEN race post-mortem. I’m gonna get lambasted for this by the progressives, except for Chris Bowers (a progressive himself) who really I think makes the most succinct argument for why the Dems need to deliver on the issues now and definitely not listen to the rabid Hamsherites about running even further to the left.
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aziz
I argue that a Brown victory in Massachusetts is a liberation, not a setback, for Obama.
I also take serious issue with the “change we can make believe in” argument – I know that puts me at odds with conventional wisdom here at TI
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abunoor
When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great.” Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guantánamo “shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” Obama has failed to fulfill his promise. Some prisoners are being charged with crimes, others released, but the date for closing the camp seems to recede steadily into the future. Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.
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johnpi
US military readying to launch a retaliatory strike for Christmas Day suicide attack on passenger jet, if Obama orders one.
The US also now has an agreement with the Yemeni government that it can fly cruise missiles, fighter jets and unmanned drones anywhere over the country with the consent of the government.
Some details remain to be worked out:
One of the officials said Yemen has not yet consented to the type of special forces helicopter-borne air assault that would put U.S. commandos on the ground with the mission of capturing suspects for further interrogation.
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johnpi
The other Afghan surge – New troops will be accompanied by up to 56,000 new ‘private contractors.’
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johnpi
‘The end of the road’ for the US-Pakistan cooperation.
A senior Pakistani official told Los Angeles Times if the US went ahead with its plan to launch drone strikes in Quetta then it would be ‘the end of the road’ for the US-Pakistan cooperation in the fight against extremist groups.
‘We are not a banana republic,’ said the official involved in discussions on security issues with the Obama administration. The official bristled at the suggestion that Pakistan had been reluctant to target militants in Quetta, saying US assertions about the city’s role as a sanctuary had been exaggerated. ‘We keep hearing that there is a shadow government in Quetta, but we have never been given actionable intelligence.
And Obama refuses to rule out drone attacks in Quetta. This report contradicts the earlier report that Obama was opposed to drone attacks in Quetta.
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johnpi
Obama balks at using drones in populated areas in Quetta where Afghan taliban leaders are located, in spite of US national security and counterterrorism officials who are encouraging it.
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johnpi
I was interested to hear Obama single out agriculture as an area of focus for redevelopment in Afghanistan, given I had recently been reading an advocate for investment in Afghan agriculture who had been shut down during the Bush administration (again, Rashid, in ‘Descent into Chaos’).
Here’s the line from Obama’s speech:
And we will also focus our assistance in areas – such as agriculture – that can make an immediate impact in the lives of the Afghan people.
Here’s Rashid’s pitch for agriculture and the results:
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johnpi
Chris Bowers has compiled some facts to consider for Obama’s speech tonight.
• Only 35% of Americans approve of President Obama’s handling of Afghanistan.
• President Obama’s current approval rating among ideological groups, compared to his 2008 voting percentages among each group:
Liberals: 77% approve, 89% voted for Obama in 2008
Moderates: 59% approve, 60% voted for Obama in 2008
Conservatives: 27% approve, 20% voted for Obama in 2008Obama is 12 points down among liberals, and 7 points up among conservatives.
• More Democrats approve of President Obama’s Afghanistan performance than Republicans, even though more Republicans than Democrats support increasing troops in Afghanistan. Click here for more.
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johnpi
Obama’s new policy toward Pakistan was outlined to President Zardari and the Pakistani military earlier this month in a two-page letter delivered by Obama’s national security adviser James Jones.
Obama’s speech Tuesday night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., will address primarily the Afghanistan aspects of the strategy. But despite the public and political attention focused on the number of new troops, Pakistan has been the hot core of the months-long strategy review. The long-term consequences of failure there, the review concluded, far outweigh those in Afghanistan.
“We can’t succeed without Pakistan,” a senior administration official involved in the White House review said. “You have to differentiate between public statements and reality. There is nobody who is under any illusions about this.”
One problem has been double-dealing with violent extremists that has long made Pakistan a state sponsor of these groups, and it appears Obama has called them out on this, a marked difference from the Bush administration where Musharraf was favored by Dick Cheney who would not allow any criticism:
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johnpi
Having just finished reading Ahmed Rashid’s newest book ‘Descent into Chaos‘, wherein he reports that nearly all of the international mass casualty terrorist plots now can be traced back or linked to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan – and that the Afghan insurgency is based there – I think the most interesting part of Obama’s speech on Tuesday evening will be what he has to say about Pakistan.
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aziz
President Obama wishes us all Eid Mubarak – and lectures us a bit about swine flu
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aziz
Indeed – long past due time for Obama to speak with Al Jazeera. (via @mohamed)
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aziz
Is Bibi in the doghouse with Obama?
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johnpi
Seymour Hersh, who won the Pulitzer prize for exposing the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, writes in The New Yorker that the greatest fear about Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists comes not from the Taliban but from the likelihood of a mutiny in the Pakistani military by Islamic extremist officers.
The success of the latest attacks raised an obvious question: Are the bombs safe? Asked this question the day after the Rawalpindi raid, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military’s control over nuclear weapons.” Clinton—whose own visit to Pakistan, two weeks later, would be disrupted by more terrorist bombs—added that, despite the attacks by the Taliban, “we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state.”
Clinton’s words sounded reassuring, and several current and former officials also said in interviews that the Pakistan Army was in full control of the nuclear arsenal. But the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only, or even the greatest, concern. The principal fear is mutiny—that extremists inside the Pakistani military might stage a coup, take control of some nuclear assets, or even divert a warhead.
No conversation about such a mutiny is complete without a discussion of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and despite the dismissive approach of some of my fellow TI front-pagers, the US government is worried enough about the group that it has been discussed at top levels of the Obama administration.
A senior Obama Administration official brought up Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a Sunni organization whose goal is to establish the Caliphate. “They’ve penetrated the Pakistani military and now have cells in the Army,” he said. (The Pakistan Army denies this.) In one case, according to the official, Hizb ut-Tahrir had recruited members of a junior officer group, from the most élite Pakistani military academy, who had been sent to England for additional training.
“Where do these guys get socialized and exposed to Islamic evangelism and the fundamentalism narrative?” the Obama Administration official asked. “In services every Friday for Army officers, and at corps and unit meetings where they are addressed by senior commanders and clerics.”
For more about Hizb-ut-Tahrir, check the history of posts on the group here at Talk Islam.
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johnpi
Obama leaning toward 34,000 more troops for Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.
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abunoor
In Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, it simply does not matter whether the United States wins or loses. It makes no sense for the Obama administration to expend more blood and treasure to vanquish the Taliban. The United States should accept defeat and immediately begin to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.
Of course, President Obama will never do such a thing. Instead, he will increase the American commitment to Afghanistan, just as Lyndon Johnson did in Vietnam in 1965. The driving force in both cases is domestic politics. Johnson felt that he had to escalate the fight in Vietnam because otherwise the Republicans would lambaste him for “losing Vietnam,” the same way they accused President Harry Truman of “losing China” in the late 1940s.
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johnpi
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johnpi
Faith-based council makes Dalia Mogahed a Muslim celebrity.
Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim, is one of 25 people President Obama tapped to advise him on faith issues. She may have met the president exactly once, but to Muslims, she’s a celebrity — thanks to the headscarf, or hijab, she wears every day.
When Obama spoke to the Muslim world from Egypt last summer, Mogahed was in the audience, sitting five rows from the front, sandwiched between old men in prayer caps and women in suits.
To Muslims who saw her there, she was traveling with the president — even though she wasn’t. To them, she’d written his speech — even though she’d only contributed a couple of paragraphs.
To them, she was his Islamic adviser. She’s not.
The denials didn’t matter. The sight of Mogahed, a Muslim, in her hijab, seeming very official and “Washington,” prompted Muslims to think of her as something more. To them, she is the hijabi in the White House.
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johnpi
A “truly weird piece of militia organizing” propaganda has been posted online. “2011: Obama Coup Fails” is a right-wing fantasy/sci-fi computer game about revolution in the US in the near future.
Dave Neiwert reports:
…an online game at which you can actually earn money by defending America in the year 2011 against the evil forces of the fallen Obama administration. The game is called “2011: Obama Coup Fails”…They’ve created a whole future history, written from the perspective of people in the year 2011. And as you can see, it’s militia-movement material from the ’90s updated for the Glenn Beck generation.
Snarlie Mozlims are well-represented on the “enemy forces” list:
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johnpi
Obama’s new pastor views Islam as violent faith.
More than a year after he was forced to disown his Chicago pastor, President Obama has begun to attend services led by a Christian chaplain who views Islam as a violent faith.
The chaplain’s name is Cary Cash.
Mr Cash calls Islam violent, a faith that “from its very birth has used the edge of the sword as a means to convert or conquer those with different religious convictions”.
Cash, a chaplain in one of the first units to reach Baghdad, believes that a “wall of angels” protected his troops when they fought their way to the Iraqi capital in March 2003. During his deployment he baptized more than 50 servicemen. In his book, A Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of the War in Iraq, Cash said of the mission: “Yes, our men were lost and separated. But our God was not confused. Just as He had from the very beginning of the war, He was providentially working all things together for the good of a cause that was just and true.”
He added: “Sadly, grace is often absent in Islam, which is based upon binding religious law, requiring strenuous adherence to every tenet of the ‘Five Pillars of Allah.’
“A religion that emerges from the soil of strict adherence to law as a means of gaining God’s favour will always tend toward extreme self sacrifice.”
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Kawthar
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johnpi
United States to send ‘up to 45,000 more troops to Afghanistan.’
President Barack Obama’s administration is understood to have told the British government that it could announce, as early as next week, the substantial increase to its 65,000 troops already serving there.
….White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed the claims, after President Obama met with his war council for the fifth time to map out a new strategy in Afghanistan.
“I would not put any weight behind the fact that a decision has been made, when the President has yet to make a decision,” he told reporters in Washington.
“I’ve seen the report. It’s not true, either generally or specifically. The president has not made a decision.”
This looks like a trial balloon rather than a leak.
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johnpi
Obama approves 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
In an unannounced move, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported.
The additional forces are primarily support forces — such as engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police — the Post said, bringing the total buildup Obama has approved for the war-torn nation to 34,000.
“Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000,” a defense official familiar with the troop-approval process told the daily.
