US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has chosen to visit Indonesia as part of her first overseas trip because she wants to "reach out" to the Muslim world, a spokesman said.
"It's the biggest Muslim country in the world," said a state department spokesman, Robert Wood, when asked why she included Indonesia on her visit to Asia. "The secretary feels it's important to reach out."
There had been speculation that Mr Obama would himself make an early visit to the country where he lived between the ages of six and ten, and personally deliver a message of friendliness to the Muslim world. >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Thursday, February 5, 2009
WINNIPEG SUN: Obama's Vanity Shines Through
President Barack Hussein Obama's first major international interview, given to Al-Arabiya, the Middle East television network, did not come as a surprise.
Nor was it a surprise that the new occupant of the White House, displaying his rhetorical skills, attempted to placate the Arab streets and Arab leaders by indicating the Obama administration will restore "respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago."
It is only a leader as vain as Obama, surrounded by a sycophantic and genuflecting mainstream media, who would indulge in such sophistry.
Thirty years ago another Democrat, Jimmy Carter, was in the White House when an anti-American revolution rent asunder Iran under the Shah and pushed the entire region in the direction of Islamism, with the situation gone from bad to worse.
There was the invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union, an Islamist bid to overthrow the Saudi monarchy with the siege of Mecca, the Lebanese slide into civil war, the murder of Egypt's president Anwar Sadat by Islamists, and American diplomats held hostage in Tehran for over a year by Iran's clerical regime.
Since 1979 America has paid more attention to the Middle East than any other region of the world. It has to do with a host of reasons, but one not readily discussed is what Abdelwahab Meddeb -- a Tunisian scholar resident in Paris -- termed the "malady of Islam." >>> Salim Mansur | Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
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