ISRAELeNEWS: Muammar Qaddafi has scored so many loony tunes as Libyan despot that his recent musings about love and expectations from “our American Kenyan brother Obama” could be tossed into that same loony bin — except that it is widely shared out there in the world beyond Libya.
The happenstance of Senator Obama’s skin color, his Muslim father, and his middle name of Hussein have led millions, most especially in the Arab world, to think of him as a “brother,” from whom much is expected as leader of the U.S.
True, Mr. Obama’s cultural diversity is hugely beneficial to the U.S. image as a melting pot and much more. That an African-American, Harvard-educated man of opulent origins emerges as potential leader of the U.S. speaks volumes. Where else can millions of voters make such a resoundingly liberating choice free of the tribalism, xenophobia, and bias tearing at much of the world?
But frothing phantasms over how Mr. Obama’s “imagined persona” — as a Muslim or a third world person — are already crowding this view, fanning out of the airwaves of Al-Jazeera TV into effervescent Arab websites and public opinion polls, all murmuring about miraculous turnabouts and new alliances. Obama’s Muslim Fans Need Some Straight Talk >>> By Youssef M Ibrahim | June 22, 2008
BBC:
Barack Hussein Obama Trying It On? >>> | June 22, 2008
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