Obama’s Muslim Speech In Cairo

There are some weak moments, absurd moments, and, yes, some surprisingly good moments: Obama deserves credit for putting to rest the insane, and horribly destructive 9/11 conspiracy theories that run rampant in the Muslim world. And thanks for condemning holocaust denial, especially in light of the recent comments made by his nuclear energy seeking buddy, Ahmadinejad. See my blogger round-up for analysis of the good, bad, and the ugly.

Here’s the speech in its glorious entirety:

Blogger round-up:

Drew at AoSHQ: Mr. Obama Goes To Cairo

Gabe at AoSHQ: Obama NOT for Women: “We Defend the Use of the Hijab”

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air: Obama’s Cairo Speech: Surprisingly Good

Weasel Zippers: Roundup of Obama’s Groveling Apology to the Islamic World….

(I think it’s safe to say Zip was not impressed).

Weasel Zippers: Israel: Settlers’ Leader Slams Obama’s Cairo Speech as “Pandering to Islam” and Says He’s “More Hussein Than Barak”….

Weasel Zippers:Taliban Respond to Obama’s Islam Speech by Blowing up Girls School in Peshawar…

Gateway Pundit: Obama: ” No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.”

NRO: RUBIN: Obama Abandons Democracy • McCARTHY: Obama Revises Adams and Jefferson • PERINO: Two Presidential Speeches in Egypt • AZARVA: Desert Mirage • Full Text of Obama’s Speech in Cairo

Jihad Watch: Featured Post: Platitudes and naivete: Obama’s Cairo speech

Infidels Are Cool: Obama: US Response to 9-11 was an “act contrary to our ideals”

Atlas Shrugs: Obama to Ummah: “America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam”
Usama: Called for “Long War Against Infidels”

Ace: More Cairo: On One Hand, There’s the Holocaust; On the Other Hand, There’s What Jews Are Doing to Palestinians Every Day

Yid With Lid: How Obama’s Cairo Speech Threw Israeil Under The Bus

Melanie Phillips: Obama In Cairo:

For his egregious sanitising of Islam and its history, and his absurd claims about its contribution to western civilisation, read Robert Spencer here. But in this regard, one of Obama’s references in particular made me catch my breath. It was this:

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.

This is boilerplate misrepresentation by Islamists and their apologists. The fact is that it is Judaism which teaches this as a cardinal precept. The Talmud states:

Whoever destroys a single soul, he is guilty as though he had destroyed a complete world; and whoever preserves a single soul, it is as though he had preserved a whole world.

The Koran appropriated this precept – but altered it to mean something very different. Thus (verses 5:32-5:35):

That was why we laid it down for the Israelites that whoever killed a human being, except as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all mankind; and that whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as having saved all mankind. Our apostles brought them veritable proofs: yet many among them, even after that, did prodigious evil in the land. Those that make war against God and His apostle and spread disorder in the land shall be slain or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the land. (My emphasis)

In other words, this turns a Talmudic precept affirming the value of preserving human life into a prescription for violence and murder against Jews and ‘unbelievers’. Yet Obama passed it off as evidence of the pacific nature of Islam.

Charles Krauthammer: A Concoction Of Canards For Cairo Crowd:

Obama says he came to Cairo to tell the truth. But he uttered not a word of that. Instead, among all the bromides and lofty sentiments, he issued but one concrete declaration of new American policy: “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” thus reinforcing the myth that Palestinian misery and statelessness are the fault of Israel and the settlements.

Blaming Israel and picking a fight over “natural growth” may curry favor with the Muslim “street.” But it will only induce the Arab states to do like Abbas:

Sit and wait for America to deliver Israel on a platter.

Which makes the Obama strategy not just dishonorable but self-defeating.

Video reaction from Liz Cheney at American Power