"The history of the relationship between America and the Muslim World is deeper and more complex than the common perception might suggest. Thomas Jefferson taught himself Arabic using his own Quran kept in his personal library, and had the first known presidential Iftaar by breaking fast with the Tunisian Ambassador at sunset."
Just in case you're interested:
The Whitehouse Blog.
The Facebook Video feed for the speech, to be given at 2pm Dubai time.
I think this is potentially the most important American speech in 25 years...
(PS, the comment from brn to this post is that most embarrassing of things, a comment that's more insightful and readable than the post it adorns. Recommended reading, then!)
3 comments:
That was a pretty awesome thing Jefferson did if it is true (not that I'm saying it isn't, but then again I'm skeptical).
The reason being was racism and slavery and all that was so much worse than.
well maybe not predictions abt his speech, but do expect to see the middle east press go gaga over his speech and throw cliches and words like "historic" "monumental" blah blah..... its a SPEECH for gods sake. the american PR machine has done exceptionally well selling this speech to the world. but just WAT on earth are ppl in the region expecting... to paraphrase hillary clinton on the campaign trail "will the heavens open up, the sun will shine yadayadyadaydada"
he promised to close down guantanamo. from that day, he has moved backwards, not forwards.
plz middle east press... stop behaving like girls screaming at the sight of justin timberlake and show a bit of maturity. a speech ain't gonna change anything.
I agree completely. It really is too bad that our previous president couldn't have, say, gone to a mosque on September 17th, 2001, and said something like:
"The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Quran itself: 'In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil, for that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.'
The face of terrorist is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace, they represent evil and war.
When we think of Islam, we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that's made brothers and sisters out of every race, out of every race.
America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country.
The Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads, and they need to be treated with respect."
Or that he couldn't have given a speach during Ramadan 2003 and said something like "Throughout our history, people of different faiths have shaped the character of our Nation. Islam is a peaceful religion, and people who practice the Islamic faith have made great contributions to our Nation and the world."
Or that he couldn't have visited the most populous Muslim country and say "Americans hold a deep respect for the Islamic faith, which is professed by a growing number of my own citizens.
"We know that Islam is fully compatible with liberty and tolerance and progress because we see the proof in your country and in our own."
Yep, we are so much better off now.
(http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/gen.bush.muslim.trans/,
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-27-34-Bush.cfm, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/3204105.stm)
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