The Nobel Peace Prize for Obama. Hooray!

How far can you go for peace?

Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Why? Because he has put such effort into international diplomacy. Because he has given so many people hope for a better future. Because he believes that those who lead the world do so based on the values and attitudes shared by a majority of people in the world.

Angry Voices

Because they gladly want to encourage him with the prize, according to the Nobel Committee. Thus Obama has really won the prize because he does so well in the eyes of the world. Because he has good intentions and puts terribly hard efforts towards them, day in, day out.

There are now angry voices that maintain that he hasn’t achieved anything yet and that awarding the prize is premature. But look at what he has done to bring us one step closer to world peace. He has shown that he is prepared to, with a smile, put into perspective and, if necessary, to throw to rot on the compost heap everything we hold dear in the West. All this for peace.

In his speech in Cairo at the Al-Azhar University, Obama maintained respectfully and admiringly that the magnetic compass and the book printing press were invented by Muslims. After all, there were no Chinese in the auditorium who could contradict that, he must have thought. And what does it matter, I was once told in a radio program. It is all right to praise your host, it is only polite and you shouldn’t make a fuss over it.

Obama rewrote history only a little bit. After all, what is history good for if you can’t adapt it as necessary to suit your goal: world peace.

Qur’an

Obama also spoke in Cairo about the Holy Qur’an and during a Ramadan celebration at the White House about the holy month of Ramadan. Also an excellent move. He gave the status of holiness to issues that are not at all regarded as sacred by Muslims and thus took another important step in the direction of throwing overboard everything we in the West stand for.

Turn not only your left cheek towards him, but also turn towards him your friends’ cheeks, your wife’s and your children’s.

He celebrated, so he said, that Muslims have done so much to enrich American culture. Never mind that it is very unlikely that he would ever say, “Today we celebrate the holy festival of the birth of Jesus and how Christians have enriched our culture.” You have to surrender something, but then what do you have. All for world peace.

Obama has also made efforts to eliminate complex issues that always impede international diplomacy. He did not mention in Cairo the position of women and Sharia law. That was a powerful signal to the entire Middle East. The leader of the free world will not bother you with this kind of detail. Obama’s adviser on interfaith affairs, Dalia Mogahed, believes that Sharia law is misunderstood.

Mogahed

Sharia law is, according to her, also for women an important standard for gender justice. Mogahed must have told Obama that. And that’s so good for the American president: he listens to the wisdom and ideas that, according to Mogahed, Muslims all around the world have to offer America.

Not mentioning issues that are important to Muslims wasn’t all. Obama recently made a big gesture by putting a halt to the financial support for a New Haven-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, which is now working to carefully map out what has happened to the demonstrators arrested after the recent elections in Iran.

In short, those who think that Obama is just about words and not about deeds, have it really wrong. Obama does everything for world peace. He knows that you can achieve peace by surrendering everything that you love. By humbly lying flat on the ground, handing yourself over to the will of your enemy.

Give the enemy what he wants. Turn not only your left cheek towards him, but also turn the cheeks of your friends, your wife and your children towards him. The enemy suddenly has far fewer problems with you. And then there is peace. Obama understands this. Therefore he gets the prize.

Note: The opinions of the author do not represent those of the translator.