Obama’s Necessary and Timely Statement

At a memorial of the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, President Barack Obama clearly reiterated an extremely important point: America will never make Islam its enemy. Considering the situation in the Middle East and Central Asia as well as the national politics centering around 9/11 in America, where a controversy has started over building a Muslim community center near the ruins of the World Trade Center and a pastor threatened to burn the Koran, causing a minor crisis, it was absolutely necessary and timely for Obama to have such a resolute and decisive attitude.

A country — even a strong superpower — pouring out its entire strength to protest a religion with over 1,000 years of history and millions of followers, is an incredible joke in and of itself. It defies logic. But Obama chose to seriously and sincerely emphasize at a solemn memorial ceremony that America was not making Islam its enemy. Clearly, there are many people within and outside of America who have this impression. For example, during the flurry of media attention after the announcement of the construction of a Muslim community center near the ruins of the World Trade Center, opponents (including family members of the victims) believed that the community center would dishonor victims of 9/11. Clearly, these people equate terrorists with all Muslims.

The government’s conduct concerning the terrorist attacks are not unrelated to these mistakes, because these mistakes have a strong impression on others. The Bush administration announced that it was fighting a “global war on terror” in response to the surprise attack on the World Trade Center, sending its troops to Afghanistan to annihilate al-Qaida. Unfortunately, America’s military action degenerated into an attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power, using a strategy to promote waves of democracy in the Middle East. President Bush himself called it a crusade. Some of the high-ranking American generals would also use the word “God” when describing the military action, increasing the impression that it was a religious war. After years of repeating lies, the lies have almost begun to sound true, compelling Obama to say in a statement recently, “And let us always remember who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for…al Qaida’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion of Islam.”

The degeneration of the war on terror had two great consequences: It caused Washington to gradually lose the empathy and support of the global public opinion, and it slowly caused the Muslim world to doubt Washington’s intentions. The protracted war in Iraq caused America, already stuck in a quagmire, to sink heavily into debt and become very busy. America lost the approval of its traditional allies in Europe (except for Great Britain); ignored the Middle East, which caused the Israel-Palestine conflict to subsequently spin out of control; became involved in Central Asia, to Russia’s dissatisfaction; and didn’t give enough attention to East Asia, which allowed China to take the opportunity to rise quickly.

In this increasingly scientifically advanced and secular world, even though religious conflict is unavoidable, the situation has become a stage for global large-scale confrontation and hostility. Ultimately, most people think it is completely illogical. Ironically, even though all the great religions of the world are encouraging others to improve themselves and become more virtuous, a minority of extremists do evil things in the name of a warped version of the Koran. This has smeared Islam’s reputation, which hurts the image of the millions and millions of devout, true followers of Islam even more than it hurts Americans. From this point of view, Obama’s promise undoubtedly has an extremely positive significance. First of all, he clearly leads his audience to truly listen, correcting the outside world’s misunderstandings of Islam. Second, his speech can focus the issue, which gives America an opportunity to find a solution to its problems.

Of course, in reality many prejudices and narrow-minded opinions will continue to exist. Building mutual trust between religions is a slow and time-consuming process. An unknown American pastor’s threat to burn the Koran incited the protest of leaders from many nations, once again proving that religious prejudices still have a strong and destructive ability. One must always be aware to the sensitivities of religions. To those who were victims of the violence of the terrorists who misused their religion, the fact that the highest-ranking leaders in America have clearly expressed their feelings toward the issue has an important meaning. Promising to never be the enemy of Islam is a good start. It is necessary to clarify matters and get to the bottom of things. America should also work sincerely with the Muslim world, and jointly fight the terrorists who are abusing a religion to do evil. Only when one acts in the right and proper way can one ultimately finish the job.