Obama: “The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions”
Animal slaughter in Egypt
Robert Spencer: I’m a bit late with this, but it is still worth noting. The Islamic Feast of Eid al-Adha commemorates the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj, and Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son — Ishmael in the Muslim version.
In thinking of Abraham, most Americans think of the Biblical figure. In Genesis 22:15-18, Abraham is rewarded for his faith and told he will become a blessing to the nations: “by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
In other news:
But the Muslim audiences that Obama addresses here do not read Genesis. They read the Koran, in which Allah says that Abraham is an “excellent example” for the believers when he tells his pagan family and people that “there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever, unless ye believe in Allah and Him alone” (60:4). The same verse relates that Abraham is not an excellent example when he tells his father, “I will pray for forgiveness for you.”
Thus the Koran, in its picture of Abraham, the man Obama invokes as a symbol of the common elements of the three faiths, holds up hatred as exemplary, while belittling the virtue of forgiveness. Obama therefore reinforces a worldview that takes for granted the legitimacy of everlasting enmity between Muslims and non-Muslims — and does so while attempting to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims.
This demonstrates once again how crucial it is for American policymakers to have a detailed understanding of Islam’s theological and cultural frame of reference, and of the actual teachings of the Koran. For lack of this understanding, careless statements continue to be made, and policy errors keep multiplying.
“Obama greets Muslim pilgrims,” by Foon Rhee for the Boston Globe, November 25 (thanks to JW):
President Obama continued his outreach to the world’s Muslims today, sending greetings to pilgrims to Mecca.
He also noted that his administration is assisting Saudi authorities in preventing the spread of swine flu.
“Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions,” Obama said in a statement.
“During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat. The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less fortunate to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son out of obedience to God,” the president added in the statement, translated on the White House website into Arabic, Persian, Dari, Urdu, Pashto, Russian, and French.
“This year, I am pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Saudi Health Ministry to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1 during Hajj. Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration’s commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest.
“On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak.”
- Hindu Animal Slaughter Bad, Muslim Good/Sweetness & Light
Obama’s early introduction to Islam and Hindu, came from his step-father Lolo, who he became very close to, becoming “power”. His mother said he took after his real father too. She encouraged him to embrace Indonesia culture, and to disdain America; to learn his birth father’s power.
Obama calls these memories the best years of his youth.
Dreams from My Father — Barack Obama (excerpts from pgs 36-50)
“… It had taken me less than six months to learn Indonesia’s language, it’s customs, and it’s legends…..
Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths….
The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel…
But her knowledge of floods and exorcisms and cockfights left much to be desired…
So it was to Lolo that I turned for guidance and instruction.POWER: The word fixed in my mother’s mind like a curse. In America, it had generally remained hidden from view until you dug beneath the surface of things;….
He was right, of course. She was foreigner, middle-class and white and protected by her heredity whether she wanted protection or not. She could always leave if things got too messy. That possibility negated anything she might say to Lolo; it was the unbreachable barrier between them. She looked out the window now and saw that Lolo and I had moved on, the grass flattened where the two us us had been. The sight made her shudder slightly, and she rose to her feet filled with a sudden panic.
Power was taking her son.…Such arguments were rare, though; my mother and Lolo would remain cordial though, …the separation and eventual divorce, up until the last time I saw Lolo, ten years later, when my mother helped him travel to Los Angeles to treat a liver ailment that would kill him at the age of fifty-one.
What tension I noticed had mainly to do with the gradual shift in my mother’s attitude toward me. She had always encouraged my rapid acculturation in Indonesia: ….She had taught me to disdain the blend of ignorance and arrogance that too often characterized Americans abroad.
…”If you want to grow into a human being,” she would say to me, “you’re going to needs some values.”…
It was as if, by traveling halfway around the globe, away from the smugness and hypocrisy that familiarity had disclosed, my mother could give voice to the virtues of her midwestern past and offer them up in distilled form.…My mother’s confidence in needlepoint virtues depended on a faith I didn’t possess, a faith that she would refuse to describe as religious: that, in fact, her experience told her was sacrilegious:…
She had only one ally in all this, and that was the distant authority of my father…He had led his life according to…, principles that promised a higher form of power.
I would follow his example, my mother decided. I had no choice. It was in the genes.
“You have me to thank for your eyebrow….your father has these little wispy eyebrows that don’t amount to much. But, your brains, your character, you got from him.”
