Ringside Politics With A Punch

President Obama may not be a practicing Muslim, but he certainly favors giving Muslims preferential treatment. From his first televised speech on Arab television to his groundbreaking trip to the Middle East, President Obama has made no secret of his affinity for the Islamic faith.

He has Muslim relatives and his father was a Muslim. He spent some of his formative years in a Muslim nation learning about the faith and appreciating its customs.

While his middle name of Hussein was considered to be off limits during the campaign, the President championed it after his election. Of all of sudden, after his election, he was eagerly embracing his Muslim heritage.

Of course, there are billions of peaceful Muslims and there is no problem in appreciating peaceful Islamic history. However, as the leader of the free world, President Obama is in a very sensitive position. To be viewed as a credible broker for Middle East peace, any U.S. President must be considered objective and impartial. In contrast, Obama is regarded as one who favors the interests of the Arabs over the Jews. Israelis are quite skeptical of Obama’s motives and have seethed over his poor treatment of the Israeli Prime Minister.

While he has kept a troop presence in Iraq, the rules of engagement in Afghanistan are so difficult for our forces that seasoned military experts believe victory over the hardened Taliban will be next to impossible. These debilitating rules of engagement are in place because politicians like President Obama are very sensitive about how this country is viewed in the Muslim world.

His sensitivity has bordered on the extreme. For example, Obama has forbidden the use of terms such as “war on terror” and “Islamic extremism” by members of his administration. In addition, he recently sent Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, to the Middle East on an outreach campaign to the Muslim world. According to Bolden, Obama instructed him to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.” Such psychological counseling for the Muslim world has never been a priority for NASA or for any other U.S. administration.

On Friday night, the President’s stance toward the Muslim world again took center stage. In a speech, he strongly endorsed the building of a controversial mosque near the 9/11 site in New York City. After intense criticism from even Democrats, the President backed away from his comments, but the damage was already done.

Incredibly, President Obama supports a 15-story, $100 million mosque funded by questionable sources and spearheaded by an Imam who believes that this country is partly responsible for 9/11. It is understandable that 68 percent of Americans are opposed to a mosque at Ground Zero. It is not understandable that our President does not stand with the American people and the family members who lost loved ones on 9/11. His lack of sensitivity to the legitimate concerns of the victim’s family members and the American people is quite appalling. In the view of U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA), the President’s stance on the mosque is “a slap in the face to the American people.”

Instead of supporting the agenda of a radical Imam, President Obama should be showing reverence toward the family members who lost loved ones on that tragic day of 9/11. Ground Zero is sacred ground for it is the site of the deadliest attack on American soil. Innocent people lost their lives that day as did scores of heroes who entered the burning towers to rescue victims.

Radical Islamic terrorists attacked this country on that day and our nation is still at war with those who want to kill Americans and our way of life. A mosque on that site is not appropriate and not wanted by the American people.

Most good politicians strive to follow the wishes of their constituents. On this issue, President Obama is once again following a different voice and not the voice of the people.

This is not the first issue that Obama has championed that is at odds with the American people. The healthcare bill was a prime example of his unpopular agenda being crammed down the throats of the American people. 

Americans are sick and tired of an administration that is not listening, but is pursuing radical goals at their expense.