Obama Appoints Envoy to the Moslem World
NOTE:
1. Why should America have an envoy to the Muslim world at all? We don't have one to the Christian world, or the Jewish world, or the Buddhist world.
2. Why should we legitimate the Islamic division of the world into Moslems and non-Moslems, instead of nation states?
3. Who is this "hafiz of the Koran"? Why is he working in the White House?
4. What does Obama's resident "hafiz of the Koran" have to say about these passages in the Koran:
-- Surely the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight are those who disbelieve. (8.55)
--The unbelievers are your inveterate enemy. (4:101)
-- Mohammed is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another. (48:29).
-- Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. (5:51)
-- Make war on them [non-Muslims] until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme. (8:40)
-- We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. (3:151)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/13/world/international-obama-muslims-envoy.html?_r=1
Obama Names Envoy to Islamic Group
By REUTERS
Published: February 13, 2010
DOHA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was naming a special envoy to a top Islamic body to further Washington's cooperation with the Muslim world.
Obama told a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital Doha in a recorded video message that he was naming White House official Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
"As an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff, Rashad has played a key role in developing the partnerships I called for in Cairo," Obama said.
In a speech in Cairo last June, Obama called for a "new beginning" in ties between the United States and Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the "war on terror" launched by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Since then, my administration has made a sustained effort to listen. We've held thousands of events and town halls ...in the United States and around the world ... And I look forward to continuing the dialogue during my visit to Indonesia next month," Obama said.
Obama told Muslims in his June 4 speech in Cairo that violent extremists had exploited tensions between Muslims and the West and that Islam was not part of the problem.
His speech was welcomed by many Muslims, though some said they wanted him to spell out specific actions to resolve long-running problems like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"And as a hafiz of the Koran, (Hussain) is a respected member of the American Muslim community, and I thank him for carrying forward this important work," Obama said in his message to the Doha meeting, using the term for someone who has mastered and memorised the Muslim holy book.
Hussain was named deputy associate counsel to Obama in January 2009. He has served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and as assistant on the House Judiciary Committee, where he reviewed legislation such as the USA Patriot Act.
Hussain, who has a master's degree in public administration and in Arabic and Islamic studies from Harvard University, graduated from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
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