Muslim World

Three Muslim students approached me after I had finished a speech at Harvard University. I was there to talk about the threat of radical Islam across the globe, as part of the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Program to Protect America's Freedom. The students, one man and two women, wore Western-style clothes and spoke English with little or no accent. They disputed my description of Islam as it's practiced in the Middle East, maintaining that al-Qaeda's version of Islam in no way reflects the Islam that is practiced around the world.

RE POPE Benedict XVI's comments about Islam: It amazes me how leaders in the Muslim world, political or religous, say whatever they want about whoever they want, but the rest of us worry about being politically correct. Islamic extremists want to kill us. When someone critizes them, they kill innocents all over the world. Too much of America has forgotten that horrible day on 9/11. Bill Newbold Philadelphia

UNILATERALISM means going it alone, a disastrous mistake in an interlocked world. George W. Bush's brand has gotten us into a new Vietnam quagmire that merits consideration of his and Dick Cheney's impeachment. His contempt for allies who were acquired by far wiser presidents, his endangering our valiant troops without just cause, his attacking Saddam because he cannot find Osama, his use of conventional weapons of mass destruction against as-yet-unused chemical Iraqi weapons, his plan to "democratize" the entire Mideast, his inflaming of all the Muslim world against us, his putting deficits where surpluses used to be, and his illegal recourse in war in order to get re-elected truly warrant the impeachment of both.

IT SEEMS likely we will get the war President Bush has been pushing for since well before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. We are already bombing strategic targets saying they shot at us first. We may have war for Christmas. Bush declared he would not risk the life of a single American soldier by trusting Saddam Hussein to keep his word. How many Americans and how many others in the Middle East will die in George Jr.'s war unless it is deterred somehow? Terrorism against Americans and Britons at home and abroad is likely to be multiplied by all-out an war on and and any occupation of Iraq.

Every new president flatters himself that he, kinder and gentler, is beginning the world anew. Yet, when Barack Obama, in his inaugural address, reached out to Muslims with "to the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," his formulation was needlessly defensive and apologetic. Is it "new" to acknowledge Muslim interests and show respect to the Muslim world? Obama doesn't just think so; he said so again to millions in his Al-Arabiya interview, insisting on the need to "restore" the "same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago. " Astonishing.

President Obama's speech at Cairo University last week constituted the most direct public diplomatic outreach to the Muslim world in U.S. history. As such, Obama should have focused squarely on the one issue that Muslim publics most directly control: the widespread acceptance, if not embrace, of violent extremism. In this respect, the president failed tremendously. To be sure, Obama spoke in no uncertain terms about the evils of violence, calling it contrary to Quranic teachings that decry the killing of innocents.

Use prisons more efficiently Re: "Penna. needs more prisons," letter, Friday: We don't need more prisons; we just need more efficient use of the existing ones. This can be accomplished by having district attorneys let it be known that they will not prosecute nonviolent drug offenses. They have the right to concentrate their limited resources on high-priority crimes. Then, the prisons would lose half their populations, but there wouldn't be any more serious criminals on the streets.

Christian Sahner is a Rhodes scholar and doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern history at Princeton Bennett Graham worked for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and is now an M.B.A. candidate at the University of Virginia As our nation grapples with the ground zero mosque and the thwarted Quran burning, Americans have an opportunity to reflect on one of our most treasured first principles, religious freedom. But as we debate the scope of the First Amendment in Manhattan and Florida, it is worth remembering that some of the gravest threats to religious freedom happen far from our shores.

Israel Insider http://web.israelinsider.com When does the Arab world band together? Never to offer praise and rejoice because of the good that has happened to them, only to rejoice because bad has happened to someone else. The Arab world gathers together in hatred. They gather because of the United States and because of Israel. The Muslim world is galvanized because of the story line in a movie, the lyrics of a song, because of caricatures in a newspaper. They are moved to action because of perceived insult and evil, principally insults and evils interpreted to be hurled at them by the West.

Great speech by President Obama in Cairo. No surprise there. The world is learning, just as Americans have already learned, that the U.S. president is a gifted speaker. Here and abroad, though, observers are reserving judgment on how well he backs up what he says. Obama's address yesterday in Egypt sought "a new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim world by acknowledging past mistakes, and pushing for policy changes that won't come easy for either of them. In particular, Obama stressed a firmness with Israel that Arab nations won't believe until they see it. "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's.

WASHINGTON - There may be no good time for a busy president to leave the country, but President Obama and family arrive in Brazil on Saturday for a five-day, three-nation swing that comes as jittery Americans brace for a military showdown in Libya and radioactive clouds waft eastward from Japan. The timing of the visit left White House advisers a bit defensive, insisting that Obama would remain on top of the fast-moving events despite his absence from the communications and military command hubs in Washington.

Christian Sahner is a Rhodes scholar and doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern history at Princeton Bennett Graham worked for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and is now an M.B.A. candidate at the University of Virginia As our nation grapples with the ground zero mosque and the thwarted Quran burning, Americans have an opportunity to reflect on one of our most treasured first principles, religious freedom. But as we debate the scope of the First Amendment in Manhattan and Florida, it is worth remembering that some of the gravest threats to religious freedom happen far from our shores.

Three Muslim students approached me after I had finished a speech at Harvard University. I was there to talk about the threat of radical Islam across the globe, as part of the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Program to Protect America's Freedom. The students, one man and two women, wore Western-style clothes and spoke English with little or no accent. They disputed my description of Islam as it's practiced in the Middle East, maintaining that al-Qaeda's version of Islam in no way reflects the Islam that is practiced around the world.

Use prisons more efficiently Re: "Penna. needs more prisons," letter, Friday: We don't need more prisons; we just need more efficient use of the existing ones. This can be accomplished by having district attorneys let it be known that they will not prosecute nonviolent drug offenses. They have the right to concentrate their limited resources on high-priority crimes. Then, the prisons would lose half their populations, but there wouldn't be any more serious criminals on the streets.

President Obama's speech at Cairo University last week constituted the most direct public diplomatic outreach to the Muslim world in U.S. history. As such, Obama should have focused squarely on the one issue that Muslim publics most directly control: the widespread acceptance, if not embrace, of violent extremism. In this respect, the president failed tremendously. To be sure, Obama spoke in no uncertain terms about the evils of violence, calling it contrary to Quranic teachings that decry the killing of innocents.

Great speech by President Obama in Cairo. No surprise there. The world is learning, just as Americans have already learned, that the U.S. president is a gifted speaker. Here and abroad, though, observers are reserving judgment on how well he backs up what he says. Obama's address yesterday in Egypt sought "a new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim world by acknowledging past mistakes, and pushing for policy changes that won't come easy for either of them. In particular, Obama stressed a firmness with Israel that Arab nations won't believe until they see it. "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's.

Every new president flatters himself that he, kinder and gentler, is beginning the world anew. Yet, when Barack Obama, in his inaugural address, reached out to Muslims with "to the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," his formulation was needlessly defensive and apologetic. Is it "new" to acknowledge Muslim interests and show respect to the Muslim world? Obama doesn't just think so; he said so again to millions in his Al-Arabiya interview, insisting on the need to "restore" the "same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago. " Astonishing.

Barack Obama's inaugural speech answered a nagging question that much of the world has been debating: Is America too washed up to lead? After years of Bush unilateralism, and with the U.S. economy in deep trouble, many claim the decline in American influence is unstoppable. President Obama begs to differ. Yet the vision of U.S. leadership he laid out differs starkly from the style and substance of George W. Bush. The new president grasps that there is still a hunger abroad for American leadership.

RE POPE Benedict XVI's comments about Islam: It amazes me how leaders in the Muslim world, political or religous, say whatever they want about whoever they want, but the rest of us worry about being politically correct. Islamic extremists want to kill us. When someone critizes them, they kill innocents all over the world. Too much of America has forgotten that horrible day on 9/11. Bill Newbold Philadelphia

Israel Insider http://web.israelinsider.com When does the Arab world band together? Never to offer praise and rejoice because of the good that has happened to them, only to rejoice because bad has happened to someone else. The Arab world gathers together in hatred. They gather because of the United States and because of Israel. The Muslim world is galvanized because of the story line in a movie, the lyrics of a song, because of caricatures in a newspaper. They are moved to action because of perceived insult and evil, principally insults and evils interpreted to be hurled at them by the West.