Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
The speech praises Indonesia's democratic government--and religious tolerance--while acknowledging the importance of Islam in that country--but an Islam that takes a cosmopolitan and tolerant form, and which does not define the country in and of itself. Watch the speech below or read it here.
Though Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world by population, Islam is not the official state religion. As Paul Wolfowitz wrote this week in the Wall Street Journal:
Indonesia is a major emerging economy and potential trading partner. It also exemplifies a successful transition from dictatorship to democracy, and it has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world.
Indonesia is one of the very few Muslim-majority countries where Islam is not the state religion. Reflecting its tradition of religious tolerance, the country officially recognizes six religions, of which Islam is only one. Indonesia's national motto—"Unity in Diversity," so similar to our own—reflects the common values that our two countries share.
Wolfowitz concludes that Indonesia is a critical U.S. ally, especially in the fight against Islamic extremism. Obama, therefore, should not miss the opportunity to reach out to Indonesia and its Muslim population. And Obama didn't:
Religion is the final topic that I want to address today, and – like democracy and development – it is fundamental to the Indonesian story.
Like the other Asian nations that I am visiting on this trip, Indonesia is steeped in spirituality – a place where people worship God in many different ways. Along with this rich diversity, it is also home to the world’s largest Muslim population – a truth that I came to know as a boy when I heard the call to prayer across Jakarta.
Just as individuals are not defined solely by their faith, Indonesia is defined by more than its Muslim population. But we also know that relations between the United States and Muslim communities have frayed over many years. As President, I have made it a priority to begin to repair these relations. As a part of that effort, I went to Cairo last June, and called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world – one that creates a path for us to move beyond our differences...
Innocent civilians in America, Indonesia, and across the world are still targeted by violent extremists. I have made it clear that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. Instead, all of us must defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion – certainly not a great, world religion like Islam. But those who want to build must not cede ground to terrorists who seek to destroy. This is not a task for America alone. Indeed, here in Indonesia, you have made progress in rooting out terrorists and combating violent extremism.
So far, at least one conservative, Tunku Varadarajan, has given the speech two thumbs up, and I imagine Wolfowitz would have praised the speech as well.
Here is Varadarajan's analysis:
It’s a colossal shame that presidential life has no magic rewind button, for if it did—and we could whirr ourselves back to June 2009—we’d have had Barack Hussein Obama skip Pharaonic old Cairo, city of the ghastly Hosni Mubarak and a tightly coiled hatred of the West, and deliver his first major speech to a Muslim nation in Indonesia...
Why, oh why, did he not come here in June ’09, forgoing the sterility of the Arab world for the tolerant, syncretic Islam of Indonesia? Whoever advised him then should be shot, or fed to crocodiles; for it is in places like Indonesia, where Islam is worn lightly, where Islam is not a bludgeon deployed against the rest of the world, that Obama’s repeated references to Islam as a “great world religion” seem plausible. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, as the president pointed out to his Jakarta audience—an audience that can scarcely have been unaware of the fact, and yet one that resides in a country constantly aware of its second-class status in the Arab-centric Muslim world. Not only that: Indonesia also has the world’s largest population of tolerant, cosmopolitan Muslims, Muslims we can partner with, relate to, and, frankly, not be frightened of.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
"'Unity in Diversity,' so similar to our own....."
Hogwash.
Jul '10
Re: Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
You mean people are still listening to this guy?
May '10
Re: Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
Hard to get excited about a "cosmopolitan and tolerant" country that recognizes only six religions and mine isn't one of them. Gotta say, I'm just not feeling the love. And Wolfowitz shouldn't either, unless I'm mistaken about his background.
Jul '10
Re: Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
B-. In that excerpt there were 13 sentences and he said "I" 6 times. So, slightly better than average.
Jul '10
Re: Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
He had to travel to the other end of the planet to find some. And the number continues to shrink.
Maybe if he got a new, state of the art, teleprompter he could turn the slide around.
May '10
Re: Rate Obama's Indonesia Speech
I give it three rats out of five.