THE SUBMISSION OF OBAMA TO ISLAM

How appropriate that Barack Hussein Obama featured Aretha Franklin in his inaugural festivities since her signature song is "Respect."  Literally from the moment she finished belting out "My Country Tis of Thee" on January 20, the new President has been conveying his "respect" the Moslem world.  Unfortunately, the way he practices it seems to be spelled S.U.B.M.I.S.S.I.O.N.

Several observers have noted in recent days that Mr. Obama’s outreach to the Moslem world is not only defensive and apologetic.  It explicitly embraces a narrative that is factually erroneous and deprecating to his own country.

For example, in his inaugural address, the President spoke of seeking "a new way forward [with the Moslem world], based on mutual interest and mutual respect." He amplified this idea during his first post-inaugural interview which was granted to a Saudi-owned network, al-Arabiya: He is determined to "restore" the "same respect and partnership America had with the Moslem world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago."

The problem with this formulation is that it misrepresents the more distant as well as the recent past, even as it panders to those (abroad and at home) who would blame the United States for the ills of the Moslem world. 

As Charles Krauthammer put it in his syndicated column last week, over the past 20 years, "America did not just respect Moslems, it bled for them….It is both false and injurious to this country to draw a historical line dividing America under Obama from a benighted past when Islam was supposedly disrespected and demonized."

The President also told al-Arabiya that: "My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Moslem world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect.  I have Moslem members of my family. I have lived in Moslem countries."

Lest there be any doubt about the priority he attaches to this messaging, Mr. Obama repeated the point.  "My job to the Moslem world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."

For good measure, the new President described America as a country of "Moslems, Christians, Jews" and others– a presumably intentional upgrading of adherents to the faith of his father, Islam, from the second place position he accorded them in his State of the Union address several days before. 

(The rankings of both orderings obviously reflect something other than demographics: Moslems comprise but a tiny fraction of the number of Christians in the United States and, according to independent estimates, only half as many– or less– than Jews.)

What is really worrying is that Mr. Obama’s actions and rhetoric are almost certainly being perceived by his target audience as evidence not of respect but of subservience– precisely what Islam (the word "islam" literally means "submission" in Arabic) requires of all of us, Moslems and non-Moslems, alike. 

Consider that Mr. Obama has made no secret of his desire to cultivate improved relations with the mullahs of Iran, who have repressed their people and threatened ours for thirty years. 

It appears that he started to do so months before his election, as a senior campaign advisor, former Clinton Secretary of Defense William Perry, met repeatedly with a representative of Iran’s genocide-supporting president, Mahmoud Ahamadinejad.  

In recent days, Obama special envoy for Afghan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, hired as a senior advisor Professor Vali Reza Nasr – an Iranian expatriate with an appalling record of shilling for the Islamic Revolutionary Iranian regime. 

According to Bill Gertz, the ace national security reporter for The Washington Times:

"Diplomatic sources say Barack Obama has engaged several Arab intermediaries to relay messages to and from al Qaeda in the months before his elections as the 44th U.S. president. The sources said al Qaeda has offered what they termed a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"’For the last few months, Obama has been receiving and sending feelers to those close to al Qaeda on whether the group would end its terrorist campaign against the United States,’ a diplomatic source said. ‘Obama sees this as helpful to his plans to essentially withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq during his first term in office’."

If surrender in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran were not enough, upcoming opportunities for Mr. Obama to exhibit American submission to Islam include:

*Ordering U.S. participation in the UN’s "Durban II" conference– thereby legitimating its Iranian-dictated, rabidly anti-Israel, anti-American, Holocaust-denying and "Islamophobia"-banning agenda;

*Adopting the program for undermining Israel promoted by longtime Obama advisors Rashid Khalidi and Samantha Power (the latter just appointed a senior National Security Council official);

*Reversing the FBI’s long-overdue decision to end its association with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent front organization of the Moslem Brotherhood (whose stated mission is "to destroy America from within.")

Whatever Barack Hussein Obama’s intentions, the kind of "respect" he is exhibiting towards Shariah-adherent Moslems will surely be seen by them as submission.  And that spells only one thing: D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R.

Frank Gaffney is president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington DC.