At first, the ‘Islamic world’ was prepared to give Hope ‘n Change a pass because of his perceived Muslim roots. Islamists assumed that he would be free to alter long-standing U.S. policy without any regard to internal political considerations. This assumption was not only mistaken but also betrays a lack of understanding of U.S. politics. So, the early reviews were reasonably favorable. There was a sense that Obama was a secret Muslim who would reveal himself at an opportune time. Like the inaugural, perhaps?
But the honeymoon appears over before it’s begun. Hope ‘n Change’s passivity during Israel’s Gaza campaign has rankled quite a few stalwarts. What will be the public response to Obama when he’s viewed as just another American president? As Nibras Kazimi noted in November:
And that’s pretty easy to do: Obama will be pitched as a proselytizing Christian infiltrator into the land of Islam, rather than a secret Muslim in the White House. Obama the apostate had turned his back on his Islamic birthright and early childhood for the opportunism afforded by Christianity, and that is America’s grand plan for fixing the Middle East: turning it Christian—or so goes the conspiracy theory.
As to possible responses, Daniel Pipes lays out some juicy possibilities. These include seeing him as an apostate from Islam and/or demanding his conversion. Take, for instance, Egyptian cleric Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal. This mutt has issued a call for Obama to convert – or else (courtesy of MEMRI):
As Pipes points out, calls to convert are pretty standard fare for Muslim clerics, but with Obama’s perceived Muslim origins, Al-Ashbal’s comments are perhaps indicative of a more generalized Islamic view:
Things get really interesting when Abu Al-Ashbal next addresses Obama as a person of Muslim origins:
You, Obama, are among those who have pledged before Allah – Allah who created you, sustained you, and brought you to this position – to be a Muslim who believes that Allah is the one God, especially since you have some kind of roots in Islam.
“Some kind of roots in Islam” rather neatly sums up the prevailing state of confusion. Everyone knows there is a connection, most are unsure what exactly it is.
(2) Abu Al-Ashbal offers Obama an alternative route:
If you refuse to return to your [Islamic] origins, to the way Allah created you, withdraw your huge armies and military bases from the lands of the Muslims.
Okay, don’t convert, Abu Al-Ashbal says, but at least do what we Islamists want you to do.
(3) Resist this demand, however, and you will pay:
If you refuse, Obama, and insist on remaining in Muslim lands, know that Allah still plants in [Muslims] obedience to Him, and that they are willing to wait for Paradise, which is closer than their own shoelaces. Know, Obama, that in the lands of Islam, there are people who seek death, and are eager for it, even more than you and your people are eager for life.
So, it ultimately comes down to the ‘conversion and death’ motif. And to most reasonable people, that’s Islam in a nutshell. As a further demonstration, I leave you with the example of Fox reporter Steve Centanni and his cameraman Olaf Wiig, taken prisoner by ‘radicals’ while reporting in Gaza in 2006. What got them released in the end was their willingness to ‘convert’ to Islam – at gunpoint, of course.
Conclusion: Obama will be hated just like every other U.S. President and more so because of his tenuous relationship with Islam. And there’s nothing so hateful as a spurned Islamist, eh?
