Some surprising reactions to Obama's Cairo speech

No one speech can ever do justice to everything at once or cover every point to everyone's satisfaction at once.   Mr Obama's speech to the Islamic world in Cairo is no exception.   Possibly the fairest summation is that while it could have been better, but could also have been a lot worse.   Predictably, many of the Right in the USA were never going to see anything positive in it and have trawled it for the negatives.   Though hotair.com's Ed Morrissey found it "surprisingly good." ...in most ways, it wouldn’t differ from a similar speech given by any recent American President.  In fact, the Cairo audience may have been a little surprised about the depth of the defense of Israel’s right to exist in peace, as well as the strong denunciation of 9/11 Trutherism that has been wildly popular among Arabs, even though Osama bin Laden claimed credit long ago for the attack. Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are praising it: Israel: We hope Obama speech heralds new era in Mideast. The Israeli government praised U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech to the Muslim world Thursday, saying it shared his hopes for Middle East peace, but stressed that Israel’s security interests remained paramount. From Little Green Footballs   Charles Johnson from Little Green Footballs is a harsh critic of Islamism and the Palestinians, (and rightly so in my view), so he is no "shill" for the Muslim world.   But he is basically pretty favourable in relation to Mr Obama's efforts, concluding: Read the whole thing. It’s doubtful that this one speech is going to lead to a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” but it’s certainly going to give the Muslim world a lot to talk about. It will be interesting to watch their reactions. However, over at the Lefty Huffington Post, he has taken some stick over a perceived failure to address the status of women in much of the Islamic world.   Let Women Wear the Hijab: The Emptiness of Obama's Cairo Speech   I think the writer, Peter Daou, is exhibiting the unrealistic expectations I alluded to above.   One speech of a general nature can do no more than gloss over a number of topics. It cannot deal with any at length or in detail.   Now, speaking of shills, people who know me know I 'aint no shill for Obama.   But I've just reread the part of his speech where he refers to the status of women and I can't see a problem with it. "...but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous."   "Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity - men and women - to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams." Okay, he doesn't particularly address Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow: [only 13 years old when] stoned to death in Somalia by insurgents because she was raped. Reports indicate that was raped by three men while traveling by foot to visit her grandmother in conflict capital, Mogadishu. When she went to the authorities to report the crime, they accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death. Aisha was forced into a hole in a stadium of 1,000 onlookers as 50 men buried her up to the neck and cast stones at her until she died. When some of the people at the stadium tried to save her, militia opened fire on the crowd, killing a boy who was a bystander. But the people who tried to save her, including the boy who was killed by the insurgents, were Muslims.   Daou is right in another way though. Despite the strange silence of so many Western feminists, the inescapable fact is that in many parts of the Islamic world woman are treated as second class citizens or worse.   The Niqab (the black full body covering, showing only the eyes) is not liberating, irrespective of the dewy-eyed whitterings of naive young female journalists who put it on for not even a full day and swan about on public transport in Western cities like here in Perth.   The women of Saudi Arabia tell a very different story. The more they cover up the greater the obsessive attention of men there they tell us.   But Obama wasn't giving a speech about the status of women.   He has also been criticised by Gay Patriot for ignoring the terrible plight of gay men throughout the Islamic world.   This criticism is harder to ignore because Mr Obama did indeed say absolutely nothing at all about things like this:     Alright, Iran is one of the worst offenders in this regard and hangings of young gay men like this are put on as debased public entertainments, but the situation in most Muslim countries is not good. It is just worse in some compared to others.   Could not Mr Obama have at least made a passing reference to this?

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