January, 21 2009, 01:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
"To the Muslim World..."
WASHINGTON
ALI ABUNIMAH
Abunimah is co-founder of the Electronic Intifada web page and is author of the book One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
He said today of Obama's speech: "When he talks about 'the Muslim world,' he is reinforcing the idea of conflict between 'the West' (which he also mentioned) and 'the Muslim world.' The real problem which he did not address is American and Israeli colonialism and occupation. The worst line was: 'To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West -- know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.' ... Yes Mr. Obama, people WILL and DO judge YOUR country by what it and Israel DESTROY."
JUNAID AHMAD
President of the U.S.-based National Muslim Law Students Association, Ahmad said today: "When Obama talks about those bad leaders, he's not talking about the vast majority of corrupt and dictatorial Muslim leaders that we support, but the few that we are displeased by. And what he forgot to mention is that his respect for 'the rule of law' will not apply 'to the Muslim world' he wants to build new ties with since he has plans to intensify illegal unilateral strikes on Pakistani territory (as part of a larger 'surge' in Afghanistan), continue to illegally threaten Iran with the use of force (even as he calls it diplomacy) and broadly support one Israeli illegal and criminal action after the other."
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