In light of the Obama Administration’s new drive to sanitize the image of Islam and Muslims by purging the new National Security Strategy document of all references to such outmoded concepts as “Islamic terrorism,” it’s worth going back to a press event from 2008 to look at this exchange in a fresh light:
ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT WITH REGIONAL REPORTERS
Cairo University
Cairo, Egypt
(June 4, 2009)
Q Thank you, President Obama. Of course, as an Indonesian, my first question would be when will you come to Indonesia?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I need to come to Indonesia soon. I expect to be traveling to Asia at some point within the next year and I would be surprised if when I came to Asia I did not stop by my old home town of Jakarta. And I’ll go visit Menteng Dalam and have some bakso — nasi goreng. These are some special dishes here that I used to eat when I was a kid.
Q Actually I live only 300 meters from your old house.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that right?
Q Yes, Menteng Dalam.
THE PRESIDENT: Except now it’s all paved.
Q Yes, it’s all paved.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, see, when I was there it was all dirt,so when the rains came it would all be mud. And all the cars would get stuck.
Q And your school is much better now.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s nicer now, yes. (Laughter.) Okay.
Q That would be November, APEC maybe?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t want to make any — (laughter) — firm commitments.
Q Okay. And the second is, you know, I read your book, “The Audacity of Hope,” and I had a very great hope that you can reach the Muslim community because it seemed to me your understanding of a relationship between faith and politics, especially in black churches is very much — I can imagine someone who is a Hamas or, you know, maybe radical Islamist would probably, if you take away the word “Islam” and change it with, you know, “black Christian,” it’s exactly the same. Do you feel that way also?
Obama gave a classic Obama non-answer:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, I think it’s interesting — obviously I’m a person of faith, and as a Christian, but also as somebody who believes very strongly in democracy and human rights and I’m a constitutional law professor, so I have some very strong ideas about how a pluralistic society lives together — these are things that I do spend time thinking about.
What I tried to communicate in the speech and what I believe very strongly is that in an interdependent world like ours, where the world has shrunk and different peoples with different faiths and different ideas are constantly having to coexist, that we have to have a mature faith that says “I believe with all my heart and all my soul in what I believe, but I respect the fact that somebody else believes their beliefs just as strongly.” And so the only way that we are going to live together, or operate in a political system that can work for everybody is if we have certain rules about how we relate to each other.
I can’t force my religion on you… If I’m a Christian, I believe in the Ten Commandments. And it says, Thou Shalt Not Kill. If I’m a politician and I say I’m going to pass a law against murdering somebody, that’s not me practicing my religious faith; that’s me practicing morality that may be based in religious faith, but that’s a universal principle — or at least one that can translate into a principle that people of various faiths can agree on.
I think it’s very important for Islam to wrestle with these issues.
The floor is now open for discussion.
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