Why the World Was Rooting for Obama
Last summer, I was in Malaysia for a conference on improving relations between the Muslim World and the West. As I got into a taxi in the capital of Kuala Lumpur, I noticed that the taxi driver had President-elect Barack Obama's books, Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope, sitting on his backseat. Surprised, I asked him why a Malaysian would be so interested in an American politician. This thirty-something man from across the world responded in his Malay-accented English, beaming: "Obama's life story inspires me. After reading it, I felt so much hope that I too can achieve great things. If he can make it, so can I."
This refrain is repeated across the globe. Obama inspires the universal dreams of all humans - that of audacious hope, of idealistic (and otherwise unrealistic) optimism, and of far-fetched success and transformation - dreams most powerfully represented in America and "the American dream." As I have traveled throughout the Middle East and Europe, the excitement for Barack Obama is palpable - and infectious. Of course, there are many practical reasons for this excitement, as the possibility of an American president committed to coalition-building would certainly have a positive impact on people's lives.
For the world, however, Obama represents much more than his presumed fairer policies. He is "the shattered glass ceiling" embodied, the "yes we can (collectively)" exemplified. A new and unprecedented standard has been created. The most powerful nation in the world has overwhelmingly elected a man who, like America, defies ethnic labels, geographic limitations, or traditional class categorizations. President-elect Barack Obama is a mere generation removed from Kenya and Kansas; a man raised by a single white mother in Hawaii; a man with the middle name "Hussein" who openly draws upon his Christian faith to drive his politics; a man who studied at Ivy League institutions and worked in poor, urban Chicago; a man who is fully American, yet inspires millions around the globe.
Obama is the 21st century world personified, with all its complexities and messiness, its interconnectedness and mutual dependence. His election is both a seminal moment in American history and a historic event for the world. It represents the abandonment of an American exceptionalism characterized by resistance to global cooperation and community. Instead, it celebrates an American exceptionalism defined by our truly unique history, exemplified in the indelible immigrant spirit of hard work, ingenuity, and leadership. This is Barack Obama. This is America. The world was rooting for Obama because they were rooting for America to restore its moral authority and authentic leadership.
The United States of America has always discovered remarkable ways to reinvent and restate itself as the globe's exemplar. November 4, 2008 is one such extraordinary reinvention.
By
Daisy Khan
|
November 6, 2008; 7:14 AM ET
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Posted by: jamil51 | November 11, 2008 6:11 PM
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Ali Sina, syed kamran mirza and all that sort.
You have nothing to say but to lie and throw insults.
Not I or the muslims but renowned writer Thomas Carlyle paid tribute to Mohammad (PBUH) in these words:
"To the Arab Nation it was as a birth from darkness into light; Arabia first
became alive by means of it. A poor shepherd people, roaming unnoticed in
its deserts since the creation of the world: a Hero-Prophet was sent down
to them with a word they could believe: see, the unnoticed becomes
world-notable, the small has grown world-great; within one century
afterwards, Arabia is at Grenada on this hand, at Delhi on that;--glancing
in valor and splendor and the light of genius, Arabia shines through long
ages over a great section of the world. Belief is great, life-giving. The
history of a Nation becomes fruitful, soul-elevating, great, so soon as it
believes. These Arabs, the man Mahomet, and that one century,--is it not
as if a spark had fallen, one spark, on a world of what seemed black
unnoticeable sand; but lo, the sand proves explosive powder, blazes
heaven-high from Delhi to Grenada! I said, the Great Man was always as
lightning out of Heaven; the rest of men waited for him like fuel, and then
they too would flame."
Posted by: jamil51 | November 11, 2008 5:56 PM
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Jamil,
Islam/submission insults Trinity(Christianity)
Islam/submission insults Jewish People,
Islam/submission insults Chineses(yellow peoples/yejooj and majooj)
Islam/submission insults non-muslims/infidels
Posted by: halozcel1 | November 11, 2008 12:52 PM
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CCNL
And mind you! you are not the first to have such erratic thinking, your forefathers have being thinking in these terms too and they died without any achievement.
You never tell on the forums what religion you believe in, and who authorised you to be Don Qixote on the internet where you can dismental a religion.
I know very well your faith but I do not like to insult any faith.
Posted by: jamil51 | November 11, 2008 10:41 AM
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CCNL
Your sole purpose is just Insulting the religion ISLAM.
Can you dare to tell your neighbour which school to send their child and of what color they should paint their house??????
Making changes in another religion is lunatic's dream.
Posted by: jamil51 | November 11, 2008 10:31 AM
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CCNL,Anonymus,ali sina,and others.
I find you are not common readers but professional paid bloggers who are cut-pasting at several websites. If you are really truth seekers then do not hide your identities.
I find your websites just pouring the burnt of your hearts.
Just critising a particular religion based on your vested and personal gains cannot be called scholarship in understanding faith.
Posted by: jamil51 | November 10, 2008 9:05 PM
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CCNL and other
Your problem is that your assertions about religion are based on lies to mislead the readers.
Your are championing nothing except to show your anguish when you see religions re-surgence.
Lets not go into arguments who is terrorist and who is not who is promoting voilence. See the nature of human being and read the history and you will know everything.
Look the present day imperialism and bullying and common sense will tell you everyone is grinding his one axe.
You are all afraid of hunger and all plans revolve to capture the resources where every they are. Look the plight of Africa, South America and other countries How the people are suffering there and then think you is responsible. Only those who are explioting their resources using might if need be.
Dont just divert the attention to matters where you only show irritation are hatred for a religion which has survived for 1500 years and yet flourishing with more than one billion followers.
Posted by: jamil51 | November 10, 2008 7:31 PM
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The Reality of "rooting/rotting" World:
We go into the Muslim mosque and find a call to violence against infidels and oppression to women all bases on passages in the Worst Book Ever Written.
We go into the Jewish synagogue and find myths and more calls to violence via the trumpets of Jericho.
We go into the Catholic/Christian church and find blood and bodies and pretty, wingie thingies but no Virgin Mary.
We go into Hindu temples and find cows and the lower class cleaning up the dung.
We go into a Buddhist temple and find tributes to male sometimes obese figurines.
Posted by: CCNL | November 10, 2008 1:18 PM
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Jamil,
Is there *light* or Darkness in Kashmir,the Land on the mountain ?
Muslim believes in Allah,not God,and Quran rejects *Freedom* 33.36
The first Quran had been burnt by Abubakr,present quran collected by third caliph Utman.
Posted by: halozcel1 | November 10, 2008 7:12 AM
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CCNL
Come on! this is just a wishful thinking re-writing Quran as per your wishes??????.
Hundreds of people learn this Book by heart it is the only Book which cannot be changed for ever.
Your standards of judgement are errorenous and baised.Your allegations about Quran are baseless and your qouations are out of context. It is just a smearing of facts without going into causes and reasoning.
This Book Quran is light for those who believes and it increases the sickness of disblievers.
If you do not have FAITH then it is upto you
and my Faith is what I believe. With force you cannot change the mind of a single human being as freedom is God given gift.
Posted by: jamil51 | November 10, 2008 5:35 AM
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Something for Jamil51 to work on:
(btw, to reiterate is to educate)
A rewrite of the Worst Book Ever Written, i.e.the koran, would go a long way in making President-elect Obama's job a lot easier. Said rewrite would delete all the warmongering, death-to-all infidels and oppression of women passages in the current version. And all the dictates made by the "pretty wingie thingie" aka Gabriel to the hallucinating Mahound aka Mohammed would be referenced as such in the new edition with said references added as to where the passages were really taken from.
Posted by: CCNL | November 10, 2008 12:14 AM
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CCNL etc.
Your upper portion seems tobe empty. You only copy paste here and there, dont you have any substance to reason.
Come back after attaining maturity
Posted by: jamil51 | November 9, 2008 9:28 AM
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ccnl:
You do not hold any substance in your upper portion. I saw you yelling and copy pasting here and there.
Come back when you are mature enough.
Posted by: jamil51 | November 9, 2008 9:25 AM
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THIS MAN HAS A BROAD VIEW and MOST INTELLIGENT GRASP OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY! Each of us has individual responsibility for what happens next! Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program,
'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness
and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,'
but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and
called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and
called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and
called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today;
Cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God.' We are now confronted with and next will be intensely tested under a new administration that chooses to wield control with an extremely radical far left liberal agenda, and we must realize in the depth of conflict that will come, American values and patriotism should not and cannot be compromised! May it be that as One Nation Under God filled with the highest respect for our forefathers authoring these vital tenets so inscribed in the Preamble to our Constitution: "We the People, in order to form a more perfect union" that we must hold fast and maintain forever our American patriotism...."to secure blessings of liberty" and "establish justice for all
Posted by: Sofi-Yali | November 7, 2008 12:28 PM
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A rewrite of the Worst Book Ever Written, i.e.the koran, would go a long way in making President-elect Obama's job a lot easier. Said rewrite would delete all the warmongering, death-to-all infidels and oppression of women passages in the current version. And all the dictates made by the "pretty wingie thingie" aka Gabriel to the hallucinating Mahound aka Mohammed would be referenced as such in the new edition with said references added as to where the passages were really taken from.
Posted by: CCNL | November 6, 2008 10:09 AM
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Helozcel
when you travel, you take only one highway not five at a time.