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Newsletter for December 2009
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A Nobel Message to America
By Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
On Faith at washingtonpost.com
The Huffington Post
October 10, 2009
Why now? Only a few months into office, President Obama has won
the Nobel Peace Prize. Even the White House was stunned by the
announcement.
Two other sitting presidents have won the prize. But Theodore
Roosevelt had to broker a peace agreement to end a war between
Russia and Japan to get his, and Woodrow Wilson had to create
the League of Nations. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won his Nobel
Peace Prize for his dream of an America that ended racial
discrimination.
Like King, Obama got his for a dream--a vision for a world
living in peace. In his speeches outlining his foreign agenda,
Obama committed himself to working to end terrorism, eliminate
nuclear weapons, bring peace to the Middle East, promote
democracy and encourage economic development. Here's my dream,
he said, I will do my part, but I need your help. And like King,
Obama's vision has captivated the world, even if it still is a
work in progress.
The Nobel committee wants Americans to know that the world loves
that dream.
The Nobel committee is saying the United States again is the
leader of the world, holds the bully pulpit, and it wants other
world leaders to help him and win future Nobel peace prizes for
helping him.
The committee also is awarding the American people, who overcame
centuries of slavery and racism to fulfill the ideals of the
Declaration of Independence to elect the first African-American
president.
From his first day in office, Obama established an ambitious
agenda to bring affordable health care to all Americans while
salvaging the nation's financial systems and stimulating the
economy.
But he did not ignore international issues. Obama's speeches to
the Muslim world in Ankara and Cairo were truly historic. Never
before had a U.S. president spoken directly to the Muslim people
in the capital of an Islamic country. He displayed a sensitivity
to Islam and its central role to Muslim countries that no other
president had acknowledged.
I can tell you from my travels around the Muslim world in the
last few months, I have been told that every Muslim leader wants
to work with President Obama - even Iran's president. He sent
his foreign minister to Washington, the first trip of a high
Iranian official in decades.
That's a major change
The announcement comes just as Obama must decide what to do
about Afghanistan. The president is not rushing to add more
troops. He recognizes that a large part of Gen. Stanley A.
McChrystal's strategy calls for engaging the Afghans within
their own culture and religion to win their hearts and minds.
Peace in Afghanistan can only come this way.
Obama recognizes that even with the combined power of NATO the
U.S. cannot resolve the Afghanistan conflict. My hopeful
expectation is that Obama will invite other Muslim leaders, who
understand the underlying cultural and religious issues, to help
resolve Afghanistan.
In choosing Obama for the Nobel Prize, the committee chose hope
over despair. They chose the ideals of the United States over
cynicism. And they chose to support a young, visionary leader at
a crucial moment in world history when so much can be gained or
so much can be lost.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, an
independent, non-partisan and multi-national project that seeks
to use religion to improve Muslim-West relations. (www.cordobainitiative.org)
He is the author of "What's Right with Islam is What's Right
With America."
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