Wafa Sultan Answers the Question, "Who Should We Believe, Obama Or You?"

From Jihad Watch:

After President Obama’s Cairo speech, many of my Middle Eastern Arab readers reacted with bewilderment. As one of them expressed; “Who should we believe, Obama or you?” ‑ in particular his statement that “America and Islam overlap and share common principles, the principles of justice, tolerance and dignity for human beings”.

True, reading the Arab press’s reaction to his speech it is clear that many Muslims now love Obama. After all, he introduced to them a narrative that affirms their conspiracy theories and their identity as victims of the West. Hence, the Arab media expressed their confidence that the speech will provide a “new stance towards Islam and the Muslims, after centuries of aggression and hostility.” (Al Ahram - Egypt- MEMRI)

More than anything, I am reminded of a story by Nizar Qubbani, the famous Syrian poet. His young son was a physician and suffered from an acute heart problem. When Nizar asked his son about his heart condition, the son drew a red heart. Being a poet, the father interpreted the drawing as a sign of a vibrant and healthy heart and took great comfort in believing this to be a sign of recovery. After his son’s passing, Nizar wrote a poem describing his feelings as a heartbroken father. He felt unbearably saddened as he realized he had misinterpreted the drawing. Obviously, the son’s sketch of a red heart was meant to convey no hope for his profusely bleeding heart, while the father’s understanding of the symbol as a hopeful one was wrong.

The poet and the physician perceived reality in totally different ways; similar to the dichotomy between President Obama’s view of the Islamic world and mine.

The truth is, however, that only one reality exists.

Mr. Obama is a politician, and a very astute one. However, his speech revealed that his view is unduly influenced by naïve desire. His perception of Islam and the reality of Islam need to be synchronized. I am a physician and a realist who has lived and experienced the effect of my Arab culture and Islamic religion since childhood.

Go read the whole thing.

If you don't know who Wafa Sultan is, watch this extraordinary video from Al Jazeera:

In further news, Atlas Shrugs has the story on how Obama's courting of the Islamic world is not leading to better relationships, but is instead creating a situation whereby Muslim nations feel they don't need to help us anymore. Additionally, it seems, Obama's popularity in the Islamic world is less than that of George Bush (at least in some countries, like Iran, for instance):

Not to deny President Obama's diplomatic charms, but they seem lost on the world's harder cases. The latest is Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian nation of five million that has been home to a U.S. air base at Manas, a critical transit center to supply troops in Afghanistan.

In February, hours after securing $2 billion in aid from Russia, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced -- in Moscow no less -- that the U.S. will have to leave by August 18. Mr. Obama this week sent a confidential letter to the Kyrgyz leader implicitly asking him to reconsider by "expressing his gratitude to the nation and government of Kyrgyzstan for its efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and in the fight against international terrorism and narcotics trafficking," according to a summary released by the Kyrgyz government yesterday.

The Kyrgyz quickly shot those hopes down. "The decision to abolish the agreement on the military air base, Manas, has been made, and there is no turning back from this," Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev told a Kyrgyz news agency.

Russian fingerprints are all over this U.S. setback. Like many other authoritarians, Vladimir Putin's regime in Moscow derives its legitimacy in part from anti-Americanism. No "restart" in relations promised by Mr. Obama can easily change that. And for Russia, in its neighborhood, the policy consequence is to push America out and prop up local dictators. That's true whether the U.S. President is named Obama or Bush. Perhaps this young Administration can learn with experience that goodwill alone gets one only so far in the real world.

Further, Obama got no help on his European apology tour for additional coalition troops in Afghanistan. More to the point, he has gotten less cooperation, rather than more.

And despite Obama's groveling to the poison dwarf, Bush is more popular that Obama in Iran. Iranian opinion of the United States is down 5 points from a year ago. Imagine that -- 5 months and all this "change"