Barack Obama took a bold step during his recent overseas trip. He sent out a signal that under his leadership America will be more inclusive and open to forging an improved relationship with the Muslim world.
During his address to the Turkish parliament Obama said:
Let me say this as clearly as I can. The United States is not, and never will be, at war at war with Islam.
In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject.
Obama spoke of "deep appreciation for the Islamic faith" and said Islam "has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country".
Obama visiting the Blue Mosque in Istanbul
with Turkish PM, Tayyip Erdogan
In reaching out to the Islamic world Obama has become a target of those right wingers in the US who want to remain living in their ideological fantasy world, but then what's new. They have the likes of Fox's Glenn Beck to help float their boat.
Conservatives in the US got het up about a video clip that they claim showed Obama bowing to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
A bow is taken at a short distance from that to which one is bowing and generally doesn't involve body contact. Obama greeted King Abdullah with both hands. The gesture naturally causes the upper body to lean forward - this is especially the case if you happen to be as tall as Obama. Lowering the head is simply a sign of acknowledgment.
But the frenzy this clip sent some conservatives into was quite instructive. One incensed commentator railed about an American president 'grovelling to a foreign potentate'.
The same conservatives who let the 'appearance of a bow' send them off the deep-end, were apparently okay with Bush kissing King Abdullah and looking like a docile child as the king led him around the grounds of the Crawford ranch by the hand. Go figure.
Link here for a related video.
