09 November 2010

Assalamu Alaikum...



You have to give it to President Obama for having the testicular fortitude to say "bugger it". I am going to do it the way I think is right. If some of my constituents back in the Good Ol' US of A have a problem with that then so be it.

The US President is in Indonesia.

The President ended his speech by uttering the words "assalamu alaikum" which generally translates to "peace be unto you". I have not watched the speech yet, but I am sure that Fox will be carrying it and repeating anything that the president has said in Arabic. Usually, at formal occasions the assalamu alaikum is combined with wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh to give assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh or Peace be unto you and so may the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

It will be interesting whether these utterances, including a desire to reinvigorate the process of improving the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims (particularly the Muslim world and the USA) will provide any impetus to reinvigorating the debate about whether Obama is really a US citizen and qualified to be president, and whether he is not only the first African-American president of the US, but the first Muslim one as well.

I am not an Arabic speaker (or writer for that matter) but I am led to believe that this is the Arabic for 'peace be unto you' السلام عليكم

5 comments:

Aprianti said...

Is it only me but this Islamobamaphobia is getting amusing, if not confusing. The editing of the scene showing little Obama praying in the “Obama Anak Menteng” movie, the cancellation visit to India’s Golden Temple following concerns that he would have to wear a headscarf that could make him look like Muslim, the rumor over his visit to Istiqlal mosque, and now the utterance of assalamu alaikum in Indonesia? Well, being president is hard, but being president in such circumstances must be even harder :)

Rob Baiton said...

@ Aprianti...

I was beginning to wonder if anyone comments on blogs anymore, or is it a case of all Twitter and Facebook.

Can Islamobamaphobia be amusing?

The campaign to paint the bloke as a Muslim and anti-America is interesting to watch. Yet, there are some seriously disturbed nutters out there who need very little provocation to hatch the most evil of plans.

I noticed on the wires that the Hizbut Tharir Indonesia (or is that His Butt [is in] Indonesia?) have had pretty poor turn-outs to their protests. I wonder, what does that mean, if anything?

Aprianti said...

His butt? Haha… More seriously, I think the poor number of protesters has nothing to do with the issue that Obama is a muslim in disguise. The hizbut surely won’t buy it. Could be they just have had enough with their protests prior to Obama’s two previous cancelled visit to Indonesia, so they have reached the anticlimax stage of their interest?

Rob Baiton said...

@ Aprianti...

Maybe the majority of Indonesians are still more pro-Obama than anti-Obama or they just do not care all that much as they have real everyday problems to deal with.

www.rivas-vaciamadrid.biz said...

It cannot have effect in actual fact, that is exactly what I think.