“We Are Not Your Enemy” President Obama offered friendship to the Islamic world in a televised interview on Al-Arabiya this week saying, “We are not your enemy.” This came on the heels of two other important actions by President Obama: using his middle name “Hussein” when he took the oath of office, and calling for a “new way forward” directly to the Muslim world in his inaugural speech.Is there any such thing as the Muslim world? Probably not. There are however, a billion or more people who practice the Islamic faith in the world, and the fact that the western world lumps them together and blames them for terrorism is a huge problem. Developing a New Relationship with the Islamic World Actions like the President’s interview,  even when accompanied by critical steps like the closing of Guantanamo and the renunciation of torture by the U.S., still will not win the hearts  of the Islamic world over to the U.S. These acts are but a drop in the bucket where it really counts: ending the scourge of terrorism. What needs to happen here is not a reconciliation with the Muslim world but a new kind of relationship that has never existed before—a partnership based upon respect.

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 (Note: I am indebted to Jane Mayer’s groundbreaking work The Dark Side for contributions to the ideas I wrote about in the following blog.) Bush Administration Response to 9/11 Rooted in Shame and Humiliation The tragic mistakes made by the Bush administration provide lessons for those of us who yearn to see a happier world.  Now that the Bush team’s decision making process is coming to light, it is critical that we understand what happened here. The Bush-Cheney response to 9/11 was rooted in shame and humiliation. They were caught, one might say, with their pants down. They had been repeatedly warned that Al-Qaeda operatives were in the U.S. and chose to ignore that information.  When the planes hit the Twin Towers Bush was the Commander-in-Chief.  Three thousand lives were lost on his watch.  Somewhere inside themselves Bush and Cheney knew they were responsible. The Lust for Revenge These two men are not self-reflective people.

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Book Review:  Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. Benazir Bhutto. Harper Collins, New York, New York, 2008. Finished Just Before Her Assassination This book was finished days before Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan last December.  With the publication of this book we can now honor the contribution she made in leaving it to the world.  It is an important work and forwards the reconciliation and democracy building she was engaged in as she lived. I have never read anything as comprehensive as this about the Muslim world.

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