New Yorker: President Barack Hussein Obama

[xiinfaniin]

At the Times, it is house style to refer to a successful Presidential nominee by his full name in the lead of the main story the morning after the election. He may be Bill or Jimmy on his campaign posters, but in the newspaper of record on that one momentous occasion he is William Jefferson or James Earl, Jr. So say it loud and say it proud: Barack Hussein Obama, President-elect of the United States. Of the United States of America, as he himself liked to say on the stump—always, it seemed, with a touch of awe at the grandeur and improbability of it all.

 

New Yorker.

[Baashi]

The link is no good baba Fix it.

 

Needless to say Obama is the man :cool: Our kids can relate to him right Xiin? A black man, son of African immigrant...list goes on

 

I wish him luck.

[xiinfaniin]

^^Here is the text of the above article.

 

I voted for the man. The middle name does it for me. It's history on so many levels Baashi.

 

 

============================================

New Yorker: President Barack Hussein Obama

This election's results will take years to play out, more to be understood

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

By Hendrik Hertzberg

The New Yorker

 

At the Times, it is house style to refer to a successful Presidential nominee by his full name in the lead of the main story the morning after the election. He may be Bill or Jimmy on his campaign posters, but in the newspaper of record on that one momentous occasion he is William Jefferson or James Earl, Jr. So say it loud and say it proud: Barack Hussein Obama, President-elect of the United States. Of the United States of America, as he himself liked to say on the stump—always, it seemed, with a touch of awe at the grandeur and improbability of it all.

 

Barack Hussein Obama: last week, sixty-five million Americans turned a liability—a moniker so politically inflammatory that the full recitation of it was considered foul play—into a global diplomatic asset, a symbol of the resurgence of America’s ability to astonish and inspire. In the Convention keynote speech that made him instantly famous four years ago, Obama called himself “a skinny kid with a funny name.” Funny? Not really. “Millard Fillmore”—now, that’s funny. The Times contented itself with referring to the candidate’s “unusual name.” Unusual? Unusual would be, say, “Dwight D. Eisenhower.” Ten weeks from now, the President of the United States will be a person whose first name is a Swahili word derived from the Arabic (it means “blessing”), whose middle name is that not only of a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad but also of the original target of an ongoing American war, and whose last name rhymes nicely with “Osama.” That’s not a name, it’s a catastrophe, at least in American politics. Or ought to have been.

 

Yet Barack Obama won, and won big. Democrats have now achieved pluralities in four of the last five Presidential elections. But Obama’s popular vote was an outright majority—a little more than fifty-two per cent, at the latest reckoning—and the largest share for a nominee of his party since Lyndon Johnson’s in 1964. Obama made significant gains compared with John Kerry, four years ago, in nearly every category that exit polls record: black folks but also white folks; liberals but also conservatives; women but also men. His gains were especially striking among Latinos, the very poor and the very well-off, Catholics and the unchurched, and the two groups most likely to be concerned about the future—young people and the parents of children living at home. And although the Obama wave does not seem to have brought with it a filibuster-proof Senate, it did sweep into office enough new members of both houses of Congress to offer him the hope of a governing legislative majority.

 

This election was so extraordinary in so many ways that its meaning will take many years to play out and many more to be understood. But there is already the feel of the beginning of a new era. As in 1932 and 1980, a crisis in the economy opened the way for the rejection of a reigning approach to government and the forging of a new one. Emphatically, comprehensively, the public has turned against conservatism at home and neoconservatism abroad. The faith that unfettered markets and minimal taxes on the rich will solve every domestic problem, and that unilateral arrogance and American arms will solve every foreign one, is dead for a generation or more. And the electoral strategy of “cultural” resentment and fake populism has been dealt a grievous blow.

 

Obama is young, educated, focussed, reassuring, and energetic. He is as accomplished a writer as he is a speaker. His campaign was a marvel of discipline, organization, and prescience. He has, as a conservative critic acknowledged, “a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament.” We have had these qualities in our Presidents before, if rarely all in the same person. But Obama’s most visible attribute, the only one mentioned in that Times lead, is unique, even revolutionary: the color of his skin. As surely as Appomattox, the post-Civil War constitutional amendments, Brown v. Board of Education, and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the nineteen-sixties, Obama’s election is a giant victory in the long struggle against what an earlier generation of Republicans called the Slave Power and its long legacy of exclusion and hate.

 

During the campaign, Obama’s “exoticism”—both real (his childhood in Jakarta) and imagined (“he’s a Muslim”)—served bigots as a cover for racism. But it was a shield as well as a vulnerability. It set him apart from the stereotypes of racial prejudice. It broadened rather than narrowed his “otherness.” His absent father was Kenyan; if the son’s line of descent includes American slaves, they are hidden on his mother’s side, as they are in the lineage of myriads of this country’s white citizens. His upbringing in his mother’s far-flung world and the polyglot Hawaii of his white grandparents gave him the perspective of both an outsider and an insider. His search for identity—the subject of his book “Dreams from My Father,” now assured of a place in the American literary canon—made him a profound student of the American dilemma. In his Philadelphia speech of March 18, 2008, prompted by the firestorm over his former pastor, he treated the American people as adults capable of complex thinking—as his equals, you might say. But what made that speech special, what enabled it to save his candidacy, was its analytic power. It was not defensive. It did not overcompensate. In its combination of objectivity and empathy, it persuaded Americans of all colors that he understood them. In return, they have voted to make him their President.

 

 

A generation ago, few people anywhere imagined that they would witness the dissolution of Soviet totalitarianism, or the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President of a multiracial South African democracy, or the transformation of China into a fearsome engine of capitalist commerce. Nor did Americans of an age to remember Selma and Montgomery and Memphis imagine that they would live to see an African-American elected President of the United States. It has happened. No doubt there will be disappointments and difficulties ahead; there always are. But a few months from now a blue-and-white Boeing 747 emblazoned UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will touch down on a tarmac somewhere in Europe or Asia or Africa, the door will open, and out will step Barack and Michelle Obama. That is something to look forward to.

[Koora-Tuunshe]

" It set him apart from the stereotypes of racial prejudice. It broadened rather than narrowed his “otherness.” "

 

This is exactly what I had him in mind. His otherness helped than it hindered him.

[Xidigo]

Originally posted by Baashi:

The link is no good baba

Fix it.

 

Needless to say Obama is the man :cool: Our kids can relate to him right Xiin? A black man, son of African immigrant...list goes on

 

I wish him luck.

Baashoow waxa layiri Soomalidu way diidaan in African iyo qof madow loogu yeeree bal hada yaan dhagax lagu gu shiidin.

Arab baa nahay yiraah daane.

[Baashi]

Maya qallanjo. Somalidu madawnimada ma diidana. In NA waa lagu qasbay inay ogolaadaan labada midab kan ay yihiin in ay ogolaadaan. Sidaa ula soco dhex-yar. Warku waa black is beautifull

[xiinfaniin]

lool@labada midab kay yihiin!

 

The generation of my ayyeeyo is long gone!

 

Baashi,in a more serious note though I don’t understand those who somehow deny the history Obama made. Neither do I understand those who live in the West, as you and I do, yet refuse to participate the political process. Few years ago I had a heated discussion with a brother who thought getting a citizenship was a Haram! I have seen brothers who pay taxes, and are invested in the community they live in as much as any one else, yet take lightly the power of voting and participating in the process that determines the authority they so rely on. It just does not add up! The notion of basing your decision on one single issue say like foreign policy and ignoring all other issues is just Islamicly unfounded. Since when Muslims become a one-issue group, I ask? Many Muslims don’t know their history. They don’t know how this beautiful message propagated across cotenants. Islamic songs and ad hoc Jihadi movies had sadly blurred and at times replaced the primary means by which this great religion rose. How did Indonesia turned from a pagan and disconnected communities scattered over isolated islands into the cohesive and thriving Muslim community it’s today? How did a nomadic Somalia turned from pagan clans it once was and become the epitome of East Africa’s Islam? Whoever thinks these great milestones were achieved by crude force and without some level of integration is wrong.

I think a lot of Muslims tend to underestimate the power of integration, and what Muslims could be within the community they live in. It was ironic that the day my Egyptian friend congratulated me about their achievement of securing a prayer hall where Friday khutbas could be held in one of Minnesota Malls, I read the news about the destruction of Kismayo church. A church last time I was in, that was home for internally displaced families from Xamar!

 

Cakku!

 

What Muslims need today is some one, like Obama, oon cuqdad iyo ciil qabin. Anytime the media does its exposés’ on Obama, I found it useful to know more about this man’s circles. When Rashid Khalidi, a man I immensely admire, was identified as Obama’s friend it strengthened my hunch that this man would not be your typical American president. That’s not to say he will drastically change America’s foreign policy or lessen the anti Muslim prejudice out there. But certainly he is no Christian Zionist, like Tom Delay of Texas, neither is he Neocon influenced like Bush.

 

Back to the historical nature of Obama’s election!

 

My son told me that he watched Obam’s biography on Youtube with his Mom. He noticed his middle name is a Muslim. He suspected his first name may be a Muslim too, a caprice of his to which I have contentedly confirmed. And that is no small feat for a Muslim third grader growing up in America.

 

Waan Obaamaysannahay awoowe!

[Baashi]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

Waan Obaamaysannahay awoowe!

Xiinoow make my word awoowe Obama will be hard pressed to be bold. He has one more term to run You know what that means right?

 

The fact that he broke the glass sealing and that my kids are in a position to see themselves i the highest office is more than good enough.

 

Other than that I don't think he will be that different. Sure he will be progressive, liberal and cater to Dems but again Clinton was like that too.

 

My kids' school had an election on Nov. 3rd and guess what they both voted for Obama. My son class (2nd grader) voted (12 to 9) for Mccain. My daughter's class (4th grader), on the other hand, voted (15 to 6) for Obama.

 

When I challenged my daughter and make a compelling case for McCain she agreed, paused a little and said but Aabe he is too old and he may die. The lil Tiger on the other hand hit the nail on the head and said but Aabe his dad is just like you: he is from East Africa! Bless their heart.

[xiinfaniin]

^^I hear you Baashi!

 

As I said I am realistic enough not to expect much from Obama presidency in terms of making changes that are required!

 

Even IF he wants to change things, the American system and its entrenched foreign policy elites are robust enough to withstand and push back whatever changes he may attempt to make.

 

History is made nevertheless. That, we should all acknowledge.

[S.O.S]

The notion of basing your decision on one single issue say like foreign policy and ignoring all other issues is just Islamicly unfounded.

Xiin,

 

Surely, you're not serious... :confused:

 

As you said, waad Obaameysantahay therefore I propose that we excuse you from scrutiny

 

Jokes aside, you seem to harbour some ill-feelings or at best a number of irritations towards certain issues recently. If I can find some time in the next few days, perhaps I'll attempt to highlight few things (or the nature of things at a judgmental angle) hoping that it would change your mind.

 

Khayr baan isku ognahay.

[xiinfaniin]

Welcome back brother SOS!

 

On my stance of Muslims participating and perhaps shaping the affairs of the countries they live in, perhaps I have poorly phrased it. What I meant to highlight was that Allah does not create pure evil. What that means is things may have beneficial aspects, which, if we commit the time to explore, may positively benefit us. As I have been saying for some time now the essence of siyaasah sharciyah in Islam is the concept of masaalix wa mafaasid! Hence Muslims communities scattered in West should consider their overriding masaalix to preserve their identity. To do that, they should not base their stance on a one single issue. The world is more complex than that!

 

Don’t even mind my explanation. Enlighten us the things you think I am missing brother. I would not try to defend a point of view. Rather I would try my best to learn!

[Pujah]

The Burden Of Office: Obama Has Much to Prove

By David Shribman

 

Having made history, Barack Obama now must make policy. Having achieved power, he now must use it. Having spoken the poetry of campaigning, he now must master the prose of governing. Having become a symbol, he now must demonstrate results. Having stoked hope, he now must redeem it.

 

Few presidents in American history have come to office with such promise and faced such challenge. Abraham Lincoln had the challenge without the apparent promise; the country was riven with moral divisions, the Union was shattering, the government had almost no army, and the rebel nation had all the smart generals. Gerald R. Ford faced a crisis of confidence that shook the Constitution and faced the curse of inflation, but for him the very act of taking office calmed the country. Franklin Roosevelt had one big problem, the Great Depression, not to be underestimated, but only one.

 

When Sen. Obama becomes President Obama he will face four challenges, each one big enough to daunt a president of uncertain faith. There is the economy, which helped propel Obama to office. There are two wars, which unsettled the nation for the past several years. And there is the threat, unrealized but not unrealistic, that underground ideological enemies of the United States still are determined to attack and punish its people.

 

"This is a profoundly historic election," the historian David McCullough said in a telephone conversation election night. "Barack Obama is a pivotal and transformative figure."

 

But to be remembered as more than a symbol, he must produce more than symbolism.

[Koora-Tuunshe]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

I think a lot of Muslims tend to underestimate the

power of integration,

and what Muslims could be within the community they live in. ! [/QB]

Good point xiin.

[Fabregas]

Xiin, I would love the hear your explantion on the link between the spread of Islam in Somalia and Indonesia and how this is all related to "Integration" in the modern-Western World?

[S.O.S]

Xiin,

 

The complexity, however, lies not with weighing some issues (like the evil orgies of mass killing) heavier than other more trivial aspects of show politics. From Islamic perspectives, when adopting the best-qualified maslaxa – depending on time, place and conditions- we have to take into consideration some of following critical classifications:

 

1- Absolute masaalix such as spiritual, ideological, collective, global, long-term, etc. and;

2- reative masaalix such material, practical, individual, local, short-term, etc.

 

You would probably accept that minority satellite communities in dominant hostile cultures cannot take precedence over, and more importantly at the cost of, the greater body to which they truly belong when their masaalix becomes mutually exclusive.

 

This is not to say don't be part of the affaires of your adopted countries, especially if you can influence with positive contribution, but that such participation only stands the test of localized affairs. You have no say (consciously) in presidential elections without appealing to your moral compass. This compass analogy demonstrates best how stances on single issues are deterministic in aspects of absolute masaalix.

 

However, the "certain issues" I initially raised with you related to the situation in Somalia rather than your stance on Muslim minorities in the US.