Regarding democracy, Mr Obama recognizes that such change is likely to be evolutionary, not revolutionary, and that the United States will not try to impose a democratic form of government anywhere in the world and not by force of arms.
In your words: “While we support the ideal of democracy in government, we will never, ever attempt to impose democracy by force.”
–President Obama, you didn’t mention that United States indeed imposed democracy by force of arms during the World War II and that strong supports for Peaceful Revolutions in Central and Eastern of Europe was revolutionary, NOT evolutionary, such as “Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and recently the Georgia’s Rose Revolution (2003) and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (2004)”. And today and surprisingly, you Mr. President have neglected the revolution of eruption of pent-up rage against the repressive Government in Iran, which is a rebellion of a sort seldom seen in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic. And those American noblemen of “American Right Wing”, that Americans who you want to end their mindset, they have long said that the Iranian people despise the regime, do not want an Islamic Republic, and wish to be part of the Western world, not part of a fanatical regime. And those noblemen have been beating this drum FOR YEARS. Alas!!!

Mr. Obama’s words: “But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradiction between development and tradition. Countries like Japan and South Korea grew their economies while maintaining distinct cultures.”
–Indeed, the economies of Japan and South Korea have grown only thanks to impose democracy by force. The US is Benevolent Empire for nations and that American Colonialism had played a benevolent effective role for nations, where the United States colonialism helped to create a economies many countries and made it a high notable standing and respected between the nations. ONLY THANKS TO AMERICAN MIND, that Japan is the second largest economic power in the world, and South Korea is one of the biggest economic powers in the world. They consider developed nations and have a similar economic system and welfare to the West and of course that countries today consider are of the biggest economic powers in the world also thanks to their FREE PEOPLE, but above all thanks to the US COLONIALISM, Mr President!!!

Mr. President, you have pointed that Muslims as being at the forefront of innovation and education in his words: “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam… that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music….And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”
–Mr. President! This is baseless and thoroughly incorrect. In fact, we Muslims, we have not been at the forefront of anything, Muslims was declared un-Islamic ten centuries ago and replaced by blind obedience to reactionary sharia dogma (Koran, and traditions of Muhammad), which ushered in a cultural and intellectual stagnation that is yet to be overcome. Muslims are very skilled in the culture of devastation and destruction, while we have amazing technology only a great thanks to the western mentality and the culture of Enlightenment, especially to Jewish mind, while Muslims still living the culture of darkness and backwardness.

President Obam, said: “I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s story. And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress.”
–And that fundamentalist Islam became a real threat to your values, your lives and even became a real threat to your existence, American. And that Muslim became provide money for terrorist groups, and at the same time he urges Muslims to Jihad against so-called infidels “Zionists and Crusaders.”
Moslems do NOT want to built your buildings, rather they attacked your tallest buildings and have been murdered your people. They are just good in spreading the culture of destruction and suicide.

Mr. President Obama’s words “there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”
– Mr President, we know that all Jihadis came from mosques.
As for women in Muslim World, as we all know, women are diminished in Muslim world, where women are most cursed and scorned, there are a crimes of dishonor wash, and they have no property rights, and are compelled to cover entire their bodies, including their hair. They are in black bags similar to frightening ghosts, no one capable to distinguish their rear from front as if their life all time is a mournful. Mr. President Obama, the women in Muslim world they are the real hope for freedom and democracy, but it is very sadly – you Mr. President – in your speech, never once did you mention the right of Muslim women to refuse to cover up their bodies. Those rights denied on pain of arrest and death by the same societies you was addressing.
Mr. President! The honor of womenfolk was never in danger. There are no records in pre-Islamic Arab culture, where a victorious Arab tribe violated the honor of the womenfolk of the defeated tribe. The pre-Islamic Arabs also did not practice polygamy, or even the crimes of dishonor wash. The pre-Islamic Arab womenfolk never wore the Hijab (veil), Niqab (veil, mask), nor were they confined to a women’s chamber.
Mr. President! We do NOT want the life’s quotidian joys “our women” draping in black abayas. We WANT them educate, and WANT them to choose the career they WANT, the number of children they WANT and the husbands they WANT. We need women’s protection against slaughter in the name of shame “adultery”. We WANT them to be FREE. Obviously those women suffered ruthlessly under domination of Taliban and NO ONE has felt that suffering. But ONLY THANKS to using power a very simplistic and normal life came back to the Afghan society such as shave of beards, music, and women’s joining schools and television. I simply wonder! Why some denies that war was illegal, while that war has GAVE something very very valuable to people, that war GAVE them their basic simplistic rights to live a normal life. So it is very very necessary as well to respect our very simple request for FREEDOM!!! It is very necessary you feel in suffering oppressed nations, they need YOU, Mr. President.

In Ankara, I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”
–Mr. President and that Islam is quite at War with you. It is very clear that Islam wants to control you so that destroy your life and your values.

President Obama: “But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day (9/11). The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations … And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.”
– Mr. President, you do NOTHING at your War with Al-Qaeda and the Terror Masters, unfortunately you became their good advocate in the White House.

“The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.”
–Mr. President! The message of Allah to humanity recommends peace as the Holy Koran teaches us as follow, this is just a bit of the message of Allah to humanity:
Chapter 008 “Surah” /Verse 060 AL-ANFAL (SPOILS OF WAR, BOOTY)
[Make ready your strength to the utmost of your power against them (You shall prepare for them all the force and cavalry you can muster "mobilize" against them), and of horses tethered (including steeds of war) the enemies that thereby ye may dismay the enemies of Allah and your enemies" to strike terror terribly into the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies" by murdering them, namely, the disbelievers. besides others who are not known to you, namely, the hypocrites or the Jews and non-Muslims; whom ye may not know, but Allah knows them. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah will be repaid to you generously, and ye shall not be treated unjustly (and ye will not be wronged) your reward will not be diminished].

Chapter 004 “Surah” /Verse 089 AN-NISA (WOMEN)
[They wish that you disbelieve as they have disbelieved, then you become equal. Do not consider them friends (do not take friends from among them, namely Jews, Christians, non-Muslims, and today include tolerant Muslims); unless they mobilize along with you in the cause of Allah (flee in the way of Allah). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever you find them; and (in any case) you shall not accept them as friends (do not take any of them as a patron), or allies (and choose neither friend nor helper from among them)]

“We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan…. Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.”
–It is very clear that Iraqi people are better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, of course ONLY THANKS TO COURAGEOUS DECISIONS of the previous administration!!!

At this point, you Mr. President have struck a balanced tone with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where you equated the Holocaust to the suffering and pain of Palestinians “As usual pro-Palestinian rhetoric”, and you reiterating your call to end settlements. And you think you demonstrating historical magnanimity with all these moral equivalences, your words: “Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Six million Jews were killed.”
“On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation.”
–This parallelism amounts to the fictitious Arab narrative that the deliberate mass murder of six million Jews for the crime of being Jewish is analogous to a Jewish-driven violation of Palestinian rights. You just set the Holocaust side-by-side with the suffering and pain of Palestinians for more than 60 years. And though, you President Obama, made no emotive references to the intolerable suffering of Israeli victims by Arab terrorist organizations and for more than 60 years.

President Obama’s words: “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.”
–It was therefore no mishap that for the first time a U.S. president has denied the legitimacy of Israeli settlements. Such an assertion abrogates every agreement between Arabs and Israelis.

“But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.”
–But I see you, Mr. President; YOU do NOTHING for FREEDOM, except the rhetoric full of words of appeasement and subservience and are garnished with honeyed sweet words.

“Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshipped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today.”
–I would like to ask you Mr. President Obama! Do Christians worship freely in the mother of Islam “Saudi Arabia”? Do Jews worship freely on the lands of Muslims?

Finally, your speech it was NOT honest about the situation in the Middle East, NOT honest about the threat from Iran, NOT honest about Israel’s deep and honest desire to be allowed to live in peace with its neighbors, and not honest about the determination of Al-Qaeda, Iran’s Shiite clergy, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabis, and the Syrian Baath party. You quite aware that they all working together to wipe Israel from the face of earth and to destroy the US interests in the region, and to gain the weapons necessary to do so despite really they together do that every single day. And you quite know that both opportunistic neutrals “Russians and Chinese” are quite satisfied with their evil behavior toward the US.

Mr. President! Your speech was an insult to the Jewish people, a distortion of history, and an abandonment of very real human-rights victims in the Arab and Muslim worlds without any interest from your administration!!!
Mr. President, Your speech was an insult to people who risk in their life for their FREEDOM. Alas!!!
ONCE AGAIN, WE WANT DEEDS, NOT HONEYED WORDS, WE WANT HARD-LINE!!!

May God bless the United States of America, and bless freedom everywhere on the earth.

Jassem Othman, Syrian, Poland.

Keep it up and maybe enough of those who no longer feel welcome in the “big” tent of the GOP (those moderates, fiscal conservatives, the young, homosexuals, minorities and others not wanting to be Democrats) , will form a real opposition party that has real ideas and solutions for continuing to make our country great. Until then, enjoy life in the peanut gallery.

In defending his guarded praise of Obama’s Moslem outreach speech in Cairo, David Horowitz writes:

“What the speech did was say, the American way of tolerance, democracy, equality of women and religious freedom is the way of the future. Embrace it and we will support you. That was the Bush line that the Democrats hated before their man entered the White House.”

That was the Bush line, and it was refreshing to hear. But Barack Obama is no George W. Bush. Bush’s passion, commitment, energy and idealism for spreading democracy in the Middle East and the world is terribly lacking in Obama. While Obama in his speech said that “the Iraqi people are better off without Saddam” (and that too was refreshing to hear), he nevertheless still opposes the Iraq War and apologizes for it everywhere believing it was a huge and costly mistake. As US-Moslem relations was the centerpiece of Obama’s speech, and improving those relations is the core of his foreign policy, knowing what he knows today Obama would never have ordered the Iraq invasion and the toppling of Saddam. Why? Because a Shia dominated democracy in Iraq wasn’t worth the damage it caused to US-Sunni relations-which for Obama has more weight, value and importance for US strategic interests than the spread of democracy in the region.

The Iraq War was a preemptive war of necessity for ridding the world of a monster; a pan-Arab imperialist who was a major training, funding and arming source for deadly, murdering jihadist thugs; who wouldn’t have stopped until he became the Joseph Stalin of the Middle East armed with nuclear bombs and dominated its oil wealth.

The Iraqi people aren’t the only ones who benefited from the Iraq War and Saddam’s fall; thanks to George W. Bush the entire region and world, whether they acknowledge it or not, are better off for the reasons stated above. But don’t waste your breath trying to convince Obama of that. If Obama had the power to turn back the clock he would not have invaded Iraq and left Saddam in power believing, as he said in 2002, “that Saddam could have been contained,” a ridiculous notion given the prior collapse of the containment regime-the UN Oil for Food Program.

In short, if Obama had won the 2000 presidential election Saddam Hussein, the terror king of Baghdad, would still be ruling Iraq and possibly menacing the world with nukes, a North Korea raised to the 3rd degree of danger.

As for Obama’s speech it was based on the false premise that the clash between Islam, America and the West derives from misunderstanding, misperception and the misconduct of the US-mistakes and errors capable of atonement and resolution through diplomacy, negotiations, the appeasement of grievances and apologies for past wrongs (including the Iraq War). This wrongheaded approach, with the president taking a morally neutral stand in a war of good verses evil, of democracy, progress, prosperity and hope verses tyranny, regression, destitution and despair, is a catastrophe in the making; a catastrophe from which, God willing, much good will come as it did from the blunders of Jimmy Carter.

Google ApolloSpeaks

You all almost without exception are very,very well educated in history. Much better than Sheik Obama for certain. All of His Man-Child’s major first’s have been directed not to his countrymen(??), but towards Muslims. When I learned his first “first” was to Muslims, I knew then I had voted correctly for John McCain. As did 45% of voting Americans.

If you have not read “Obamanation” by Joe Corsey, Jr. I do encourage you to do so. I read it after the elction and was even happier I had voted as I did. After reading every one of the comments on this article, I am regaining hope that not all Americans are shallow, illiterate, unthinking, and self-absorbed people for who “the game”, be it football, baseball, or basketball and The Simpsons are the end and be all of life.

Carry on the good work.

Don’t allow Obama to do that. Hit him on the stuff that’s legitimate and can be proven.

As for the country, we’ll be fine. Four or eight years is a blip on the radar screen in the grand scheme of things. Yes, Obama’s economic/energy/and national security policies can hurt us for a long period of time, but in the end rationality and reason will prevail. We’ve already endured 6 months of this. Another 18 to 20, and we’ve entered the 2012 campaign period, where Gingrich, Romney (and hopefully Giuliani) can all challenge Obama for his weakness.

Listen, one of these days, sooner or later (& I bet on the ’sooner’) this appeasing-naive-stupid-moronic-pie in the sky-fake-childish-simpletonic-dumb-shallow-Condi Rice-esque–Bob Gate-ish–John Kerry-ish–Ayatollah Jimmy Carter-ish–EU-ish–Euromullah(read Khatami and Moussavi Mafia) proponenting–Islamic fascism kiss assing– Iran regime boots licking–phony “”"”policy”"”" will blow up in Hussein Obama’s face —

Literally.

And the worst of it is that he’s taking us down with him cause the shrapnels will surely hit us all, as well as hitting the Iranian people who will pay with blood for a new, improved US-supported Islamic Republci of Terror in Tehran.

Shame on Hussein Obama for he knows what he is doing.

[The] Koran describes the Jews with their own particular degenerate characteristics, i.e. killing the prophets of Allah [Koran 2:61/ 3:112], corrupting His words by putting them in the wrong places, consuming the people’s wealth frivolously, refusal to distance themselves from the evil they do, and other ugly characteristics caused by their deep-rooted lasciviousness…only a minority of the Jews keep their word…[A]ll Jews are not the same. The good ones become Muslims [Koran 3:113], the bad ones do not…, and who in 1997 issued a fatwa condoning, even sanctifying, suicide bombing. What kind of symbolism, or as they say in diplomacy, “message,” is that? (From an article by Robert Spencer)

To me Mr Obama is the finest American orator since at least Kennedy and King. But aside from the excellent delivery and use of language, his flattery of Muslem culture was just that — flattery. It brought to my mind Dylan’s: “His tongue it could not speak but only flatter.” Maybe it’s just good politics to be a gracious guest, even stooping to lie to one’s hosts. “Respect” issued from stories of untruths and half-truths, however, is bound to crumble.

And there were lots of lies and disingenuous statements: Muslems did not invent any of the things he said they did. The Chinese invented the magnetic compass and printing; (Gutenberg invented not printing, but movable type); non-Muslim Hindu Indians invented algebra and the decimal numbering system; European Christians invented the university; etc…

America is not a major Muslem country; there’s never been easy co-existance between Islam and the West, or Islam and anybody; Jefferson’s relationship with Islam was a response to piracy; Muslems have not contributed meaningfully in America’s history (that I know about); Palestinian “displacement” was a result of Arab nations losing a war of annhiliation, not Israel’s creation; comparing women’s struggles in the US with women’s status in Arab lands; and more…

Quoting Koranic suras seemed to please many, but Mr Obama did so disingenuously, as he omitted those parts of citations that did not make his “can’t we all just get along” points. For example, he said, “As the Holy Koran tells us, ‘Be conscious of God and speak always the truth.’ ” Sounds good. But the sura actually ends with: “O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him). — 9:120-123 His listeners in Cairo knew that; Americans don’t.

I felt that most egregious, bordering on disgusting, was sugesting an equivalence between the Holocaust, black African slavery (in which Muslems were and continue to be complicit) and Palestinian refugee status.

And as to contributions to physics and astonomy?: [Frank Tipler, Ph.D., author "The Immortality of Physics"] “the leading Muslim theologians declared the idea of fixed physical laws to be heretical. The Qur’an (verse 6:64) states: “The Jews have said, ‘God’s hand is fettered.’ Fettered are their hands, and they are cursed for what they have said. Nay, but His hands are outspread; He expends how He will.”

The standard Muslim interpretation of this passage has been that there cannot be unchanging physical laws because Allah may change the laws at any moment. In 1982, the Institute for Policy Studies in Islamabad, Pakistan, criticized a chemistry textbook by saying:  “There is latent poison present in the subheading Energy Causes Changes because it gives the impression that energy is the true cause rather than Allah.  Similarly it is unIslamic to teach that mixing hydrogen and oxygen automatically produces water.  The Islamic way is this: when atoms of hydrogen approach atoms of oxygen, then by the Will of Allah water is produced.” That’s science?

“There was one truly great “Muslim” physicist, the Nobel Prize winning Pakistani, Mohammed Abdus Salam. (Salam, a friend to Einstein, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for his research on the Grand Unification Theory.) Salam belonged to the Ahmadi sect of Islam, a sect that accepts modern science. But in 1974, the Pakistani parliament declared the Ahmadi sect heretical, and its members are currently being persecuted in Pakistan. Contemporary Muslim historians generally do not list Salam as an important Muslim scientist. Had he remained in Pakistan, he … would have been killed.”

On the other hand, reaffirming the US ties and commitment to Israel was courageous under the circumstances. And more, that what governments say behind closed doors should be said publicly, were it to happen — don’t hold your breath — would be jaw-droppingly enlightening, and, I suspect, disillusioning. In fact, I am left wondering what Mr Obama and King Abdullah talked about behind closed doors. Was our president threatened with blackmail about oil price rises?

And he did basically call Ahmadinijad a hateful ignoramous, which could not have been missed in Iran. But aside from that, I did not hear anything about an Iranian bomb, merely the most dangerous issue in the world today.

I was astonished that he did not invoke the name of Anwar Sadat. Does anyone have a clue why not?

So, I agree with him. Speak truth, because truth is more powerful than lies. But he did not.