Video
Twitter
RSS Feed
Archive: May 31, 2009 - June 6, 2009
Obama's Speech Made Us Safer
This speech makes us all safer, and does a better job of it than a thousand drone attacks or military forays.
By Starhawk | June 6, 2009; 3:19 PM ET | Comments (49)
Obama in Cairo: Can Common Ground Become Holy Land?
Conversation does not ascend to common ground until each participant feels "I am understood." No previous President of the United States was as well prepared as is Obama to say to the Muslim world, "I understand you."
By Willis E. Elliott | June 6, 2009; 1:16 AM ET | Comments (4)
A Paradigm to Jump-Start U.S. - Muslim Relations
Obama's Cairo address, in what may prove to be an historic event, was a major step forward in changing the course of American-Muslim relations.
By John Esposito | June 5, 2009; 4:40 PM ET | Comments (1)
Obama's Challenge to the Muslim World
The historic significance of President Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo cannot be overstated.
By Feisal Abdul Rauf | June 5, 2009; 11:32 AM ET | Comments (258)
A President Who Listens, Learns and Leads
Obama's speech was clearly directed toward Muslim, but this not a speech about religion or policy. It was a speech about understanding and respect.
By Sally Quinn | June 5, 2009; 8:31 AM ET | Comments (7)
The President's Speech: Happiness and Disappointment
I applaud President Obama for his clear and unambiguous proclamation of freedom of religion. I was extremely disappointed President Obama did not take this opportunity in Cairo to applaud the United States military and its valiant and sacrificial efforts to liberate Muslims in Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq from severe persecution and tyranny.
By Richard Land | June 4, 2009; 5:06 PM ET | Comments (3)
Obama's Call to the Faithful
In stark contrast to George Bush's catch phrase, "clash of civilizations," Obama made every effort to weave common threads between the West and the Islamic world.
By Deepak Chopra | June 4, 2009; 4:48 PM ET | Comments (6)
Grading Obama's Speech: A For Diplomacy, C- For Religious Dishonesty
Obama exaggerated the virtues of all religions--not only Islam--and simply ignored the historical fact that religious liberty for all is a secular principle born of the Enlightenment.
By Susan Jacoby | June 4, 2009; 3:46 PM ET | Comments (85)
Obama's Peacemaking
Obama's speech at Cairo University was nothing short of courageous, ambitious and honest. Surely, someone in the Muslim world was touched as never before.
By Susan K. Smith | June 4, 2009; 12:45 PM ET | Comments (5)
Three Criticisms
President's speech was both powerful and masterful, but there were three areas in particular in which I wish he had chosen to speak with a different valence.
By David Wolpe | June 4, 2009; 12:26 PM ET | Comments (24)
Breaking Up the Moral Monopoly: Gay Marriage Passes in New Hampshire
Making a mainstream case to the American public on gay equality issues requires breaking up the moral monopoly that has been held by opponents of gay marriage.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | June 4, 2009; 12:21 PM ET | Comments (0)
Obama's Speech Brilliant and Troubling
The President's remarks were filled with partial truths which often idealized the history of Islam and consistently avoided many of the real challenges which the world faces today. But it put being productive ahead of what some of us call being right, and that is the path to peace and reconciliation every time.
By Brad Hirschfield | June 4, 2009; 10:44 AM ET | Comments (46)
Tiller's Muder an Act of Terror Against Women
The murder of Dr. Tiller was an act of terror. Although its immediate victim was a man, it was aimed at women's hearts and minds, designed to shatter our oneness and assert control.
By Starhawk | June 3, 2009; 12:06 PM ET | Comments (12)
Bin Laden's Problem: Obama IS the Message to the Muslim World
Obama's story is the message to the Muslim world; his story is compelling because it is such a story of the coming religious pluralism the world as a whole is trying to understand.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | June 3, 2009; 11:41 AM ET | Comments (28)
Repairing 8 Years of Flawed U.S. Policy
Obama must continue to press the cause of human rights in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, an issue that has often raised questions about U.S. Foreign Policy turning a blind eye to the issues of human rights violations in order to advance America's interests in the region.
By John Bryson Chane | June 3, 2009; 10:37 AM ET | Comments (1)
Obama's Opportunity in Cairo
As an Egyptian by parentage, a U.S. citizen by choice, a Muslim by faith and an imam at the mosque that is but 12 blocks from Ground Zero in New York City, I am pleased that my president, Barack Hussein Obama, is addressing the Muslim world Thursday from my hometown of Cairo.
By Feisal Abdul Rauf | June 2, 2009; 5:07 PM ET | Comments (10)
Address Palestine-Israel Directly
Obama's combination of principle and pragmatism will be tested as he seeks to balance relations with old allies and populist expectations in the Muslim world. If Obama does not address Palestine-Israel directly and concretely, the response will be seen "as same old, same old."
By John Esposito | June 2, 2009; 12:04 PM ET | Comments (6)
Onward Secular Peacemakers
I expect in at least part of President Obama's June 4 speech he will say nice things about Muslims and emphasize that we are not in a Christian Holy War with Islam. Many Muslims think otherwise, perhaps with some justification.
By Herb Silverman | June 2, 2009; 11:27 AM ET | Comments (2)
Abortion, Christianity and Life
Anti-abortion activists who condone murder are the biggest group of hypocrites I have seen in a long time.
By Susan K. Smith | June 2, 2009; 7:11 AM ET | Comments (9)
Pro-Life Terrorism Leads to Murder
As Tiller's murder shows, any conviction extended far enough and sufficiently inflated arrives at violence.
By Willis E. Elliott | June 1, 2009; 10:39 PM ET | Comments (5)
Murder is Murder and Abortion is Not
Tiller is a religious martyr, killed in his own church as he arrived to worship, killed for acting in accord with his religious commitments and his moral and ethical choices.
By Arthur Waskow | June 1, 2009; 4:51 PM ET | Comments (14)
A Wicked Deed in Wichita - A Test for the Pro-Life Movement
Murder is murder. The law rightly affirms that the killing of Dr. George Tiller is murder. In this we must agree. We cannot rest until the law also recognizes the killing of the unborn as murder. The killing of Dr. George Tiller makes that challenge all the more difficult.
By R. Albert Mohler Jr. | June 1, 2009; 4:25 PM ET | Comments (91)
Parents Relying on Religion to Heal Sick Children
The peculiar abuse of withholding medical treatment on the part of pious but misinformed people, is simply one more tragic chapter in the dark side of religious history.
By John Shelby Spong | June 1, 2009; 2:58 PM ET | Comments (1)
George Tiller's Murder a Human Tragedy
The murder of Dr. George Tiller is a human tragedy.
By Richard Land | June 1, 2009; 2:22 PM ET | Comments (4)
Faith, Justifiable Homicide and Civil Disobedience
To be sure, there are some who will be lauding Roeder as a hero, while the rest of us recoil in horror, lament the death of Dr.Tiller, offer his family and friends our condolences, and struggle to clarify our moral lines, to tease out the general principles that will allow us to definitively place Roeder on the side of wrong, and our heroes on the side of right.
By Pamela K. Taylor | June 1, 2009; 2:13 PM ET | Comments (51)
What Government Joins Together
People who claim religious conviction for denying full access to civil marriage run the risk of being found guilty of presuming that they alone speak for the voice of God.
By John Bryson Chane | June 1, 2009; 1:23 PM ET | Comments (23)
The Killing of George Tiller: A "Pro-life" Murder?
"Pro-life" as the self-description of the anti-abortion movement has a fundamental flaw at its heart.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | May 31, 2009; 5:31 PM ET | Comments (220)
