Where Some Presidential Empathy Would Be Entirely Appropriate
Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.
— President Barack Obama, June 4, 2009 @ Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt
Police used teargas to disperse protesters rallying in support of a Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public Tuesday, a case that has become a public test of Sudan’s indecency laws.
Lubna Hussein, a former journalist and U.N. press officer, was arrested with 12 other women during a party at a Khartoum restaurant in July and charged with being indecently dressed.
— Andrew Heavens, Reuters News Service, August 4, 2009
What say you Mr. President? Am I being “hostile towards religion” for opining that Sudanese authorities are acting barbarously in this situation?
What say you Mr President?
Carroll
I dont think President Obama reads this blog
Do you really think that President Obama
thinks this women should be punished
for wearing jeans?
This blog contains a moronic question posed to no one who actually reads this blog, and which comes from a moronic contributor. The only thing being sold here is fear, paranoia and irrelevancies. Proof positive that the writer has nothing at all to contribute.
OldTimeLefty
OTL,
By calling peaceful protesters being beaten in the streets “irrelevancies”, you provide as fine an example as can be found of the authoritarian left’s complete disregard for individual life and liberty.
Before we become too “holy” about women in pants, let’s look at our own history.
The Christian bible proscribes “cross dressing”, although this isn’t given much thought any more. It was not all that long ago that we did not allow women to vote. Even less time ago, America was agasp at Audrey Hepburn wearing pants in a movie.
I am not sure America’s prestige should be put at issue over women wearing pants. We should also realize that this is not about “women in pants”. It is a social protest against a number of issues that has found a focus in “pants” and an “internal matter”. We arrested our “suffragettes”.
Let us remember that women in pants is seen there as sexually provocative attire. We proscribe nudity for the same reason.
None of this should be taken to suggest I approve.
How many lashes was Audrey Hepburn sentenced to by the courts?
Andy,mi amiguito
I said that you peddle “fear, paranoia, and irrelevancies” and that you addressed your blo(b)g to no one who even reads the offal you offer. Have someone read it to you again since you obviously can’t read it unaided.
OldTimeLefty
What say you Mr President?
Has President Obama answered Carroll\’s
question yet,if not,why not? I hope that
someone at the White House reads this very important(or self-important)blogger.
My guess is Pres Barack Hussein Obama, is
on Miss Hussein\’s side on this question
This kind of fundamentalist oppression should not be allowed to stand, whether on the Muslim or Christian side.
This is just intolerance cloaked with faith, as the freedom-loving people of Iran have recently discovered.
Dick,
I had no idea that the idea that a blogger might dare to directly address someone above his station would offend you (and others, apparently) so greatly. Leftism just isn’t what it used to be. Or maybe it is.
Do you have any thoughts beyond telling us commoners that we shouldn’t speak the name of the king?
Quigley,
We wouldn’t have to guess, if the President or the State Department said something on the issue, unless maybe the Cairo speech defines the full extent of his thoughts on matters like these.
OTL-if there is nothing but offal offered(hmmm??) here why do you bother reading and commenting?
joe,
Call it a Mission Civilisatrice.
OldTimeLefty
Hola, Andres
Your goat is easy to get. To remind you, I said that you peddle “fear, paranoia, and irrelevancies” and that you addressed your comments to a person who obviously has no interest in them. The fact of his position is inconsequential. In philosophical terms you ignored the essence and seized the accident. Very sleazy.
You were playing to your little band of choir mates and were called out on it – your reaction might have gone over at Nuremberg in the 1930’s.
OldTimeLefty
Ricardo,
If you want to make the claim that the President obviously (your adverb) has no interest in statements about the rights of women, I’m happy to let you own that one – but I think that’s a little extreme. It is, however, the President of the United States who in high-profile public remarks has equated liberal attitudes towards Islamic dress codes with “hostility towards religion” hidden behind “a pretense of liberalism”, raising a legitimate question of if you have to be “hostile towards religion” to not like what happened in the Sudan this week. (Presuming, of course, that you care about what happened in Sudan this week.)
Your Nuremberg analogy is off the deep end, especially coming from someone doesn’t think discussion about attacks on peaceful protesters is “relevant”. And there’s no need to worry about my goats. I’ve got plenty to spare.
Andy-Pandy,
I prefer the double “C” in keeping with my Italian heritage. You are so far out in right field that the original ballpark is no longer in sight. Your latest non-sequitor comments are worth only silence and a pitiful head and shoulders shrug.
You have proven, unequivocaly that Morse is Less.
OldTimeLefty
Indeed, the Sudanese gov’t is acting barbarously – and evilly – in both situations: the original sentence of the woman and then the treatment of the protesters.
I just did a quick search and was a littled surprised to find a reaction by President Sarkozy but not by President Obama to this sitation. If anyone has seen a statement by the Obama administration, please post a link to it. It is impossible to believe the administration condones any of this.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hn39MH2gCD6uRpe1mF4pLf5md7JA
OTL-if you really want awful offal go to Newport Creamery