QUOTE #1: "We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June 2007
Albeit in 2006, not 2007, Barack Obama did utter those exact words in a keynote address for the "Call to Renewal" conference sponsored by Christian Sojourners magazine in Washington, D.C.
In context their meaning is considerably different, however:
Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation — at least, not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
The awkward phrase, "at least, not just," was a result of Obama misspeaking. As written, the passage was supposed to begin: "Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation."
QUOTE #2: "America has been arrogant."
Apparently paraphrased from a speech delivered to European students in Strasbourg, France on April 4, 2009:
It's always harder to forge true partnerships and sturdy alliances than to act alone, or to wait for the action of somebody else. It's more difficult to break down walls of division than to simply allow our differences to build and our resentments to fester. So we must be honest with ourselves. In recent years we've allowed our Alliance to drift. I know that there have been honest disagreements over policy, but we also know that there's something more that has crept into our relationship. In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.
But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious. Instead of recognizing the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what's bad.
On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated. They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America.
QUOTE #3: "After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."
Apparently paraphrased from Obama's speech at Cairo University in Egypt, June 4, 2009:
And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.
So America will defend itself respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer.
QUOTE #4: "You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009
This phrase doesn't appear in the transcript of Obama's June 2009 speech in Cairo, nor did he utter anything remotely resembling it. He did, however, say the following in an interview with a French reporter a few days prior to the speech:
Now, I think it's very important to understand that one speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East. And so I think expectations should be somewhat modest.
What I want to do is to create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what's happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.
Re: The President Without A Country....
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