Obama Inauguration Speech and Muslim World
I’d been waiting for Obama’s inauguration for several days. Lucky me Dian reminded everyone in her post (thx !). After reading that post I rushed to my remote and started to watch live coverage in CNN. I was lucky because it was still about 3am there in US while the the president’s oath will be taken at noon.
What I’ve been waiting actually was his speech. Especially about muslim world. What would he say about it in the middle of global crisis which has been destructing US economy. Would he care much about it so he would put it in his speech? Well he actually did it. Not only as a minor subject. But as a major part of the new way forward.
First thing that interest me is these words :
“We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers.”
There’s a statement there that he accepts differences. And he wants to work together within those differences. But what really surprised me is these words :
“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
He put the special message to the so called “muslim world”. He’s also saying that he wants a new way forward based on mutual interest and respect with the muslim world. He didn’t even mention democracy in the paragraph (above words were part of a paragraph).
Well, I’m not sure yet what kind of new way forward that he meant. But looking on what he said hopefully US will not try to force any kind of democracy crap anymore to the entire world. Hope Obama will fully understand that every region or nation have their own characteristics, cultures, beliefs, etc, which can be totally different to what they have.
He acknowledged the importance of giving back the freedom to Iraqi’s and Afghanistan’s people. He put that in his speech as well.
“We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.”
He also carried special message to the terrorists. His standpoint is firm. I think every president will incorporated these kind of statement in their speech.
“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”
Anyway, we all know that Obama has been carrying a spirit of change in his campaign. He always says that he will bring the change to the America. He always criticizes George W Bush’s administration for quite some time. He also keep stressing that togetherness is important. He put it like this :
“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”
Words “remaking America” quite strucked me for a while.
Back to the muslim world in Obama’s perspective (or American in general’s), I can’t help but notice that it seems that there are part of the western world who have been trying to open themselves to the muslim world in the past several years. Trying to understand them and not judging them as part of the anti-democracy belief anymore.
Suddenly I remember a movie called Body of Lies that I watched several days ago in theatre. It’s directed by Ridley Scott with stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe. I admire that movie. Not because it’s a fantastic movie in terms of cinematography or directing or else. But more because it contains how western world more or less look at the muslim world nowadays.
In that movie DiCaprio played as a field CIA agent Roger Ferris in middle east who tries to track down a terrorist leader in Jordan. He speaks Arab very well and he often says “Assalamu Alaikum” or “Insya Allah” to the Arab people.
There’s a scene where he was captured by the terrorist. He confronts what the terrorist leader believe. What fascinated me was that he doesn’t confront him by the name of democracy. He leaves all of his democracy attribute back home. All he says was (more or less) “There’s no place for murderer in Qur’an!”. As a muslim I was quite surprised watching this scene.
So what Roger Ferris do in the end? Off course he was safe from the terrorist capture. Then he was offered a fantastic proposal by his boss (Russel Crowe) to go back home with higher position and salary in CIA. Instead he choose to quit CIA and stay in the middle east as an ordinary people. Oh yeah, he falls in love with local girls as well. An Iranian girl named Aisha 
Well, maybe living in muslim world especially middle east is not bad at all in the eyes of some americans nowadays If that could become collective consciousness in america I think I’m quite optimist that peace will come sooner than later.
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Note :
- Obama administration will start officially to work tomorrow (Wednesday). We’ll see whether what he said will become true. If not then we’ll have another typical american president I guess
- CNN will provide special report about the 1st 100 days of Obama administration. It’ll be interesting to watch.
- for complete Obama speech pls visit here
saya terlewatkan acara ini, karena ndak punya tipi
numpang di warung sebelah aja. Kan cuman modal teh obeng
gw tadi sore abis miting sbl pulang kantor langsung potong rambut ala obama huuuuu……
jangan2x yg masuk CNN cuplik dr TV Indonesia ada org mirip Obama itu elu pren
Wondering his speech based on script (baca doang) or direct speech (bukan ngapal maksudnya).
not sure. I see Dian answers to your comment there
woiya saya juga ndak liat acara itu, emang penting yah
wah penting ga nya ya tergantung interest orgnya jek
udah panjang lebar lu bahas ttg speechnya, ujung2xnya lari ke movie halaaaaaaaaaah dasar movie maniac !
eh tapi keren yak dia gak pake script
itu komentar Jimi bikin aku ngakak waakakakkakak
huehehe abis males gue nulis review terpisah. Mending digabung aja. Toh temanya mirip2x
ralat. obama pake teleprompter
jago juga ya ga mantengin teleprompternya terus
I missed out this program in TV, thankyou to review it here……but I am interested to the movie rather than Obama’s speech …yeaaah……(sungguh terlalu yach! he..he..)
you’re welcome mbak Ani
Hehe Body of Lies still playing today at XXI. Not sure about tomorrow though 
git, kalau obama buat kebijakan yang gak mendukung muslim atau indonesia, kita punya tempat demo baru.
SD-nya obama di menteng
gurunya ada yg cakep ga ya On
@oni
Wakakakakak………………. IDE JENIUS!!
Poor Obama, the whole world is judging him for every single word coming out of his mouth, that’s the risk from being an American president I guess. I think he’s just trying to do his best, a president can’t always make every single person in this world happy can they…
halo Sheilla, how are you
I think the world will judge him by how far he could keep his promises, not from what he said only. It’s also how we judge a president in our country I believe. None of us like to have a president who run away from his promises. Anyway, I just knew from CNN that Obama has been saying promises in his campaign a lot more (more than 500) than Bush and Clinton (around 200). Hope that’s the sign of change that he keeps on saying 
Kebayangkan betapa berat tekanan buat Obama? Sebab, ia membikin dunia menaruh harapn pd dirinya sendiri..harapan buat perubahan.
Dan, saya cenderung lebih setuju sama Valdirmir Putin sang PM Rusia yg pernah bilang: “saya amat yakin kekecewaan terbesar justru berada pd harapan tertinggi”
iya mbak Astrid, bisa jadi tekad “perubahan” yg slalu dia dengang-dengungkan bakal jadi batu sandungan terberat buat dia. Anyway, publik amrik sbetulnya kalo diliat cuman punya concern terbesar dlm bidang ekonomi, smentara pihak luar lebih ngeliat ke foreign policy nya. Slebihnya bonus lah hehehe
somehow, I agree with what shiela has commented
but I also hope Pres. Obama will bring the change to indeed unite the Muslims, Christian,s Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and non-believers despite the differences
Many people say much praise to this historic and charismatic man. I hope he starts proving himself and do things and decisions that will change America and the world in a positive way
hello Pchi, nice to have you here
Yes, I think now he’s the only one who the americans think can carry those hopes. Hopefully it’s not too much for him 
Tidak melihat langsung pidato kepresidenan Obama..hanya dari cuplikan2 di berita saja..
Kalo membaca dari postingan mas Sigit ini sepertinya ada harapan…tapi kalo membaca dari berbagai sumber yang Put dapat..sepertinya ‘harapan’ tidak terlalu besar…
Oh, ya..filmnya (Body of Lies) baru, ya ? Sepertinya belum ada thrillernya di TV.. Yang berbohong itu maksudnya si Teroris ?
Ergh..sebenarnya paling malas nonton film yang menyajikan orang2 muslim sbg teroris..kesannya sangat menyudutkan..
Putri betul, pihak luar memang lebih bersikap wait and see. Pilem Body of Lies itu pilem taon 2008 Put. Jadi memang ga mgkin bakal nongol di tipi dlm wkt deket ini. Anyway, di pilem itu lambang muslim ga hanya diwakili oleh teroris, tp semua pihak di luar peran utama. Malah pihak amerika basically hanya diwakili ama segelintir org
Ibu Putri benar tuh!
Gue paling doyan nonton film yang orang2 muslimnya jadi jagoan kayak pilem horor jaman dulu yang jagoannya kakek berjenggot putih baca ayat kursi buat menaklukkan setannya
Kesannya sangat melapangkan.
Suka juga film yang orang jawa jadi manusia super kayak
Abdurrah Man, Sudir Man, Supar Man, Ip Man (yang ini orang jawa bukan??)
itu suka pilemnya karena jagoan kakek berjenggot putih apa karena bumbu seks nya nih
wew..casual cutie ga nonton acara ini…
halo Casual Cutie, pakabar. Baru pertama kali kyknya mampir ke sini
Anyway, thx ya uda mampir 
well … I’m quite sure Obama won’t fulfill his assignment as peace maker in middle east.
The source of problem is always conflict between Israel and Palestine. It will never end unless Israel move out from land which is occupied by them … uhm, surely it hard choice for Israel
I think you got a point bro. As far as I remember, middle east was a safe and peace place to leave before Israel attacked and conquered the area. Not sure why they have been willing to kill so many people though. But I believe not all Jews are a bad person like Israel. So I think we have to differentiate Jews and Israel.
lama-lama diliat; rasa-rasanya bokap gue makin mirip obama deh
wah bisa nyambi jadi body double nya donk
hello how are you………………..
fine thx. How are you too…
Kita tunggu kiprah nyatanya aja
baiklah ngger …….
Gua salah satu orang yg berdoa si tuan Obama jadi tukang presiden wktu pilpres kmren. Senang jg akhrny dia terpilih.
Tp, setelah liat pidato dia tntng kebijakan masalah Israel Palestine. Wah kecewa berat dah. Artiny siapapun orangny, “presiden amerika” tetep aja dia “presiden amerika”. Kita ga bs brharap bnyk. Kagak ngaruh kalo soal konflik timur tengah mah. Benci gua…!
keliatannya ada tanda2x begitu juga men. Smoga ngga sih. Tp kalo emang iya brarti ya memang ga akan bisa diharapkan siapapun presidennya. We’ll see
@yusahrizal
Pak rizal..film2 kakek berjenggot putih itu bukannya filmnya suzana, ya ?
Film horor zaman 70-an emang lebih bermutu ketimbang yang zaman sekarang…Tekniknya pun kalo dilihat2 lebih ‘taste’
Meski kenyataannya..horor tetap saja tidak mendidik…
kyknya horror2x indonesia jaman skrg jadi lebih mengekor ke horror2x ga mutunya holiwut nih Put
He had delivered a pretty good speech, but then didn’t u hear his statement on the next day (or few a days after the inauguration…can’t remember)….he supported Israel’s movement towards Pakistan…..then I suddenly lost my respect on him…..as many people said before…can’t expect too much from Obama just because he spent 3 years in Indonesia….have I been skeptic? may be
yes, since his presidential campaign when he visited Israel he stated clearly that he supported every attempt by the Israelis to prevent rocket attack from Palestinians. After his inaugural speech he also restated his commitment to protect Israel. Well I think you’re right. We all should be skeptical towards him. I mean so far he’s just talking, we must wait until he do something to prove it.
kita doain aj y
gue ikutan amien-in aja deh
well, let’s just wait and see…. he’s US president and not the whole world president. With the collapse of the US, then US is not the major player anymore in the world, so I predict US shall focus on recovery first…
There is many major player now.. China, India and do not forget.. Russia..
yes, I agree with you bro. Hopefully there’ll be balance now especially in economy so the rest of the world won’t be depending on US economy situation anymore