Powell’s Muslim Statement a Shock of Recognition Felt ‘Round the World

by on October 24, 2008 8
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I'm always the last to know. Today I got an email from Saudi Arabia about Colin Powell's beautiful statement last Sunday on Meet the Press about Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, the 20-year-old soldier, who was Muslim, killed in Iraq. Because of the 'net, because of Al-Jazeera, this statement is rocketing around the Muslim world. No, Obama's not a Muslim. But there is about to be a sea change in our relationship to Islam. No wonder Krauthammer and the RJC are freaked…

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US Politics

{ 8 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Richard Witty says:
    October 24, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    It was a wonderful statement.

    He really put it to McCain, taking such a low road.

  2. anon says:
    October 24, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    When one of his supporters accused Obama of being an Arab, McCain’s response that Obama is a “decent family man” was no less racist than his supporter’s statement. Even worse was that there was very little outcry. While we are tantilizingly close to electing a black president, we are not experiencing the decline of racism, but only a change of target.

    If you go to Arlington Cemetery you will see tombstones bearing the Muslim logo. I wonder how many AIPAC members' sons are buried there?

  3. morris says:
    October 24, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    I was in England when tony blair got elected. "New labour", an end to Thatcher's Reagonomics. The most females in parliament. A blind Minister. The hope and expectation was so high. And the rest is history.

    He had no opposition in parliament. This is what Ron paul is saying could happen in an Obama win.

    Blair went the way of the Neocons…

    The next President gets a recession, and presumably the same corporate lobbies. Dreaming positive might be irresponsible, the US has been sold out, only pain and time is going to help.

    and bringing ALL the troops home immediately…

  4. Rupa Shah says:
    October 24, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    Why did not a SINGLE prominent or powerful DEMOCRAT say, "SO WHAT" during the past 16 months when some were alleging Sen Obama was a muslim? And why did Colin Powell wait till two weeks before the elections to say it when Sen Obama was already leading in the polls? Should he not have said it a long time ago or issued a statement to that effect so that kind of bigotry could have been nipped in the bud?

  5. higginslads says:
    October 24, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    I hope the "sea change in our relationship to Islam" includes monetary policy. No buying or selling of debt or usury? We could use a little of that…

    "Ironically, least affected by the crisis are Islamic banks.

    They have largely been immune to the collapse because Islamic banking prohibits the acquisition of wealth via gambling (or alcohol, tobacco, pornography, or stocks in armaments companies), and forbids the buying and selling of a debt as well as usury. Additionally, Shari’ah banking laws forbid investing in any company with debts that exceed thirty percent.

    “Islamic banking institutions have not failed per se as they deal in tangible assets and assume the risk” said Dr. Mohammed Ramady, Professor of Economics at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. “Although the Islamic banking sector is also part of the global economy, the impact of direct exposure to sub-prime asset investments has been low” he continued. “The liquidity slowdown has especially affected Dubai, with its heavy international borrowing. The most negative effect has been a loss of confidence in the regional stock markets.” Instead, said Dr. Ramady, oil surplus Arab nations are “reconsidering overseas investments in financial assets” and speeding up their own domestic projects…

    He warned then that it was a certainty that the US economic system was on the verge of collapse because of its cumulative debts, ever-increasing deficit and the interest on that debt. “When the debts and deficits come due, they just issue new Treasury bonds to cover the old bonds due, with their interest and the new deficit too.” The cycle cannot be stopped or the debt cancelled because the US would no longer be able to borrow. The consequence of relieving this cycle would be a total collapse of their economic system as opposed to the partial, albeit massive, crash of 2008.

    “Islamic banking”, said Dr. Al-Sha’alan, “always protects the individuals’ wealth while putting a cap on selfishness and greed. It has the best of capitalism – filtering out its negatives – and the best of socialism – filtering out its negatives too.” Both systems inevitably had to fail. Additionally, Europe and Japan did not need to be held accountable and indebted to America anymore for protection against the Soviets."

    http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/10/24/death-of-the-american-empire/

  6. morris says:
    October 24, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Here is what he said:
    Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

    http://www.clipsandcomment.com/2008/10/19/transcript-colin-powell-on-meet-the-press-endorses-barack-obama-october-19/

  7. morris says:
    October 24, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    re higginslads comment.

    What an ironic result.

    After all the genocidal anti muslim efforts. And we end up embracing Islamic financial laws.

    It is also an irony that hashish is 90% grown in muslim communities. That will also give our die hard lords and masters a good income.

    Something for everyone…

  8. Glenn Condell says:
    October 24, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    'And why did Colin Powell wait till two weeks before the elections to say it when Sen Obama was already leading in the polls?'

    Because Rupa, that caution is the mark of Powell's career. For better and worse. The Powell doctrine itself is emblematic of his safety-first approach – never stick your neck out unless it's on the line. He's the solid footballer who rarely lets one thru, but also never inspires the goal that wins the game.

    That caution ended up being his tragedy, his fatal flaw. I believe only he and Tony Blair were the only sufficiently powerful and well-placed actors in 2002 who could have derailed the juggernaut heading toward Iraq. No-one that mattered paid any attention to the smaller fry (Ritter, Scheur, Kiesling et al in the US, Katherine Gun in the UK, Andrew Wilkie in Australia) who raised the alarm, but a clear rejection from Powell or Blair – certainly from both – would have stopped it in it's tracks, by giving official sanction to the massive undertow of bureacratic fear that only the brave people above (with a few others) had the spine to air publicly .

    A Powell-Blair duumvirate saying No! might not have crashed the War Party forever, but it may have thrown it off balance long enough for the US and the rest of us to have dodged the big bullet that's piercing our armour as we speak.

    They had the opportunity to make history, rather than simply be an accessory to it; they could have written their names into the same league as the Churchills and FDRs the chattering classes around them revered so much, had they seized the day. They were tested, and they were found wanting, and I can't help seeing all their subsequent actions in this light, as penance, or as better-late-than-never attempts to make up for that historic failure.

    So Blair's ineffectual ME rambling, and Powell's belated courage here can be seen as image-softeners, hopefully emollient enough to remove some of the contempt that is the dividend for their part in the disaster of Iraq. I'd be surprised if the days of both were not clouded by the awful inner recognition of what has flowed from their weakness.

    Having said that, Powell's words were wonderful, regardless of when they were uttered. Sure they'd have been more helpful a while ago, but that's Powell. As historian David Kaiser (who has a more tolerant, indeed positive view of Powell than I can manage) at his blog History Unfolding says, Powell has weighed up Obama from afar and sees some of himself there:

    'It was clear to me, as one with long experience with the American military, that he had measured Obama the way he had measured hundreds of his subordinates—by his capacity to do the enormous task which he had undertaken. He was evidently especially impressed by Obama’s response to the economic crisis. Although he did not specifically say this, the virtues which he attributed to Senator Obama—an inquiring mind, an ability to master data, and an unfailingly calm and unflappable approach—are also those of a great military leader. This, he seemed to say, was not a man who would make snap decisions based on ideology—and indeed he is not.'

    That coolness and caution Obama certainly does have; I just hope he has the X-factor Powell and Blair lacked; the capacity to put his foot down against rather than with the tide, when so much is at stake. I'm hopeful about that. I feel there's still a chip of ice inside Obama, keeping him cool, and his powder dry. The game is almost over and Obama's savvy and cool have kept him in it, but once it's won, I think we might see him do some things Colin Powell could perhaps dream of, but never dream of doing. I hope so, at any rate.

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