Despite an ever-spewing undersea oil well, another increase in weekly jobless claims, and a nation ablaze with immigration concerns, President Obama has finally received good news. His approval ratings are declining dramatically in the Muslim world. He should trumpet that plummet from sea to shining sea. The last thing America needs is a president that the Muslim world “approves.” Likability and niceness are overrated; a healthy fear and respect are much to be preferred.
Notwithstanding the rhetoric about President Obama's re-booting our image in the Muslim world, and all the fanfare that accompanied his much bally-hooed Cairo speech, Obama's biggest decline in popularity over the last year has come in Muslim countries. In the recent Pew Global Attitudes Project, a majority of the population in five of the six Muslim nations surveyed lack confidence in the president. For example, after a year in office, Mr. Obama has just 17 percent of Egyptians approving of his actual policies - a drop of 21 points from last year. In Jordan, just 15 percent approve of the president - down 12 points over the past year. The lone exception is Indonesia, where Obama lived as a child. A majority there approve of Obama, but even there Obama’s popularity has slipped in the past twelve months.
This is great news. Perhaps President Obama, albeit unwittingly, has established respect rather than approval as his dominant image in the Muslim world. This would be a remarkable, and unintentional, achievement for a man whose own team refuses to use the terms “radical Islam,” “jihad,” and “terror.” How the Muslim world has come to approve less of Obama, who prefers playing a game of semantics to having a real national security policy, is beyond me. Nevertheless, it is news worth celebrating.
The reasons for Obama's decline in popularity in the Muslim world could find their origins in any number of perceptions. Perhaps he lost approbation with his orders for more troops in Afghanistan and the ongoing American military presence in the land of the Taliban.
It is also possible that Obama is seen by Muslims as weak and ineffective, even untrustworthy given his failure to close Guantanamo Bay in spite of his vociferous promises to do so.
Furthermore, given that nothing substantive has changed in America's dealings with Iran or with Israel, Obama again looks ineffective to those who believed the hype about his providing new relations with the Middle East.
However, a recent news story should give Americans hope that the Muslim world may well have a new reason not to like President Obama. As a regular sentry regarding the threat that the Islamic worldview poses to the core Western values of freedom of religion and freedom of speech, I am grateful.
Tarek Hamdi seeks naturalization as an American citizen after having lived in the U.S. for several decades. He has raised his children and family here. Hamdi has worked as an attorney. And he has also donated money to the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), a group designated as a financier of terrorism by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2002. Significantly, Hamdi's application for citizenship has been denied.
Remarkably, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit demanding citizenship for Hamdi. They claim, alongside their client, that the federal government has discriminated against Hamdi because he is Muslim. Too bad. Our immigration and naturalization officials have done exactly what they are supposed to do – deny a place to those who aid and abet our Islamic terror enemies. Freedom does not include the right to commit treason. Sorry, Mr. Hamdi. Naturalized citizenship is a gift not a right. A privilege not a demand. Feed the monster that attacks us, and we will invite you to leave. We will not kill you; neither will we welcome you. Good-bye.
The time has long since come for America to take control of its naturalization process, given the recent terror arrests of naturalized citizens, like Faisal Shahzad and Mohammed Wali Zazi, who hail from Muslim lands. Whether Obama is aware or not, he can continue his decline in Muslim approval ratings by creating a few more of these stories like Tarek Hamdi. And America will be better off. The president might even inch up a point or two in his American approval ratings as word spreads that federal bureaucrats are beginning to take seriously whether it is appropriate to add to the Muslim presence in America.
So, for today, I salute President Obama for a job well done, whether he knows it or not. When the Muslim world ceases to love our president, that news is worth celebrating.