Perhaps the most telling moment so far of President Obama’s
overseas trip to Southeastern Asia occurred while he was addressing
students at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, India. During a
question and answer period which followed the President’s remarks,
a female student asked Obama’s views about jihad. Here is a portion
of the President Obama’s
reply to that question:
Well, the phrase jihad has a lot of meanings within Islam and is
subject to a lot of different interpretations. But I will say that,
first, Islam is one of the world’s great religions. And more than a
billion people who practice Islam, the overwhelming majority view
their obligations to their religion as ones that reaffirm peace and
justice and fairness and tolerance. I think all of us recognize
that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been
distorted to justify violence towards innocent people that is never
justified.
And so I think one of the challenges that we face is how
do we isolate those who have these distorted notions of religious
war and reaffirm those who see faiths of all sorts — whether you
are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew or any other
religion, or your don’t practice a religion — that we can all
treat each other with respect and mutual dignity, and that some of
the universal principles that Gandhi referred to — that those are
what we’re living up to, as we live in a nation or nations that
have very diverse religious beliefs.
If one is to accept President Obama’s argument that jihad
“has a lot of meanings within Islam and is subject to different
interpretations,” then one must wonder what Obama thinks about its
meaning and interpretation in certain parts of Indonesia. After
all, Obama did spend four years of his childhood in the Indonesian
capital of Jakarta. As a presidential candidate, Obama made the
argument that his time in Indonesia rendered him more qualified
on questions of foreign policy than either Hillary Rodham Clinton
or John McCain. Based on those formative experiences, it would not
be unreasonable then to conclude that the President maintains a
keen interest in Indonesia’s state of affairs and is aware of
ongoing developments there.
So as President Obama proceeds to the country he once
called home for the next leg of his South Asian tour, one wonders
if anyone will ask him what he thinks of that meaning and
interpretation of jihad which sanctions death by stoning against
those who commit adultery. To be precise, will anyone ask him his
views of the stoning law that was
unanimously passed in the Indonesian province of Aceh in September
2009? Some of the
other sanctions covered under the law in Aceh are public caning
for activities such as non-marital sex, drinking, and gambling.
Anyone caught engaging in homosexual behavior is
also subject not only to caning but a minimum of eight years in
prison.
Aceh’s harsh sanctions against homosexuality are
noteworthy when one considers what President Obama had to say about
Uganda’s proposed anti-homosexual laws. Last February, while
addressing the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., the
President called the East African nation’s plans against
homosexuals (which does include a death penalty provision)
“odious.”
As of this writing, however, the Ugandan legislation
has not been enacted although it is believed the law will
eventually pass.
However, the sanctions against homosexuality are the law
of the land in Aceh. So too is the death penalty for adultery. Yet
at present President Obama has volunteered no public comment and in
the absence of any public comment it is only fair to ask President
Obama if he also find the laws of Aceh to be “odious.” Or does the
President hold Muslim countries and Christian countries to
different standards? Does President Obama believe the legislators
in Aceh engaged in extremism? Or does the President believe they
are just fulfilling their obligation to their religion? Does
President Obama think the Gandhian universal principles of respect
and mutual dignity apply in Aceh? Or is Aceh one of those places
where the President says it is not for him to meddle?
Or put another way, will President Obama leave Indonesia
no stone unturned?
