Thoreau's Relevance to America Today

One hundred and sixty-four years ago today, on May 6, 1862, Henry David Thoreau succumbed to tuberculosis and died at his family home in Concord, Massachusetts. He was 44.

Thoreau remains relevant today and will continue to be for future generations because of the timeless questions he posed and the solutions he offered for living a meaningful life. “Walden; or Life in the Woods” is the 1854 book he is best known for, but the work most applicable to our times during Donald Trump’s catastrophic presidency is his 1849 essay, “Civil Disobedience.”

Thoreau’s thesis was that citizens had a moral obligation to oppose their government’s unjust and inhumane policies, even if doing so required difficult sacrifices. That’s what nearly 100,000 ordinary Minnesotans did when they braved freezing temperatures in January in Minneapolis and risked their lives to protest the illegal detention and deportation of immigrants and the killings of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by heavily armed ICE agents.

By his example, Thoreau taught us to live by the courage of our convictions. Slavery was the evil of his time. The Civil War began in April 1861, thirteen months before his death. Thoreau was active in the Underground Railroad in Concord, helping enslaved people escape to Canada. “I do not hesitate to say,” wrote Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectively withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait until they constitute a majority …”

There may not be slavery in America today, but Trump’s reckless and imperial presidency is no less evil to our polarized country. The “No Kings Day” protests against Trump would have pleased Thoreau. In the most recent one held in March this year, an estimated 9 million Americans participated across all 50 U.S. states, making it one of the largest single-day mass demonstrations in American history.

I joined about 10,000 of my compatriots in San Jose, California, where one sign in a sea of signs summed up why we were protesting: “Democracy dies when good people stay silent.” As Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience: “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” His subliminal message to us was to hope and act but not to hope more than we acted.

Trump is destroying civilizational norms and ruining America with irreversible damage by his predatory “Might is Right” and “Law of the Jungle” policies at home and abroad. He has imposed tariffs as sanctions and punishments on our allies and has threatened to commit war crimes against countries that refuse his rapacious demands. He unleashed a war of choice against Iran that continues to batter the global economy. Ordinary Americans and people around the globe are struggling to meet basic needs amid skyrocketing food and energy prices, with no end in sight. Thoreau’s call to action is as potent now as when he made it almost two centuries ago: “All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.”

On July 4, 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary, the semiquincentennial, of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “The American government,” wrote Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “-what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity?”

Under Trump, America has been hemorrhaging integrity, dignity, decency and empathy at a horrific rate. It is our duty to stop this hemorrhage and restore America’s moral weight. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this is to vote for candidates in the consequential November midterm election at the House, Senate, state, and local levels who put country and Constitution above loyalty to a demagogue.

"No Kings Day" in San Jose, California, Saturday, 28 March, 2026

Five months ago, on Saturday, October 18, 2025, we gathered in downtown San Jose, over 10,000 young and old, women and men, veterans in wheelchairs and toddlers in strollers, to participate in the ”No Kings Day” protest march, as part of marches that were taking place throughout America.

Today, Saturday, March 28, 2026, we were back in downtown San Jose, again as part of 3,300 rallies in all 50 States across America. The war of choice Trump unleashed against Iran a month ago, in collusion with Israel, added more urgency to these rallies against the reckless demagogue in the White House.

As soon as my wife and I reached St. James Park, the venue of the event, the organizers informed us that this was a non-violent event, that under no circumstances were we to argue or debate with any agitators, shout or heckle, gesture or smirk, or block and follow them. Instead, we were advised to move away calmly and, if things got out of control, to find a peace ambassador or “yellow vest.” An available resource to de-escalate is
https://www.gandhiteam.org/.

We saw no agitators. 

From noon until 2 PM, St. James Park was loud with our united voices demanding an end to Trump’s tyranny and the unconstitutional and illegitimate war he launched against Iran that has already caused widespread death and destruction, including the deaths of several American soldiers. Gas and food prices have gone through the roof, bringing immense pain and suffering to Americans and to people worldwide.

Perhaps the most moving moment for me came when Democrat Ro Khanna, the Congressman for California's 17th Congressional District since 2017, representing Silicon Valley and cities that include Santa Clara, Cupertino and parts of San Jose, and the prime mover behind releasing the infamous Epstein files, addressed the gathering: “My grandfather was imprisoned for 4 years when he protested against the British King for India’s independence from British colonial rule in the 1940s in India. Today, I, his proud grandson and a proud American, am joining you against a demagogue pretending to be America’s King. There is no king in America and we the people must see to it that there is never any king in America.”

San Jose is what America looks like, said a veteran to thunderous applause. Protesting peacefully is one of the most patriotic things we can do, said another, again drawing vigorous agreement from the gathering. 

We walked along several streets before returning to St. James Park, passing in front of City Hall, and everywhere, motorists honked loudly and continuously in support.

The protest signs told the story of what these marches and rallies were all about. It is easy to feel despondent about how Trump is destroying democracy in America and wreaking havoc in the world, but participating in these marches fills us with hope and courage. We viscerally understand that we are not alone in this fight, that together we can defeat Trump and Trumpism and restore the values on which America was founded.

One of the most inspiring protest signs I saw at the San Jose rally: "They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds." But the seed must grow into a towering tree of defiance and power until the last trace of Trump and his sycophants are gone.

The sign says "Stop the US-Israel war on Iran." But it doesn't stop there. Beneath it says: "No to Islamic Republic." The theocratic Iranian regime has been killing dissenting Iranians with impunity. But will liberation by US and Israel bring peace to Iran and the Middle East? Unlikely.

Indeed, but we the people cannot let up until Trump and his enablers are removed from power. The existential question is: Can America survive another three years of Trump, with the current Iran War costing billions and inflicting terrible sufferings on humanity?

 

Top 5 Reasons to Vote in the 2022 Midterm Elections

1.   Voting is not just a right and a responsibility but also an opportunity for thanksgiving. Think of Russia, China, Iran, most Middle Eastern countries and other repressive countries where voting is either non-existent or a cruel joke with pre-determined outcomes. Yes, we have our own problems - gerrymandering, arcane laws (popular vote versus electoral college), suffrage suppression for the marginalized, bankrolling of candidates by moneyed interests, unchecked corporate power - but these are insignificant compared to countries where the “will of the people” is an oxymoron and where citizens languish or die in prison for daring to dream of democracy. We vote not only to decide the kind of government we want at all levels but also to express our gratitude for living in a free and pluralistic country, however flawed.

2 2. Casting the ballot makes a difference. Some say our votes will not make a dent in the status quo, so why bother? Of all the reasons cited for not voting, this one is the most damaging. Unless we make our multitudinous voices heard through the ballot, how can we expect the changes we want? If this is not persuasive enough, consider this: The simple yet profound act of voting can change the voter. The first step to changing a country, or even the world, is to change ourselves.

33. Honor the 26th amendment. We get into passionate arguments about the 2^nd Amendment for its implications on gun control but we rarely talk about the 26^th Amendment, ratified in July 1971, that gives Americans 18 years or older the right to vote. So, if you fall in this category or call yourself Gen Z, Gen X, Millennial, baby boomer, octogenarian, or centenarian, vote! While we are at it, why not shoot for the stars? In the 2020 presidential election, 67% of eligible voters - about 160 million Americans - voted, the most in our history. But that also meant that 80 million Americans million did not vote. In this midterm let’s set a record: 80% or 200 million.

44. Transcend political affiliations by voting for values and principles. If your values and principles coincide with your affiliations, you are among the lucky ones. For most of us, however, putting principles over politics and pocketbooks can be gut-wrenching. Yet this is what we must do if it serves the common good of the country. Be an informed voter by studying where the candidates stand and the pros and cons of propositions. Don’t fall for the flashy flyer, social media sensationalism or pre-election polls. Voting is an obligation that requires us to be knowledgeable about who and what we vote for or against, and how it aligns with our deepest beliefs. Read voter information guides and unbiased reports on the Internet. Informed voters put acumen over anger and facts over fear.

5 5. A consequential election. It is in human nature to think that our times are the most pivotal in history. Still, it is no exaggeration to say that the results of the 2022 midterm election will define the direction of our country for the foreseeable future, in particular, whether democracy will flourish or be on life-support. With our ballots, we can decide whether we will have freedom of choice, whether everyone will be equal under the law, whether candidates will speak truth to power or are too beholden to demagogues and lobbies to be not just useless but dangerous.

By voting as informed citizens we can ensure a bright future for our nation. Vote, so that through the fog of deception, despair and denial, the sound of democracy comes through loud and clear.

Ramadan in a World Gone Crazy

You can also read the article here.

Evergreen Islamic Center, San Jose, CA

Today, Saturday, May 27, 2017, is the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, one of the five pillars of Islam. For Muslims in the Northern Hemisphere, the 30-day period is marked by anywhere from 14 to 16 hours of fasting, during which the throat gets parched and the stomach complains as adherents seek to strengthen their acquaintance with the Divine. 

Because the Islamic calendar, like the Jewish calendar, is based on lunar months, Ramadan advances through the seasons by about 11 days every year. So while Muslims in places like Australia will fast several hours less than us, we will switch times in years to come.

For the more than 3 million Muslims in America, Ramadan this year will be different in one particular way: We will be thinking more deeply about the fate of our country and its direction.

During the presidential campaign, then candidate Trump made no bones about maligning Islam and Muslims. “We have a problem in this country; it’s called Muslims,” he said at a 2015 town hall in New Hampshire. “I think Islam hates us,” he said at another time to the media.

He repeatedly promised to close mosques and create a Muslim registry in America if elected. Within a week of becoming president, he signed an executive order blocking Syrian refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, orders that, for now, remain blocked by the judiciary.

Given the history of his inflammatory rhetoric, I was curious to hear what Trump would say in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and the first stop of an overseas tour that also took the president to Israel and the Vatican.

In a speech to more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations and their leaders, Trump asked Muslims to “purge the foot soldiers of evil” from their societies. “This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations,” he observed. “This is a battle between Good and Evil … We are not here to lecture. We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values.”

This was in the spirit of Ramadan, I thought. I nodded in agreement (because that’s what Muslims like me have been saying all along).

But, then, action speaks louder than words! This is what Trump said in a meeting with the Emir of Qatar before the speech: "One of the things we will discuss is the purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment because nobody makes it like the United States."

During his stay, Saudi Arabia reportedly signed an agreement to buy “beautiful” American arms worth $110 billion, arms that is likely go toward the civil war in Yemen, a conflict that has yielded untold suffering and allegations of potential war crimes that could ensnare the United States alongside Riyadh. It also threatens to deepen the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, between Sunni and Shia, making the Middle East even more volatile.

Bu violence has already erupted. A British Muslim of Libyan descent blew himself up with the sole intention of killing children at a concert in Manchester, killing 22 people, including an eight-year-old. In Egypt, extremist Muslim militants forced Coptic Christian pilgrims from a caravan of buses and killed 28. And in Portland, Oregon, a few hours before Ramadan was to commence, a white supremacist ranting against two Muslim women wearing Hijab on a public bus attacked three good Samaritans who came to their defense, and killed two of them.

It doesn’t look good! The sanctity of Ramadan, for Muslims a month of reflection, charity, restraint, self-discipline and compassion, is threatened by extremists everywhere.

Muslims are required to abstain not only from food and drink in this month but also from such vices as anger, impatience, or arrogance. The food part is relatively easy; it is the cleansing of the heart that is harder, particularly in these troubled times.

And while there is no estimate of what percentage of Muslim adults fasts - because fasting is considered a personal pledge between a believer and God – what is undeniable is that mosque attendance goes up dramatically during Ramadan, its social aspect most evident at ‘Iftar’ (Arabic for ‘breaking the fast’) just after sunset.

At San Jose’s Evergreen Islamic Center, we invite neighbors, co-workers, local politicians, police officers and anyone curious about our faith, to our weekend Iftars. Polls show that most Americans who harbor negative opinions about Muslims have never met one. If people can break bread together, we expect hate and enmity to recede. And it indeed does, based on what we have experienced, despite the occasional hate mail and taunts of “go back home.”

Many of the employers I have encountered, moreover, are aware of the demands Ramadan makes on believers and are sensitive to the needs of their Muslim employees. By the time we complete the special nightly prayers of Ramadan called ‘Taraweeh’, for instance, it is often past midnight. That means that many of us have to do with no more than 4-5 hours of sleep per night during workdays. If you find your Muslim colleagues sleepy or slow during working hours in Ramadan, you will perhaps know why.

Indeed, I have found nothing but empathy from colleagues and co-workers. When I worked in the tech industry, my co-workers avoided eating in my presence and gave me space to offer my afternoon prayers. It’s the same in the college where I now teach, where students sometimes ask me to slow down and conserve my energy while I am trying to explain a difficult concept in, say, algebra.

Ramadan is the believer’s gateway to the ineffable and the transcendent, when Muslims make an effort to pay more attention to the little things around us (which often turn out to be the big things), smile from the heart at friends and strangers, make more charitable donations.

So I find myself focusing this year on Ramadan’s message of hope, its rejection of despair, and the generosity of the average American. What keeps me awake is knowing where violence may erupt and who will fall victim to the nihilism of psychopaths. We will pray and be alert, to the extent that it is possible, so that no one who claims to be a Muslim can give Ramadan a black eye by engaging in violence and killing innocents.

"Argo": A Thriller with a Perspective

“Argo” is a thriller worthy of the best of John le Carre. The only difference is that this movie is based not on fiction but on facts, with some liberties taken here and there to keep the story taut.

On November 4, 1979, six Americans escaped from the U.S. embassy in Tehran through a back door when loyalists of Ayatollah Khomeini overran it. Iranians were angry at the American government for refusing to hand over the Shah, who had been allowed into the country by the Carter administration for medical treatment.

The Americans found shelter in the residence of Ken Taylor, Canada’s Ambassador to Iran. While the U.S. and world attention was focused on the 52 hostages from the embassy, the CIA and the State Department began working on a plan to fly the six diplomats out of Iran. The plan they hatched was as improbable as any Hollywood production.

In fact, the plan, proposed by CIA’s disguise and exfiltration expert Tony Mendes, did involve a fake movie-production company in Hollywood called “Studio Six Productions.”
Mendez came up with a cover story for the six Americans: They were actors scouting locations in the Middle East for filming a science-fiction flick called “Argo,” (a Middle-Eastern “Star Wars” in which the fearless and flying locals try to free their homeland from foreign tyrants), with Iran as one of the potential sites.

When Mendez explained his plan to the top brass at the State Department and the CIA, they weren’t sure whether to laugh or cry at its utter absurdity. But Mendez, played superbly and with understated sensibility by actor-director Ben Affleck, convinced them that “this is the best bad idea we have.”

The Operation was a go.

Once “producer” Mendez lands at the Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, things become unpredictable even by Hollywood standards. One of the six Americans rejects his plan outright. Revolutionary guards track his every move. In an ancient bazaar the day before the escape, he and his group of six almost get beaten up.

But the real zinger comes when, at the last moment, the CIA informs Mendez that he must abort his plan. A military operation to rescue all the 58 hostages is in the works by the Carter administration. The Hollywood caper must cease immediately.

I will not spoil the movie by telling you what ensues, other than to say that the truth turns out to be not only stranger than fiction but a good deal more exciting. The movie draws you in as it alternates between street scenes in Tehran where young revolutionaries denounce the United States and kill Iranians suspected of treachery, the claustrophobic confinement of the Americans and the tension at the State Department and the CIA. The final chase scene sets the pulse racing and the heart pounding. Two aging Hollywood honchos, played brilliantly by Alan Arkin and John Goodman, oversee the logistics from the Hollywood end and provide comic relief. (Lamenting the seeming futility of American efforts, one remarks to the other, “John Wayne has been in the ground six months and this is what’s left of America!”)

“Argo” impresses because of the way Affleck handles the explosive hostage issue in the context of history. In 1950, Iranians democratically elected Mohammed Mosaddeq as their Prime Minister. One of the first things Mosaddeq did was to nationalize Iran’s oil companies to benefit ordinary Iranians. In 1953, however, he was overthrown in a CIA-engineered coup, followed by the installation of the Reza Shah Pahlavi as Iran’s absolute monarch.

Until his fall in 1979, the Shah ruled Iran with an iron hand. Savak, the secret organization he built to enforce his will, became synonymous with murderous savagery. In 23 years, SAVAK summarily executed thousands of Iranian men and women to keep any insurgency under control. Meanwhile, the Shah continued to enjoy unconditional support from successive U.S. governments.

When Ayatollah Khomeini assumed supreme power in 1979, he unleashed his own brand of terror. Vengeance, in the form of beheadings, hanging and torture, became the order of the day. A severe austerity descended on the nation and Iranians were left wondering if a middle path would ever be in their destiny.

Director Affleck does not ignore the historical context for the intense animosity Iranians felt toward America. As Argo’s screenwriter Chris Terrio aptly put it, “What I hope people come away with is the complexity of what happened, the fact that there is no antagonist here. On all sides of this, there were people trying to do the right thing.”

Iran is again in the news now, 33 years after the hostage crisis. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Citing the “mortal danger” posed by a nuclear-armed Iran, Israel under Bibi Netanyahu has been hell-bent on launching a unilateral, preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Only the stern opposition by the Obama administration and top U.S. military leaders have kept the intransigent Israeli leader under control.

The middle path for Iran and its leaders seem as elusive as ever, in spite of what history has taught the nation in the past three decades. The Republican Party, particularly in light of the bellicose statements from Mitt Romney vis-à-vis Iran, appears equally impervious to history’s lessons.

President Obama has said that “the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” But what he has also said is that sanctions are already taking a terrible toll on Iran and that its leaders cannot ignore its effects for long. Nuclear experts have confirmed that Iran is nowhere near building a nuclear arsenal, despite the bluster of its leaders, and that diplomacy, backed by sanctions, remains the best option for containing Iran’s nuclear ambition.

America cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of its past in Iran, no matter how much goading it has to withstand from Israel. If “Argo” can communicate this message, however subliminally, it will have served a far more ambitious goal than keeping viewers entertained and enthralled.

The Revolution Spreads

Egypt-inspired protests against authoritarian regimes are spreading across the Middle East. In Iran, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen, young activists have also broken free of the shackles of fear and are challenging the legitimacy of their governments. Few have already fallen, particularly in Bahrain; more will die in the coming days. But the fight for freedom will continue, even though there will be inevitable setbacks.

In Egypt, after the heady days of Tahrir Square, the more difficult task of moving toward an open society has fractured the united front of young Egyptians. But this is the norm, not the exception. Post-revolutionary success is always followed by missteps and in-fighting. People and parties will stumble and fall but in the end, they will reach their democratic goals in the context of their culture.

Iranian leaders have vowed to crush the protesters, that is, kill them ruthlessly, to retain their stranglehold on power. It is amazing how tyrants across the world and across time remain the same. It is even more amazing the certainty with which they fall, as if they never existed.

A renaissance is coming to the Muslim world and no force can stop it. A flowering of science, astronomy, medicine and literature is long overdue from a people who led the world in these fields from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. Much blood may flow before it happens but happen it will.

The Second Iranian Revolution

Revolutions occur infrequently, which is why the second Iranian revolution that followed the first by a mere thirty years has stirred so much emotions around the world. In 1979 the Shah was toppled and the fiery Ayatollah Khomeini gained power. But his legacy has been a rigid theocracy that has gradually choked off the aspirations of Iranians. Why is it that people in power never learn from history? Why must they always oscillate between two extremes, between "anything goes" and "nothing goes" views, particularly in Muslim countries?

The current revolution is being waged by the children of the first. A flawed election may have started it but now it has turned into an existential battle between those who seek freedom and those determined to deny it. Iranians are sick of the status quo, of theocrats and their lackeys with no experience in statecraft, abusing religion to keep the masses under control. Young Iranians and old have concluded that with the current regime, there’s not to reason why, there’s but to do and die. The Revolutionary Guard may seize power and install a military government but that will not last. The people have risen and they will be satisfied with nothing less than a complete transformation of government. Their twitters are being heard round the world. They have learned from Barack Obama that change is not only possible but inevitable. The grim reality, however, is that this change will come only after a river of blood has flown through the streets of Tehran.

Reaching Out to the Muslim World

President Barack Obama followed up the promise he made in his inaugural address - “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect” - with an interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on January 26. The interview is significant not just for its content but also for the fact that it is the first interview he granted since taking office.

In the interview, the president said, “… my job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives. My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect. But if you look at the track record … America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that. And that I think is going to be an important task.”

In case anyone has any illusion about the enormity of the task, the president also said, “But ultimately, people are going to judge me not by my words but by my actions and my administration's actions. And I think that what you will see over the next several years is that I'm not going to agree with everything that some Muslim leader may say, or what's on a television station in the Arab world - but I think that what you'll see is somebody who is listening, who is respectful, and who is trying to promote the interests not just of the United States, but also ordinary people who right now are suffering from poverty and a lack of opportunity. I want to make sure that I'm speaking to them, as well.”

Since 9/11, we have become acutely aware of the critical role language plays in inflaming passions. Recognizing that, Obama said, “… the language we use matters. What we need to understand is, is that there are extremist organizations - whether Muslim or any other faith in the past - that will use faith as a justification for violence. We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence that is done in that faith's name. And so you will I think see our administration be very clear in distinguishing between organizations like al Qaeda - that espouse violence, espouse terror and act on it - and people who may disagree with my administration and certain actions, or may have a particular viewpoint in terms of how their countries should develop. We can have legitimate disagreements but still be respectful. I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians and we will hunt them down. But to the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship.”

On Iran: “I said during the campaign that it is very important for us to make sure that we are using all the tools of U.S. power, including diplomacy, in our relationship with Iran. Now, the Iranian people are a great people, and Persian civilization is a great civilization. Iran has acted in ways that's not conducive to peace and prosperity in the region: their threats against Israel; their pursuit of a nuclear weapon which could potentially set off an arms race in the region that would make everybody less safe; their support of terrorist organizations in the past - none of these things have been helpful. But I do think that it is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress. And we will over the next several months be laying out our general framework and approach. And as I said during my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us.”

This radical departure from the policies of the Bush administration - with-us-or-against-us Manichean view replaced with respect and inclusiveness - fills many of us with hope. Perhaps someday peace will reign between Palestinians and Israel and the world will rejoice in a two-state solution. Can hope triumph over history? Only a few weeks ago, such a possibility could not be imagined. Now the words have been spoken and who can say that they will not take wings on their own?

Not that everyone is thrilled. Many right-wingers are aghast that the president has a) given his first interview to an Arab news channel and b) he is reaching out to Muslims so early and so decisively in his presidency. Not continuing Bush’s belligerent attitude toward Iran has outraged them. Others think he is being naïve, that he is undermining the security of America by essentially declaring that the "war on terror" is over.

The predictable Fouad Ajami, writing in The Wall Street Journal, summed up his analysis of the president’s message to Muslims with these words: “Obama Tells Arabia’s Despots they’re safe.” This is a man who never fails to see a dark lining in a silver cloud.

In the president’s inaugural address are words that describe these people perfectly: “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

Meanwhile, our hope has soared on the wings of the president’s promise to Muslims: America will respect those who may hold different views or who are disappointed by past American actions. Only those who use terror and violence to achieve their goals will be targeted by America. What a difference a cosmopolitan president can make!