Obama failed to deliver on promises to Arabs and Muslims
President Barack Obama grew up politically in an environment that included many prominent Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims before rising to national politics and becoming president. His background having a father who was raised Muslim (who later converted to Anglicanism and later became an atheist) sensitized him to the plight of the Palestinian people and to the challenges against Arabs and Muslims in America. But despite all that, Obama has been in effective in championing their causes and has abandoned them to the wayside
Published in the Arab News in Saudi Arabia, Nov. 3, 2016
By Ray Hanania
When it comes to the issues of peace, justice and human rights in the Middle East, President Barack Obama is an enigma.
No other president has promised more to Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians and achieved so little.
It’s an important lesson for Arabs in American politics. It’s not what it claims to be.
I’m not just talking about any president. I’ve covered American politics for more than 40 years. Obama has had more personal and professional exposure to the rights of Arabs and Palestinians than any other successful American politician.
Obama matured in close proximity to prominent Arab and Palestinian activists in Chicago, which has one of the country’s largest Palestinian populations.
Nearly one-third of Americans believe Obama is a “Muslim.”
As a result, none of Obama’s friends or foes were really surprised by his June 4, 2009 “Cairo Speech,” a benchmark in any analysis of his record on the Middle East that he defined.
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Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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