Obama Has Words Of Encouragement For CAIR (Updates)

Obama sure knows how to set the stage for his speech in Cairo tomorrow:

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” He sought to downplay the expectations of the speech, but he said he hoped the address would raise awareness about Muslims.

“Now, I think it’s very important to understand that one speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East,” Mr. Obama said. “And so I think expectations should be somewhat modest.”

His--or the Arab world's?

Either way, Roger L. Simon notes that Obama is exagerating just a bit:

I guess it depends on what your definition of “one of” is. According to Wikipedia, the US ranks thirty-eighth with a Muslim population of some 4.5 million (about one and half percent of our population). Indonesia is first at over two hundred and seven million.

I suppose that if I wanted to be a stickler, I could point out that the Muslim population of the US is even less than that:

We've been told for years that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, and that the size of the Muslim population here has swelled to 6 million to 7 million. A new study pops that myth.

The Pew Research Center just concluded an exhaustive scientific study of the size of the U.S. Muslim population. It was able to identify only 2.35 million Muslims — less than half the figure commonly cited by Muslim activists.

That would bring down the percentage to 3/4 of a percent, and drops out of the coveted 38th largest Muslim country spot. But even so, Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR is probably still delighted by Obama's encouraging words--in a April 4, 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune Hooper said he wants to see the United States become a Muslim country:

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

Imam Zaid Shakir, who teaches at San Francisco's Zaytuna Institute, will also be encouraged:

He said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law, "not by violent means, but by persuasion."

"Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country," he said. "I think it would help people, and if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it's helped a lot of people in my community."

But then again, Obama did say that expectations should be modest.

UPDATE: Amir Taheri notes that the date Obama has chosen to give his speech in Cairo has significance to Muslims for a number of reasons. One of them:

It coincides with the anniversary of the start of the first battle between Islam, under Prophet Muhammad, and Christendom in the shape of a Byzantine expeditionary force in AD629.

One of Obama's unique abilities is to bend over backwards while bowing forwards.

UPDATE II: Oops. According to Q and O, the number of Muslims is even less than what the Pew poll gives:

the CIA Factbook lists muslims at 0.6% or about 1.8 million

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