Should a Muslim Be Put in Charge of Public Diplomacy?

Reader Comments
Back to blog

I see absolutely no reason why someone's faith, or lack thereof, should be any sort of issue regarding this, or any other post. So long as an individual can separate his/her church from state, then to suggest a particular faith is good, and others are bad, for this, or any other post, would be ridiculous, as well as prejudiced and discriminatory.

Ynot 1:15PM April 13, 2009

The world is not just the Moslem world. The PD Undersecretary has to deal with Latin America, East Asia, Russia, etc. A Moslem who is capable of doing that is fine. To choose a Moslem, however, for no other reason than because they are Moslem on the theory that the Moslem world is all that matters is a terrible idea.

mlp of DC 12:29PM April 13, 2009

Jurisdictionary it is very impediment to even consider this at the first instance, why would the president of America who invariably is the president of the world ever consider such an abomination in his imaginary, we really have to speak sence to our dear president. All that cliters is not gold, this guys are mean and callous, they don't care about us, we are like cattles before this guys.

Chiemeka Sil Okoye. of TX 1:17PM April 12, 2009

When the Islamic countries allow freedom for Christians to live and work in peace, when they allow Christians to share their religion, when they stop calling for Jihad and teaching their children to hate and kill the infidel (all those of us who are not Muslim) then and only then can we begin to have real dialog with them. If we even heard the Imams of Europe and America decry the violence and preaching peaceful coexistence, then we might be more willing to dialog with them.
Like many, these people can be great hosts and have done many great things in this world, but so has the Mafia if you come right down to it. Be very careful before giving Muslims any power in the free world. It could very well be a disaster.

Robin Cleareyes 8:58AM April 12, 2009

An absolutely ridiculous suggestion. The FBI, Defense, CIA and others have engaged in outreach to Muslims for years, and it's all come to naught. We've had cases of Muslim translators who deliberately corrupted their work (some of whom reportedly cheered on 9/11); Muslim FBI agents who refuse to investigate other Muslims; Muslims soldiers who kill their "infidel" colleagues; Muslim intelligence officers who pass information onto Hizullah-linked relations; Muslim advisers in Defense who don't want our military to truly understand what Islam says about war. These are just the cases I know about.
Like good dhimmis, we've bent over backwards to them. We now have a President who seems only too willing to "submit". Enough of this nonsense. The US would be better advised to turn to ex-Muslims, or non-Muslim immigrants from Muslim lands, who can better appreciate the freedoms the US has provided them, to tell our leadership what we're dealing with.
And taking advice from Muslim Brotherhood affiliated groups or Saudi sponsored groups would be the worst thing we could do. They don't have our best interests at heart.

rnathans00 of DC 9:21PM April 11, 2009

The job of Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy is to achieve America's foreign policy objectives through "smart power." (The military do the "hard" power.) Being smart about our foreign policy means being smart about foreign publics. We need to understand them, and then find ways to work together with them, or even around them if necessary -- to achieve America's objectives. The Under Secretary is part of the President's top foreign policy team, and the nominee's religion is beside the point.

Vestniek of VA 7:59PM April 11, 2009

What an awful suggestion. There should be no religious litmus test for appointment to the critically important position of UnderSecretary for Public Diplomacy. USA prestige throughout the world is at rock-bottom thanks to the bungling of two successive administrations. This office desperately needs a person of intelligence, organizational ability, knowledge of foreign policy and HISTORY, preferably with language skills and experience in communications. However, keeping historical precedents in mind, we may again get: 1) a deep-pockets campaign contributor 2) a person with all the the right connections 3) someone who coveted an ambassadorship & has to settle for second-best 4) an ego the size of the Goodyear blimp. The same candidate description applies to applicants for the Broadcasting Board of Governors whose members have driven U.S. international broadcasting into a ravine while bubble-wrapped in their individual delusions. Ah, well, we can still have the audacity of hope, now can't we?

liberti of MD 6:55PM April 11, 2009

Life they say is a teacher, but lets look at life from the perception of a lay man, muslim and us is a very big issue to deliberate on, i have lived with muslim for couple of years well my immediate experience has not really been good but i have to live with the fact that they are still human like us, in every religion there are extremist, but the muslim extremist is more dedicated than others.

Jerry Chidi of TX 2:13PM April 11, 2009

It's funny...
I wasn't able to determine what to think about "the" Muslim. Meanwhile I saw/heard a lot of bad descriptions about "the" Muslim on TV and among "original" inhabitants of my country, the Netherlands. About 10% of the people over here are Muslim b.t.w. Countless times did I hear "Muslims are bad because this (or that)" but for some reason I hardly saw this personally in my neighborhood where quite a number of Muslims live.
Wondering what was true... I decided not to listen to stories anymore but to investigate it in a completely different way. I've lived among Muslims (and other groups) for 44 years, I'm not a Muslim, so I should have had some bad experiences in those 44 years when all I heard was true. So I decided to count the ones I had personally and... came to _one_ single incident in 44 years that was solved 4 hours later.
Of course, this just tells us something about my relation with Muslims and not... about all Muslims. After my little experiment I've started asking people who complain a lot about Muslims the same question and for some reason most of 'm started telling stories about what they heard on the news or "know" from others. Apparently they also hardly had much _personal_ problems, fear is their greatest enemy...
You'll never hear me saying every Muslim is perfect (haven't seen any group that was totally perfect b.t.w.), but... about 1 billion people on this little ball are Muslim and if the majority didn't respect life we should have seen far worse problems IMO.
Personally I'd very much like to see more Muslims on important positions it's (like always) time to take all parties serious.

Bart 8:22AM April 11, 2009

All you have to do is open a couple of history books, and read about Spain and the Crusades. It took the native Spanish hundreds of years, but they finally tossed the invading Moors from Africa out! The Crusaders, many of whom lost their fortunes and lives in the Holy Land went there to free it from the invading Muslims! Oops, what a shame that history isn't PC...Islam is a violent, archaic, woman-hating religion that is trying to take over the world. Buy and READ the Koran, and you will understand that their insanity isn't just limited to the Jews and Christians, but to ALL non-Islamic countries. European socialist paradises have been rocked by Muslim violence from the very people that they so compassionately took in over the last 30 years or so. Wake Up America, these people's religion has made itself our enemy, and it will not go away.

ChristmasTree of NY 9:26PM April 10, 2009