The enigma of Obama

Discussions on several aspects of Barack Obama’s election continue — his racial background as well as his statements. According to the Delhi-based Hindustan Express, a well-known Iranian columnist, Aamer Taheri, has unearthed a “prophecy” by one of the earliest Islamic leaders that apparently says: as the world nears its end the commander of the most powerful army of the world would be a tall black person whose name would have “a clear sign of Hussein”. Dwelling on this and some other observations on Obama’s personality and his views, the editor of the paper, Ahmad Jawed writes: “When the philosophy of clash of civilizations was being propagated all over the world, a fitting reply to this misleading viewpoint and the poisonous thinking was being prepared by higher powers (qudrat ke karkhane mein). And that reply is the personality of Barack Hussein Obama himself in which several different civilisations are breathing simultaneously.”

Rashtriya Sahara, in an editorial (Nov. 7), described Obama’s victory as “bad news for Pakistan,” mainly because of his plan of attack on Al-Qaeda and Taliban camps in Pakistan. Delhi-based daily Milap (Nov. 9) worries: “As it appears, India will not get the importance that it got from the presidentship of George W. Bush by signing the nuclear deal.” Hyderabad-based Rahnuma-e-Deccan on November 7 has no illusions on life after Bush. The paper writes; “ There are many issues on which a majority of countries have a differences with the US. Obama’s viewpoint on these, is harder and more extremist than that of Bush and he is no friend of the Palestinian cause.” The paper says it is foolhardy to expect “Jewish domination of US state policy” to change with Obama.

... contd.