1. President Obama referred to the Islamic contribution to “our (i.e. Western) mastery of pens and printing.”
This is completely false. Pen and ink as we know them existed before the delivery of Qur’an,and,for reasons open to debate,the progress of letterpress printing was delayed in the Islamic countries. These are simple facts of history. There is no point in embellishing history by denying them.
- Obama waves to worshipers in Cairo
2. President Obama suggested that Indonesia,where he lived as a child,was a country that gained independence through “peaceful and determined”action.
It is unfortunate that the world,including most Muslims,has forgotten that Indonesia was born in a revolutionary struggle that extended from 1945 to 1949. It is even worse that this fact is unknown to someone who lived in that country and who cites the ill effects of colonialism.
3. President Obama referred,under the rhetoric of Islamic tolerance,to “the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition.”
First,Cordoba is located in Andalusia,and is not separate from it.
Second,there was no “tolerance”by Muslims during the Spanish National Inquisition,in which Muslims and Jews were subjected to broken promises and brutal persecution as victims of intolerance.
This appears as yet another jarring example of a gaffe by the president,involving a widely-known chapter in history. The situation of the three religions in Spain from 711 CE to the mid-17th century,when the last open Muslim believers were driven out of Spain,is a serious and demanding topic that does not lend itself to improvisation.