Obama delivered a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world on Friday. Mitt Romney jumped on the Fox News bandwagon and called it the latest stop in Obama’s “apology tour”. I guess Mitt didn’t really watch the speech, but instead decided to parrot out the right wing talking points. Or perhaps he was watching the speech through shit-stained glasses. I don’t know.

The fact is the speech was not apologetic. It was honest. He spoke frankly about the stereotypes that divide us and the common principles we share. He acknowledged the stereotypes we have about the Muslim world, and the stereotypes the Muslim world has about us. The message was not directed at Al Qaeda or terrorists, but to moderates in the Muslim world. It was the beginning of the dialogue that has been sorely lacking.

I guess to some, the speech would be jarring considering that our last president neatly packaged foreign states as “against us” or “with us”. Those who were “against us” did not deserve to be heard by us. I understand, the tactic Obama is taking is huge departure from what has been done in the past and it could be uncomfortable.

The substance of the speech was to explain to Muslims the ideals which America stands for and the reasons that extremism should not be accepted in their countries. After listening to the speech in its entirety, I was very proud of his performance.

But Sean Hannity of Fox News had a different take, he said:

While much of America was asleep this morning, President Barack Obama delivered a major address in Egypt that was billed as a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world. But in the end, the president decided to use his time on foreign soil to point the finger directly at America for many of the world’s problems. And he faulted the U.S. for the tension that exists between Americans and Muslims. And that is our headline tonight: “Blaming America First.”

Now, in his remarks, Mr. Obama refused to use these words: “terror,” “terrorism,” “terrorists,” or even that term “manmade disasters.” But he repeatedly quoted the Quran and even accused Americans of overreacting to the 9-11 terror attacks.

His reporting of the speech is patently false and irresponsible. Not once did he blame America for the world’s problems, but he did characterize the Iraq ware as a “war of choice”, which it was. He did not lay blame on either party for the tensions that exist between Americans and Muslims, but he did acknowledge they exist. While he did quote the Quran, he also quoted the Bible and the Torah to illustrate how their teachings share the same fundamental ideals. Hannity’s characterization of the president’s remarks on 9/11 is twisted and just wrong. In fact, what Obama said about 9/11 was:

I’m aware that there’s still some who would question or even justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.

There were no apologies, none at all. I’m proud of our president: Barack Hussein Obama. And I have no apologies, none at all.

The US Constitution was ratified by the 13 states in 1789. Realizing the original Constitution failed to protect individual liberties, the Bill of Rights, or the first ten Amendments, were introduced to Congress in the same year, and came into effect on December 15, 1791. The first Amendment, as Thomas Jefferson described it, built a “wall of separation between Church and State” (Letter to the Danbury Baptists, 1802).

Even so, many fundamental Christians feel that the United States is a Christian nation and prayer should be mandated in public schools; creationism should be taught to children; and the 10 commandments should adorn public buildings. And they have taken over the Republican Party. That gives the Fundamentalist power to pursue their agenda: to rid the country of secularism.

We only need to look at the legislation passed in previous eight last years to know that this is true. George Bush won the war on the very unbiblical taxes by cutting taxes on the wealthy, which passed in the House at 1:56 am on a Friday in May, under the cloak of darkness. Those proponents of the flat tax—they are proponents of the Biblical tax, the only tax mentioned in the Bible. To fundamentalists, the free market rewards good Christian behavior and punishes the unrepentant. And so the Republicans did their bidding and cut regulations on corporations. Then of course, George Bush’s abstinence only sex education program, where lots of government funds were given to faith-based programs. Also there were multiple calls for an Amendment to the Constitution making marriage only between “one man and one woman”, to keep the Biblical definition of marriage law of the land.

The past eight years clearly chipped away at the wall between church and state. Even for the most devout Christian, this should be alarming. We only need to look at theocracies like Iran and Afghanistan under Taliban rule to see what we could become. The most literal interpretations of our Bible would put our society backwards 2000 years. Women, Jews, gays, Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists would all become second class citizens. Science would not have the place it does in our society today. We must remember that this country was founded by men and women escaping the tyranny of the Church of England; and Nazi Germany was led by a very religious man wishing to rid its country of moral decay.

We need to rebuild the wall. As a nation, we need to understand that a marriage under the law is not the same as a marriage in the Church. We need to understand that faith-based programs have their place, but not in government. We need to understand that science does not necessarily preclude the supernatural. We should know that someone else’s beliefs, or lack thereof, do not in any way diminish our own beliefs. Most of all, we should know that our salvation can not be legislated or coerced.

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. In neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. – Thomas Jefferson