President Barack Obama told progressive donors Thursday that he is pushing a diplomatic strategy that would champion women and minorities overseas.
His pitch came just two days after his deputies quietly met with members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood party that is now set to rule Egypt after Obama withdrew U.S. support from the Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak.
“We’ve got to have as powerful a diplomatic strategy, as powerful as an economic strategy … [where] we are exporting our values and upholding core ideas about how women are treated … how the young are treated and how minorities are treated, because that’s part of what makes us special,” Obama told 250 progressives who had paid $2,500 to attend the fundraiser.
Obama’s campaign-trail mention of minority rights echoes his 2011 policy of promoting gay and lesbian rights in Arab, Asian and African countries.
However, White House officials refused on Thursday to detail the meeting with the Brotherhood officials, which came as the Brotherhood’s presidential candidate promised an Egyptian audience that Shariah law would be the “first and final” goal of his election.
Shariah is a 1,400 year-old legal code that uses the Koran to set both religious practice and government law. When adopted or enforced in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan or Afghanistan, it sharply limits free speech, opportunities for women, business freedoms and the status of non-Muslims.
Read entire article here:
http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/06/obama-woos-progressives-talks-with-islamists/
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