Why CAN'T we be friends? (to borrow an old War lyric)

Or, "Can't we all just get along?" What ever happened to, "Blessed are the peacemakers?"

I’m quite tardy remarking on this, but my day job has been extremely busy recently and I wanted to be as succinct as possible when I did comment. This excerpt from Arsalan Iftikhar’s article from (I think!) CNN's website quoting our President from his recent speech in Cairo sharply veers from the blithering idiocy that’s been American foreign policy for at least the past eight years (and probably much longer):

“President Obama concluded his remarkable Cairo address by highlighting the individual mandates for peace in each of the major Abrahamic religions.

He said that, "The Holy Koran tells us, 'O mankind! We have...made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.' The Talmud tells us: 'The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.' The Holy Bible tells us, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.'

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth."

Would it EVER occur to one of our politicos who’s spent far too long inside the Beltway (OR their less than benevolent “Christian” spiritual leaders!) to quote the Torah, let alone the Koran, to emphasize EVERYONE'S similarities? It's about time someone reminded the Middle East that not only are we all in this together, but we're all descended from Father Abraham, no matter what name we call God by.

I find that speech quite consistent with traditional American values; the Establishment Clause prohibiting the Federal government from preferential treatment of one religious group over another AND the Free Exercise Clause guaranteeing EVERYONE's right to worship as THEY see fit, are both covered as "Freedom of Religion" in the first article of the Constitution of the United States. Therefore, I marvel that anyone could feel our country was slighted in any way by that speech.

Unlike the character of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, I do NOT ask that we "Please continue the petty bickering." Time to knock it off for the sake of our own next generations.