As much of the attention around President Obama's speech in Cairo today will deal with global reactions, responses in the Arab and Islamic world, in Isreal, Palestine and the analysis of how those here in the United States reacted, a small but important step was taken by the White House that may go overlooked.
Thanks to Sam Stein over at HuffPo for catching it.
As part of broader effort to recast Muslim-American relations, the Obama White House released a new video on Wednesday night highlighting the work of Muslim-Americans in federal government.
The clip, roughly three-and-a-half minutes in length, compiles the stories and testimony of three young employees, one from USAID, another from the White House Counsel's office and a third from the Department of Justice. The underlying message, while not directly stated, was fairly clear: These individuals are just as committed to the nation's fabric as the non-Muslims with whom they work.
The video, available on youtube is in English, but more importantly is available with captions in multiple languages:
Sous-titres codés disponibles en Français.
Keterangan bantu untuk tuna rungu (closed-caption) tersedia dalam bahasa Indonesia.
.מוצעות כתוביות בעברית לכבדי שמיעה
Скрытые титры на русском языке.
İşitme engelliler için Türkçe altyazı var.
Kapsyen tertutup terdapat di dalam [Bahasa Melayu]
Muslim Americans Serving in the U.S. Government
I like the fact that of the three employees featured, two are women. All three are young.
The Muslim American community, and the Arab American community are a part of the fabric of this society. I was pleased today to hear our POTUS reference the Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson, that Representative Keith Ellison used at his swearing in ceremony.
Hate-mongers are out in force as usual, in the comments section on youtube. I hope that some of you will take a few moments to view the video there, and to add a few encouraging remarks, should you feel moved to do so. It has over 4,000 views already.