As demonstrations and revolts swept the Muslim world during Obama’s first term, he was enthusiastic. He had encouraging words for the “Arab Spring” demonstrators in Egypt and Tunisia, and even gave military assistance to their Libyan counterparts. During the third and last debate of the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney and Obama sparred over which could express support for the Syrian rebels (who are dominated by Islamic jihadists) more strongly, and as Obama’s second term began, his administration was inching ever closer to military aid for those rebels. Yet there have now been three large-scale demonstrations in Muslim countries that Obama did not support — and those three exceptions are extraordinarily revealing about his disposition, as well as his policy, toward Islam.
The three pro-democracy revolts that Obama refused to support were arguably the only two that were genuinely worthy of the pro-democracy label: the demonstrations against the Islamic regime in Iran in 2009, the anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations in Egypt in winter 2013, and the pro-secularism demonstrations in Turkey in recent weeks. There is a common thread between these three that distinguishes them from all the others: in Egypt in late 2012 and early 2013, as well as in Iran in 2009, the demonstrators were protesting against Islamic states; in Turkey, they were protesting against the Erdogan regime that is working hard now to establish an Islamic state. All the other demonstrations were not against pro-Sharia forces, but were led by pro-Sharia forces, and led to the establishment of Islamic states. To be sure, the Iranian demonstrators in 2009 contained many pro-Sharia elements that simply objected to the way the Islamic Republic was enforcing Sharia, but they also included many who wanted to reestablish the relatively secular society that prevailed under the last Shah. Whether the Sharia or the democratic forces would have won out in the end is a question that will never be answered — in no small part thanks to Barack Obama.
In every case Barack Obama has been consistent: in response to the demonstrations and uprisings in the Islamic world, he has without exception acted in the service of Islamic supremacist, pro-Sharia regimes.
“Nuclear Deal Fuels Iran’s Hard-Liners,” by Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2016:
The Obama administration’s nuclear deal was intended to keep Iran from pursuing an atomic bomb, and raised hope in the West that Tehran would be nudged toward a more moderate path.
But there are growing fears in Washington and Europe that the deal—coupled with an escalating conflict with Saudi Arabia—instead risks further entrenching Iran’s hard-line camp.
Since completion of the agreement in July, Tehran security forces, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have stepped up arrests of political opponents in the arts, media and the business community, part of a crackdown aimed at ensuring Mr. Khamenei’s political allies dominate national elections scheduled for Feb. 26, according to Iranian politicians and analysts….
But the ranks of reformists in Iran have been depleted. Many activists are angry at the Obama administration for failing to support them six years ago in a rebuff that hasn’t been previously reported.
Iranian opposition leaders secretly reached out to the White House in the summer of 2009 to gauge Mr. Obama’s support for their “green revolution,” which drew millions of people to protest the allegedly fraudulent re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The demonstrations caught the White House off guard, said current and former U.S. officials who worked on Iran in the Obama administration.
Some U.S. officials pressed Mr. Obama to publicly back the fledgling Green Movement, arguing in Oval Office meetings that it marked the most important democratic opening since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mr. Obama wasn’t convinced. “‘Let’s give it a few days,’ was the answer,” said a senior U.S. official present at some of the White House meetings. “It was made clear: ‘We should monitor, but do nothing.’ ”
The president was invested heavily in developing a secret diplomatic outreach to Mr. Khamenei that year, sending two letters to the supreme leader in the months before the disputed election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, said current and former U.S. officials.
Obama administration officials at the time were working behind the scenes with the Sultan of Oman to open a channel to Tehran. The potential for talks with Iran—and with Mr. Khamenei as the ultimate arbiter of any nuclear agreement—influenced Mr. Obama’s thinking, current and former U.S. officials said.
U.S. officials said the White House also was getting conflicting messages from Green Movement leaders. Some wanted Mr. Obama to publicly warn Mr. Khamenei against using force. Others said such a declaration would give Iran’s supreme leader an excuse to paint the opposition as American lackeys.
Mr. Obama and his advisers decided to maintain silence in the early days of the 2009 uprising. The Central Intelligence Agency was ordered away from any covert work to support the Green Movement either inside Iran or overseas, said current and former U.S. officials involved in the discussions.
“If you were working on the nuclear deal, you were saying, ‘Don’t do too much,’ ” said Michael McFaul, who served as a senior National Security Council official at the White House before becoming ambassador to Russia in 2012.
After a week of demonstrations, Iran’s security forces went on to kill as many as 150 people and jail thousands of others over the following months, according to opposition and human rights groups. Mr. Khamenei accused the U.S. of instigating the uprising. Iran denied killing protesters.
Some of Mr. Obama’s closest advisers, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , said in retrospect the U.S. should have backed the Green Movement. “If we could do it again, I would give different counsel,” said Dennis Ross, Mr. Obama’s top Mideast adviser during his first term. At the time, he said, he argued against embracing the protests.
A senior U.S. official said this week that the Obama administration argued against covert support for the Green Movement because it risked undermining its credibility domestically, not out of fear of Mr. Khamenei’s reaction. “We did not want to tar the movement,” the official said.
Mr. Obama pursued nuclear diplomacy with Iran using a two-track approach: ratcheting up economic sanctions while leaving the door open for direct negotiations.
Over the next four years, international sanctions cut Iran’s oil exports in half, and the value of its currency, the rial, dropped by two-thirds. The U.S. also succeeded in shutting off most of Iran’s financial institutions from the global economy, including Iran’s central bank.
In 2012, the White House, working through Omani intermediaries, set up the first direct talks with Iran. A year later, Mr. Rouhani was elected, and the negotiations moved more quickly toward an agreement.
Mr. Obama’s advisers said the White House’s cautious handling of Iran’s political opposition was the best course in 2009. The Green Movement wasn’t unified, they said, and didn’t have much of a chance to overthrow the regime.
Former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who led the protests, remain under house arrest in Tehran, despite pledges by Mr. Rouhani to release them. Thousands of student leaders and democracy activists who took to the streets six years ago were exiled to Turkey, Europe and the U.S., fearing arrest if they return home.
At a recent oil conference in Tehran, Mr. Rouhani’s energy minister, Bijan Zanganeh, answered questions about oil production and job promotion in the wake of the nuclear agreement. When pressed about the status of political prisoners, which include Messrs. Mousavi and Karroubi, he didn’t answer and instead jumped into a waiting SUV.
“A historic opportunity was missed” six years ago, said former Green Movement leader Heshmat Tabarzadi in an interview via Skype in Tehran. He has served intermittent jail terms there since 2009.
“There isn’t much of a Green Movement left,” he said.

John C. Barile says
This confirms what we all really knew. He’s a pigheaded fantasist with a bloated ego, who neither knows what is in the best interests of the U.S; neither does he care to know. Reality is just too bruising to his narcissist ego for him to know.
MadinIllinoia says
Oh, he knows what the best interests are for this country, but for him – he rather ‘DISMANTLE’ it, as it represents everything he hates!!! That’s why you’ll see him giving the MIDDLE FINGER in almost every photo…
underbed cat says
Whatever the clarifying message, up pops the photo of what(ob) he may be thinking, but this is just an opinion.
So the comment by Spencer is to me correct as it appears, “In every case Barrack Obama has been consistent:”……..the entire paragraph, I agree that he supports sharia. That should be entirely inconsistent with anyone in leadership of our country, and that in itself is a overwhelming thought…and we are as a country I think in serious trouble.
Thank you Robert Spencer for this website. I share the chuckle and concern with you as mayors of cities try to defend jihad…no surprise to you and readers, but still shows level of the misdirection, current leadership and dangers.
SoCalMike says
I’m sick of watching people pretend Obama is not exacting revenge on the US and the West by empowering our enemies and weakening us.
When he tells us what “our” values are, he’s speaking from the perspective of an enemy.
I don’t care if it’s O’Reilly or F. Chuck Todd or Andrea Mitchell or Maureen Dowd or Thomas Friedman, spit on them.
They have all failed in their most basic solemn duty to inform and have instead covered up and deceived.
underbed cat says
I agree and it does seems to be revenge, very cleverly done with educational elite credibility, gracious charm, intelligence which now seems less and less credible so I guess universities should get a eduumaacation…..on authentic sources. Look up the word misdirection, for those who live under the influence of the professional MB. and their ties to sources of grants to universities.
Custos Custodum says
Precisely. By now, there are just too many facts, decisions, utterances, and perhaps most significantly, intentional OMISSIONS to act or speak that can only be explained by an overwhelming lust for “revenge” for all the good (yes) that America has done to Barry Obama.
Some very dark genius recruited Barry Obama at a very early stage (probably through communist channels) and raised him to be a highly intelligent, manageable figure-head for an assortment of particularly vicious, America-hating forces with overlapping agendas.
It is possible that the raising of Barry Obama proceeded in two phases, one from nobody in Honolulu to state senator in Illinois, and the subsequent phase that took Obama to the presidency. The former phase was driven by a coalition of groups controlled by sophisticated communists (Frank Marshall Davis, Bill Ayers) and with backing from Nation of Islam and Saudi Arabia.
In the later phase, the earlier core group gained buy-in from broader interests including the Chicago machine (Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emmanuel, David Axelrod) and billionaire manipulator and post-National Socialist George Soros. This phase also saw extensive international outreach to fellow communist subversives such as Anthony “Tony” Blair in the UK.
P.S.: Like many political manipulators before them, Obama’s backers discovered that Obama’s psychiatric problems, drug addiction and require constant external support. The same is true of his homosexual leanings which even in 2016 cannot be expressed openly, although Obama is still benefiting from a post-Christian guilt bonus. A president’s heterosexual liaisons with the kind of people whom Obama seems to favor would lead to instant condemnation.
P.P.S.: One suspects that following Obama’s “deal” with Shiite Iran, the Saudis may be having second thoughts about the wisdom of their backing of Barry Obama. Fortunately, King Salman now has the option to install a member of the tried and tested Bush clan as his lackey in the White House.
Custos Custodum says
Correction/amplification: Obama’s psychiatric problems, drug addiction and other problems *ARE USEFUL HANDLES TO CONTROL THEIR ASSET. THESE FACTORS ENSURE THAT OBAMA WILL ALWAYS * require constant external support.
SoCalMike says
And send parasite Dennis Ross to hell along with Jew-hater Martin Indyk.
I’m so sick of this maggot preening and posing on every one else’s dime.
The so-called fraudulently named “Peace Process” is here for the benefit of maggots like him.
underbed cat says
Wall Street Journal, with good writers, Jay Solomon, shows they do research, on critical issues.
It is a political sensitive issue, in the investment world also the middle east and the huge money, does intersect, and influence, so as money and politics and now the sharia based investing. As this situation exposes the depth of influence…under the guise of tolerance and diversity, of economies and stability or instabilities of nations.
How to remove the influence of misdirections.
Lynn says
I love the picture. What a fun job or part of a job; to match pics with articles.
.Here’s one example of how BHO uses his hands to indicate his feelings. When speaking to, about and in ‘solidarity with’ islam; he frequently features his right index finger. When he emotes for and about America and Americans he offers forth his left middle finger sometimes in subtle ways; as with those recent ‘tears’. Sometimes he just gives it to us as in the pic above.
He is after all, we’ve been told, a masterful communicator.
underbed cat says
Masterful victim status communicator, attractive,charming, long pauses to grab attention, never showing any nervousness ,which also are the skills needed for a ruse or deception thru misdirection with conviction. He can easily overcome major fibs, recover from problems by stalling and denying the most obvious associations to motives and actions, to accommodate the caliphate.
Lynn says
He said outright the world will never belong to those who slander islam. He’ll do back flips not to. Hence his rambling answers to presser questions. His use of taqiyya never ends.
It’s going to be a wild ruff ride as we count this sucker out.
Rob says
One of the big enablers of Obama’s messianic approach was his Nobel Prize.
It was awarded almost simultaneously with his inauguration.
The Swedes, having crapped big time in their own nest (The Rape Capital of Europe) were anxious (as in desperate) to find someone who could make the whole fabrication of multi kulti come true.
Custos Custodum says
Close, but no cigar.
The Nobel “Peace” Prize is awarded by a committee appointed by the parliament of Norway. Like other countries bordering the Soviet Block, Norway has undergone decades of communist subversion at the highest reaches.
Actually, Obama so far failed to instigate a wide-ranging genocide which appears to be one of the conditions for the honor (Le Duc Tho – post-war Vietnam, “Corrupt Kofi” Annan – Rwanda, etc.)
Carolyne says
The Nobel Prize means nothing. When it was awarded to Jimmy Carter, a member of the committee said they did it to “Kick America in the knee,” which is, apparently some kind of Scandinavian insult. It was given to Obama in anticipation of what he intended to do. The US is still hanging on so maybe they want it back.
Don McKellar says
If there is an angle to empower Islam, he does it. That has been the one overriding legacy of his presidency. He is Islam’s president.
Eddiethed says
Nothing Obama did or does will turn out to be good,because he does not have God on his side,if he is a Moslem the Islamic religion is Satanic an if he has no Religion he is atheist an has nothing to do with God,Obama is just one sorry person an as Americans we just can’t wait tell his last day in office just 11 months left.
underbed cat says
If WSJ, reads this website, check out the Daniel Greenfield….video to about the threats of mb., or any of the experts on the reality of the doctrine they follow to accommodate and protect.
Ciudadano says
I’m not American but I think the world really needs the next American president to be a champion of human rights, democracy and freedom. American presidents that think they are smart enough to make deals with the devil are only undermining America’s moral authority and encouraging evil all over the world.
Take for instance Obama change in policy regarding Cuba. Somehow Obama thinks removing the embargo and establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba is going to bring “changes” to Cuba. What Obama is really doing is legitimizing the Castro’s dictatorship and his ideology. The Cubans are not wasting time, far from backing in their positions, they are already spreading, harder than ever, their communist ideology all over Latin America. It was a long time since we hear an American president energetically calling for democracy, freedom and human values in Latin America.
I wonder if the fall of Berling Wall and the URRS would’ve being possible with the kind of leadership the US has today.
Donovan Nuera says
You hit it on the head; Raul Castro’s goon squads brutally and sadistically beat the Ladies in White every Sunday along the same streets and yet, no interest at all from feminists or other progs who carp on imagined “war on woman” atrocities supposedly committed by GOPers. Over 7000 political prisoners arrested in 2015 alone….one of the highest totals since the early 1960s. Pope Francis is more than glad to eat dinner with convicts in a Philly prison but dares not meet with the Ladies in White or other political prisoners. When the one Afro-Cuban dissident managed to make his way up the Popemobile at the procession of the large outdoor mass in Havana and tried to hand him a paper petition, he was dragged away by guards…..and yet the Pope or his lackey, when asked by the press about the incident, lied to the effect that they did not see what had happened as the crowds were in the way. There were no obstacles in their view of what happened if you look at the video. Then again, the Bishop of Havana is a Castro lackey who is very dismissive to human rights activists in public. Not exactly the same cut of the cloth as Polish martyr Blessed Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Babalublog.com, a website run by very learned Cuban emigres, is a great site to get uncensored news from Cuba about how hypocritical Obama and Kerry have been and how they demoralized a lot of Cuban activists who have sacrificed (and continue to sacrifice) their lives and the lives of their families to rise up against Obama’s best new friend.
Georg says
This brings to mind our anemic support of Kurds. Giving and giving to the Ayatollah seems like a… sub-optimal policy.
Donovan Nuera says
Of course, Obama was more than glad that, just at the moment as there was a start of a crescendo of international moral outrage against the Ayatollah and Ahmeninegad (sp?), especially after the video of sniper victim MIss Neva Soltan dying on camera was publicized, the death of (probable) pedophile ,washed-up and drugged up singer Michael Jackson occurred. The mainstream media went 24/7 over that story for about a month, thus knocking any coverage of the Green Revolution off the news for good, allowing the ayatollah’s goon squads to round up the remaining dissidents and put them in Evin prison. This would have been the only chance for an overthrow of the regime without having to put our own troops in harm’s way.
(Of course, we have our own instant-gratification/short attention-span/celebrity-sports-fetish culture to bear some burden of blame….as the 15-55 age group seems to know more about some lame HBO miniseries’ “back-story” or off-season 3rd round AA baseball trade than US and world history of important events that will eventually negatively affect their own lives…sooner than they think…).
SoCalMike says
Who is going to be the first to walk up to Obama, spit in his face and ball up his fist and knock his teeth out and knock him on his skinny little fem ass?
I volunteer if I can get close enough.
Mathew Solo says
In the early 1950’s the British and American Intelligence Agencies Interfered Big Time
In the Iranian Democratic Government’s Efforts to protect its national Interests…this is
fact and well documented…and public information.
This among other issues is what the Islamic Government uses to remind anyone who will
listen that they are required to serve the best interest of the Iranian People…though most
Iranian people do not agree they are anywhere close to what the Country needs…they are
held in a tight grip with a sense of hopelessness and no heart to fight back against it.
Matthieu Baudin says
“… In every case Barack Obama has been consistent: in response to the demonstrations and uprisings in the Islamic world, he has without exception acted in the service of Islamic supremacist, pro-Sharia regimes…”
Perhaps the President has been motivated in part by a conviction that these societies needed to maintain their cultural profiles and therefore, naturally, their Islamic identities. The currently fashionable, multicultural view of the world contains an ultra orthodox core, that sees it as the duty of cultural groups to maintain their cultural heritage, rather than evolve and dispense with old baggage. The Presidents outlook in this regard is probably further reinforced by a personal identification with the Islamic World inherited via his Muslim fathers cultural background.
Phil says
They were foolish to have tried it with this president in charge. Spreading democracy, since his presidency began, means installing a puppet leader to install the worst of America into a country.