Obama and The Crusades When Barack Obama spoke during the National Prayer Breakfast* in 2015, he intentionally manipulated the public sphere** in order to get his point across and stimulate debate over the issue of religious extremism. One of Obama's aides explained that: "The President wanted to be provocative in his remarks", and moreover “He wanted to make the point that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen faith perverted and it won’t be the last.” Through Obama's intentional manipulation of the public sphere he stirred up American conservative politicians and media, as well as Evangelical Christian groups who felt that their religion had been unfairly targeted. However, Obama was not trying to alienate an entire religion (i.e. Christianity). Rather, he attempted to create a historical context for the actions of Islamic Jihad, providing the example of the Crusades to show how history repeats itself. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns led by the European Christians to reclaim the Holy Land, including Jerusalem, after the Muslims had seized it from the Byzantine Empire. Many people*** look upon the Crusades as extremely violent and religiously motivated due to the acts that were committed during these campaigns. The reaction to Obama's 'Crusades speech' from the conservative media such as Fox and other right-wing commentators was one of outrage, with one Fox contributor comparing Obama's address to a "Verbal rape on Christians". The debate on this issue began from this speech from Obama and spread to mainstream media and the online twitter-sphere. This accomplished Obama's original aim of sharing debate and opinion among individuals and groups about how history continually repeats itself in regards to religious extremism. This speech contributed to debate in the public sphere and created controversy as a majority of the American public identify as Christians. It was presented at an event organised by a Christian organisation and the American political establishment is primarily Christian. However, if this speech took place in other western countries, the reaction would not have been so extreme. In countries like Australia and the United Kingdom the media and the political establishment are regarded as non-religious and would not even see Obama's comments as an issue. * An event held by the United States Congress, organised on their behalf by the Fellowship Foundation, a Christian organisation. The event is a series of meetings, luncheons and dinners that is a forum for the social and political elite to build relationships. Often there are foreign dignitaries of differing religions invited to attend this event. ** The public sphere is a place where the citizens debate among common concerns. *** The Crusades are looked down upon as particularly unfavorable by many people in the West, including world leaders and even liberal politicians such as Barack Obama. References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/23/no-religion-outnumber-christians-england-wales-study https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html?utm_term=.4ccbc2445b1e https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/02/06/why-obama-invoked-the-crusades-in-re-islam-and-terrorism/?utm_term=.d3464d87e87b https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/us/obama-trying-to-add-context-to-speech-faces-backlash-over-crusades.html?ref=oembed fin~
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