What allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it. This too is part of America’s promise.
But we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek – a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God’s children are respected. That is the world we seek.
The sixth issue that I want to address is women’s rights. In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.
It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
The people I meet – in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks – they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. Because we all have the capacity to do justice and show mercy; to treat others with dignity and respect; and to rise above what divides us and come together to meet those challenges we can’t meet alone. But it also comes from my own American story. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. Many Gulf States have enjoyed great wealth as a consequence of oil, and some are beginning to focus it on broader development.