Message From the President - Barack Hussein Obama: The Ideal of the Equality of Humanity
We've heard it repeated many times lately that we live in historic times. And there is some truth to this. Perhaps for the first time ever in this land has the essence of the Declaration of Independence come into being, namely, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Abraham Lincoln, another famous president from Illinois, repeated the same words when he urged the Union army to fight for this ideal: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
This well-known phrase was actually a landmark statement in the history of Western civilization. It represented a clear departure from the political, social, and even religious philosophies of Europe, in which Kings were considered to be of divine blood and have the right to rule for no other reason than their parentage, while the others were made servants to the monarchs. You will find the phrase "All men are created equal" adopted in various forms and languages throughout the world, whether in theory or in practice. You will find it decorating many governing documents, from the constitutions of nations to human rights declarations.
Unfortunately, the sheer declaration of equality of all men did not prevent this country from practicing slavery, and it did not prevent this country from treating its "colored or non-White" people as second-class citizens.
All people are indeed created equal, regardless of color, ethnic group, or gender. There is no superiority of a white person over a black, a tenth generation immigrant over a son of immigrant, a son of a Christian or a son of a Muslim except by the merits of their deeds and the quality of their actions. Does it sound familiar to the Muslim ear? Yes it does.
Fourteen centuries ago, the Prophet of Humanity, Muhammad, peace be upon him, made a statement that was meant for the whole world: "There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, a non-Arab over an Arab, a black over a white, or a white over a black, except by Taqwa (actions based on God-consciousness). All of you descended from Adam, and Adam was created from dust."
This statement, spoken in seventh-century Arabia, was a radical concept, a stunning new way of how people must view one another. What Islam brought to the world 14 centuries ago was a revolution that helped create new paradigms and new societies based on the equality of all citizens under the law. The often-stated fact that Islam was the fastest spreading religion in the world is due in large part to this simple ideal. Islam was embraced by millions of people of different traditions in a very short period. The civilization of Islam stretched from China to Morocco and from sub-Saharan Africa to Spain.
In our day, the notion of the equality of all people has been revived and uplifted (perhaps unprecedentedly in recent memory) by the election of Barack Obama, a son of an immigrant, a son of an African, a son of a Muslim, as the president of the most powerful country in the world.
We are still far away from reaching the full potential of this great ideal. Even today, our nation treats millions of people and families living and working among us as less than full citizens worthy of rights and protection. They are conveniently called "undocumented" or "illegal" immigrants. And American Muslims are still often viewed with suspicion and are often subject to official and unofficial harassment. Overseas, our policies are frequently imbalanced and hurtful to those who also deserve the right to fulfillment and the "pursuit of happiness."
With the election of Barack Obama, we have an opportunity to reach the full implications of our ideals and the full potential of the equality of all men. Can we prove that we mean what we say and that we practice what we preach? Can we show the world that the most powerful country in the world can also be the most caring country in the world? Can we elect in the near future an American Muslim as a president? Can we fulfill the full promises of our Declaration of Independence? Yes we can.