by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n Is Obama\u2019s deep bow (with slightly bent knee) to the Saudi king as bad as it seems? The White House, apparently forgetful that we live in the Internet age, where everything is swiftly [1]documented and disseminated<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 or else thinking it leads a nation of the blind \u2014 [2]\u00a0insists the president did not bow<\/a>. He supposedly always bends in half when shaking hands with shorter people, though he certainly seemed quite erect when saluting the British queen, who is much shorter than the Saudi king.<\/p>\n Obama bowed; this much is certainly not open to debate. All that is left now is to place his odious obeisance in context. As such, history has much to say about the seemingly innocuous bow.<\/p>\n Millennia before the current war between the West and Islam \u2014 the war Obama [3]\u00a0insists does not exist<\/a>\u00a0in the first place \u2014 the ancient Greeks (forebears of Western civilization) warred with the Persians (forebears of the soon-to-be-nuclear Islamic theocracy, Iran).<\/p>\n Writing in the 5th century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus explained: \u201cWhen the Persians meet one another in the roads, you can see whether those who meet are of equal rank. For instead of greeting by words, they kiss each other on the mouth; but if one of them is inferior to the other, they kiss one another on the cheeks.\u201d<\/p>\n This explanation reminds one of Bush\u2019s [4]\u00a0hand-holding<\/a>\/[5]\u00a0kissing<\/a>\u00a0sessions with the same Saudi monarch, which some insist exonerate Obama\u2019s bow. Not so; as the Greek historian explains above, such behavior is representative of equal rank in Eastern cultures. \u201cMuch less noble rank\u201d? Could Obama, like his wife Michelle, [6]\u00a0who only recently became proud of America<\/a>, be operating under the conviction that being American is not all that noble? While common to the caste-like system of Persia, prostration was something the freedom-loving Greeks scorned. Indeed, wars were waged simply because the Greeks refused to submit \u2014 literally and figuratively \u2014 to Persian tyranny.<\/p>\n According to Arrian\u2019s chronicle, at the height of Alexander the Great\u2019s power \u2014 when his\u00a0hubris<\/em>against the gods and megalomania against man were most burgeoning \u2014 he decided to implement the\u00a0proskunesis<\/em>\u00a0in his court, provoking controversy among the Macedonians, until one of their numbers, Callisthenes, rebuked him by saying, \u201cWill you actually compel the Greeks as well, the freest of mankind, to do you obeisance?\u201d Another close companion to Alexander, Clitus, vexed at the former\u2019s increasing pomposity and the lack of manly dignity at his court, told Alexander, in the words of the historian Plutarch, that \u201che [Alexander] had better live and converse with barbarians and slaves who would not scruple to bow the knee to his Persian girdle.\u201d His words cost him his life.<\/p>\n It was one decade ago, when I studied ancient history with Victor Davis Hanson, that I last examined the\u00a0proskunesis<\/em>\u00a0(never thinking the day was nigh when it would have modern applicability \u2014 and thanks to a U.S. president!). Recently corresponding with VDH about this whole sordid affair, he confirmed that \u201cthe Macedonians seemed to really have felt\u00a0proskunesis<\/em>\u00a0was about the worst thing someone could do.\u201d<\/p>\n In light of the West\u2019s ancestors\u2019 utter contempt for\u00a0proskunesis<\/em>, let us now examine Obama\u2019s prostration in context:<\/p>\n First, it must be affirmed that, as with ancient Greeks, Americans find bows, prostrations, and other servile gestures distasteful. Interestingly, the Muslim world shares this same view, particularly so-called \u201cradicals,\u201d who are constantly condemning \u201cmanmade\u201d governments, such as democracies, as systems of \u201chuman-worship\u201d to be eschewed at all cost. Writes Ayman al-Zawahiri: \u201cKnow that democracy, that is, \u2018rule of the people,\u2019 is a new religion that deifies the masses by giving them the right to legislate without being shackled down to any other authority\u201d ([7]\u00a0The Al Qaeda Reader<\/a>, p. 130).<\/p>\n This, by the way, is why the Saudi monarch does not tamper with Sharia: doing so would be tantamount to self-apotheosis. Expecting prostrations from others would be viewed little better by the theocrats surrounding him. (Watch [1]\u00a0the video<\/a>\u00a0and note that, while the king proceeded with an extended right arm, Obama dived in with a bow, almost taking the former aback.)<\/p>\n In short, both Muslims and Americans (at least until very recently for the latter) find bowing to be an odious enterprise and therefore do not offer it to, nor expect it from, others.<\/p>\n Conversely, some Far Eastern cultures incorporate the bow. Had Obama been in Japan and bowed (and received a reciprocal bow signifying equality), his actions would have been culturally appropriate (not to mention expected). Yet, Obama had as much reason to bow to a Muslim as he would have to a Christian or Jew.<\/p>\n Yet surely he didn\u2019t bow to Abdullah due to the latter\u2019s exalted status in the Muslim world (\u201dGuardian of the Two Sanctities\u201d), but rather out of politeness, because Abdullah is a king, royalty. Not so. Were this true, upon meeting the British queen \u2014 equal \u201croyalty\u201d \u2014 Obama would have stooped to her as well. (Nor can his [8]\u00a0iPod gift<\/a>\u00a0be considered surrogate.)<\/p>\n Whatever prompted that rather instinctive bow \u2014 Obama may be used to bending the knee to Saudi royalty, considering that [9]\u00a0Saudis may have paid his college tuition<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and regardless of antiquated notions of \u201chonor\u201d and \u201cdignity,\u201d merely diplomatically, it was a bad move.<\/p>\n Not only is the Wahhabi king a symbol of the most \u201cradical\u201d form of Islam \u2014 it\u2019s not for nothing that 15 of the 19 9\/11 hijackers, not to mention bin Laden, were Saudis \u2014 but his Sharia-enforcing kingdom is cited as one of the [10]\u00a0worst human rights violators<\/a>\u00a0in the world. Bowing to this man was therefore symbolically a bow of submission to radical Islam and all its attendant human rights violations.<\/p>\n
\nAs for Obama\u2019s conduct, Herodotus continues, \u201cyet if one is of much less noble rank than the other, he falls down before him and worships him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAs for \u201cfalls down before him and worships,\u201d this phrase is a translation of the Greek wordproskunesis<\/em>, which means \u201cto make obeisance,\u201d to \u201cworship, adore,\u201d as one would a god, or king, or god-king. Basically, to fall on one\u2019s face in prostration to another. Connotatively, it implies \u201cto make like a dog\u201d \u2014 base, servile, and submissive.<\/p>\n