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Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.
John Edwards calls on us to hope. For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. And that's to be expected. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement.
But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism.
If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have. For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. Finally, I want to discuss economic development and opportunity.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.