I know this news may surprise you, but another Obama appointee is caught in the middle of a brewing controversy. Hard to believe, isn’t it? This weekend, President Obama appointed Rashad Hussain to be the Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents 57 Muslim nations.

ABC’s Jake Tapper reported, “Hussain is a devout Muslim and helped inform the speech President Obama gave in Cairo — particularly with the speech’s references to the history of Islam and the Koran, and its general tone.” You may recall that in his Cairo speech, President Obama made a number of shocking statements embracing moral relativism, denying American exceptionalism and suggesting that Islam played a role in America’s founding. But that’s not the controversy.

Hussain is under scrutiny for a 2004 article by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Hussain was initially quoted in the article defending Sami Al-Arian, a radical Muslim professor charged with raising money for terrorist groups. At a 2004 conference hosted by the Muslim Students Association, Hussain allegedly said that al-Arian was the victim of “politically motivated persecutions.” In 2006 al-Arian pled guilty to conspiring to aid the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Hussain admits to attending the conference, but denies defending al-Arian. Conveniently, the quotes were mysteriously scrubbed from the publication’s website in February 2009, but the article’s author stands by her reporting.

Obama Takes The Prize!

Eyes rolled across America today as the sunrise brought news that our apprentice president had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  Obama’s name is now added to an esteemed list that includes such note-worthies as Jimmy Carter (2002), Kofi Annan (2001) and Yasser Arafat (1994).  (Somehow the Nobel Committee never got around to recognizing the achievements of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Pope John Paul II, who brought down Soviet Communism and peacefully liberated tens of millions of people behind the Iron Curtain.)

All the commentators are suggesting the prize is premature because President Obama hasn’t actually accomplished anything yet to bring about peace.  That view fails to understand the mindset of leftwing elites who run international organizations like the Nobel Committee.  To them, America is the real threat to peace, particularly when we are led by men like Reagan and Bush, confident leaders who believed in American exceptionalism and willing to confront tyranny.

It also sends a message of just how much disdain the European elites have for the rest of us who dare to oppose the president’s appeasement and his socialism. George Bush’s efforts to keep America and the world safe from radical Islamic terrorism – the biggest threat to world peace today – were never deserving of recognition. But by electing Barack Obama, America got it “right,” and the liberal elites want to make sure you understand that fact, so they have bestowed Barack with one of the highest honors the international community can offer.

Today America is led by the “anti-Reagan.”  In his eight-and-a-half months in office, Obama has made apologizing for America a top priority.  He couldn’t find his voice when the Iranian regime crushed skulls.  He tells the United Nations that no country or group of countries can be above anyone else.  He has turned U.S. policy in the Middle East on its head – reaching out to Syria, Iran and Libya while regularly suggesting too many Jews in Jerusalem are the roadblock to peace.  He has dissed our allies, cancelled a defensive missile system and has been silent on human rights abuses in Cuba, Venezuela and around the world.

Just so you know, there were other nominees, including folks like Greg Mortenson, a decorated Army veteran, son of a Lutheran missionary and best-selling author. Mortenson has dedicated more than a decade of his life working in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan building schools and helping to educate tens of thousands of children, especially young girls. You can read more about Greg Mortenson here.

That Mortenson’s incredible record of accomplishment lost out to Obama’s rhetoric is not surprising. If you are a left-wing internationalist who thinks the key to peace is a weaker America willing to take orders from the U.N., who in the world would you give the Nobel Peace Prize to other than Barack Hussein Obama?