Obama let down African-Americans

Prominent African-American Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson, has admitted that Barack Obama, the first African-American president in the history of the United States, may find it hard to retain the trust of the Afro-American electorate "after he let them down in his first presidential period". Jackson also said Islam is a great religion "which is based on the fundamental principles of human justice, civilised coexistence and the culture of peace". Interviewed by Arabstoday, after his participation in protests against the NATO summit in Chicago held on May 20-21, Jackson said he thought Obama delayed making a decision to pull out US troops from Afghanistan too much, which cost the American people a heavy financial and humanitarian price. Jackson, a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, and a shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997, also said that the NATO summit didn't provide a final solution for the Afghan crisis. On the reasons behind his support for Obama from the beginning of his campaign until now, Jackson said: "I admit I'm one of his biggest supporters, because I believed he could provide equality for African-American citizens.  He reminded me of Martin Luther King's words when he said 'I have a dream', this dream was establishing equality between all human races, and I believed Obama could make this dream come true." He added: "Despite Obama's mistakes regarding Afghanistan and other issues, I will keep supporting him in the presidential elections to be held in six months. As African-Americans, we should protect our achievements of 2008, when Obama won the presidential race to be the first African-American president of the United States. They form 25 percent of the US electorate, and they need someone who takes their cause seriously...by supporting Obama I prove myself faithful to more than 60 years of struggle for equal civil rights." On whether the African-American electorate still had faith in Obama, Jackson said: "Needless to say the passion has palled, as Obama has almost lost his spark. As African-Americans, we were the first to celebrate his success, and were the first to back his candidacy, reflected in the fact that 96 percent of Afro-American voters voted for him in 2008. But four years later, we are the race that suffers the most from unemployment and banking and real estate debts, as well as having the lowest average age-of-death in the United States compared to any other race." "The major banks always focus on minorities to offer them their 'poisoned' loans, and this issue has never been monitored by Congress, because its members are corrupted by money they gain from Wall Street, so debts based on those loans have turned out to be a very serious problem in our society whichmust be addressed," added Jackson. Jackson also criticised US involvement in Afghanistan: "We sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers there, and put a reconstruction plan in place in Afghanistan, which cost the US budget $2 billion weekly, while there are thousands of US citizens who die every year due to  poverty and violence." On his assessment of relations between President Obama and the Republican opposition, Jackson said: "Obama aims to reconcile with them, but the Republicans are very stubborn and never give up, even if their approach destroys the economy and causes harm to millions of people. They feel they can always pressure Obama as he always bows to them,. The American people are in need of a stronger presidential voice, similar to the one of President Lyndon Johnson. Obama has this in him, but he needs to use it." Jackson agreed with the idea that Obama's own ethnic roots limited his ability to support African-American people saying former Democratic President Bill Clinton had more freedom in addressing the problems of  African-Americans for the fact that he is white: "maybe that protected him from insults directed at Obama by the Republican opposition". Jackson concluded. Jackson warned that the gap between black and white US citizens was growing all the time, particularly in the fields of healthcare, housing and income, saying it was based on "a heritage of slavery and legal separation between black and white communities". The Baptist minister also voiced his respect for the Islamic religion, saying Islam was exposed to fierce defamation campaigns in the United States, which associated the faith with oppressive regimes that had no ties with religion or morals. "Islam is a great religion, which is full of concepts supporting civil coexistence, openness and the culture of peace," he said. Finally, Jackson drew attention to  the importance of respecting the main foundations of democracy, especially cultural, social and religious freedoms, which should achieve renaissance and human justice, regardless of racial affiliations.