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Debates. Of course it happened on Friday the 13.

Then US President Barack Hussein Obama uttered the words that his political opponents are now pressing to his chest – on both sides of the Atlantic. It happened when he spoke at the White House 'iftart event, that is, the meal that is held when Lent is broken on the evening during Ramadan.

Obama was part of a tradition held in Washington since the days of Thomas Jefferson over 200 years ago, almost since Morocco in 1776 became the first country in the world to recognize US independence. And Obama said:

"Let me be clear: As a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. It includes the right to build a prayer center and community center on private land in Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and permits. This is the United States, and our commitment to religious freedom must be immovable. "

That's how Obama did something important for our time. First, he was honest. And second, he defended the rights of minorities at a time when it is the majority's emotions that are driving the debate storms. Obama dared to speak out in an inflamed case: Allowing Muslims to build a new mosque in Park Place 51, 200 meters from Ground Zero, where al-Qaeda crashed its flight into the World Trade Center.

Jew as Minister of Urics

Actually, the statement should be uncontroversial: New York's city antiquarian committee, on August 3, unanimously decided not to peace the terrorist-damaged building, which can also not be seen from the "zero point." The World Metropolitan Jewish Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has supported the project, as has a majority in Manhattan itself. The "Cordoba House" project is then not only a place of prayer, but is also planned as a community house with a swimming pool, fitness center and art gallery.

The house is named after the city of Cordoba, in present-day Spain, which in the 900s was under Arab rule and had the world's largest library. That was when a Jew became foreign minister in the multicultural caliphate without controversy. Now the right-wingers want us to believe we have the choice between plague and cholera. The Cordoba project may seem like the sign of hope in the era of cholera.

We live in a time marked by cholera misunderstandings. That is why it is so easy to get angry, confusing Osama bin Laden's religious fanatics with so-called everyday Muslims why several were also killed during the September 11 attack. That is why the New York Mosque has become the most talked about website on Norwegian newspapers, where a clear majority is against the newly built.

But if we are to apply this fear logic to other issues, then we should also ban mosques in London due to the 7/7 attack in 2005. And new churches in Berlin due to the Christian Hitler Holocaust. Or ban Levi's jeans in Baghdad because of George W. Bush's Iraq invasion. And who do we look like then?

No, it is in secular societies that we need political leaders who dare to rise above our instincts. Obama was both honest and brave. Had we only had such heads of state in Norway. But in contrast to Obama, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg lets populists refuse minority women to become police officers if they have a piece of clothing on their heads. Here in the country, the parliamentary majority forbids the Jewish minority to slaughter kosher food for the sake of dying animals.

Stoltenberg's way of thinking

Aftenposten's foreign editor Kjell Dragnes wrote on Tuesday that "a politician who does not understand the explosive power of symbols has little understanding. Obama has revealed a major crack in his political armor". Aftenposten believes that Obama "has committed a political stupidity" and that he "should simply not get into the fight because it stirs up so many emotions".

But this seems like a pride-minded way of thinking. Obama has gone ahead by addressing a controversial sentiment case, touching on some of the basics of a democracy's existence.

At such times we do not need cowardly politicians, who think strategically and "politically correct", but honest, law-oriented and principled politicians. And we need media and a public that does not promote extremism in speech or action.

That's what Bush's former adviser, Mark McKinnon, says of the fierce opposition to let anyone other than bin Laden show the Muslims face: "This is how we help reinforce Al-Qaeda's message that we are at war with the Muslims." We have copied bin Laden's world of ideas.

A fundamental problem seems to be that we have lost past knowledge of a world created by mutual influence and exchange. Therefore, Aftenposten's commentator Jan E. Hansen can this summer put pressure on claims that «neither American nor oriental cultural influence has created the Europe that became a world leader in a humane direction. It is the other way around. Nor has Islam contributed to Europe with significant values… »

Plato's Egypt tribute

This is the case when Hansen does not know that Plato in the Timaios dialogue 2300 years ago paid tribute to the Egyptians and the "Orientalists" for the wisdom in which they teach the Greeks.

Here's how it goes now that we've forgotten about Dante The Divine Comedy praises Muslim Ibn Rushd, as "the foremost Aristotle commentator", as did Raphael in his paintings in the 1500th century.

This is the case when even the most "formed" of our time do not know that Voltaire in the 1700th century looked to China's secular power distribution and school system when he started the fight against Church power in Europe. And when the knowledge has disappeared that the World Trade Center was built by Japanese-American Minoru Yamasaki, Saudi Arabia's court architect, as a tribute to Mecca and with the twin towers as two minarets.

Here's how it can go when triumphalism wins: We all lose.