This is where I am once again criticized for not criticizing with love or something like that. When I read the news that U.S. President Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, I scrolled down the articles looking for the punchline. Isn’t the United States in the middle of a war in Afghanistan and Iraq? Aren’t Muslims not too far from the Mala’hood being terrorized by the FBI? And yet one of the reasons given for Obama winning is his work with Muslims. From Salon:

– President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

Obama is the third sitting U.S. President to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Among those who were under consideration for the Nobel included controversial Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba for her role in helping to release FARC held hostages, Zimbabwe’s reformist prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and Afghan women’s rights activist Sima Samar.

I know it sounds as if I’m aligning myself with right wingers whose heads are exploding over this win pero trust me, I’m pointing my finger and laughing at them pero that doesn’t mean that we cannot be critical of a president who just in terms of immigration has made it a point to expand Bush policies that seek to further criminalize immigrants in the United States. Ain’t nothing too peaceful about that.