All this silliness about Barack Hussein Obama’s middle name is an embarassing display of American ignorance about the outside world. Hussein is as common a name in the Middle East as Samuel is in the West.

Yes, there was an evil, despotic tyrant whose last name happened to be Hussein, but there was also an enlightened unelected leader in the Middle East who was as strong an ally of the U.S. as we have had in the region.

It is no wonder Americans have forgotten King Hussein of Jordan — after all he died eons ago:

Prior to his death at age 63 on February 7, 1999, King Hussein bin Talal was the longest serving executive head of state in the world. Of great significance to Muslims throughout the world, King Hussein I was also the forty-second generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

His accomplishments were unparalleled among his peers in the Levant:

Throughout his long and eventful reign, King Hussein worked hard at building his country and raising the living standard of each and every Jordanian. Early on, King Hussein concentrated on building an economic and industrial infrastructure that would compliment and enhance the advances he wanted to achieve in the quality of life of his people. During the 1960s, Jordan’s main industries -including phosphate, potash and cement- were developed, and a network of highways was built throughout the kingdom.

On the human level, the numbers speak for King Hussein’s achievements. While in 1950, water, sanitation and electricity were available to only 10 percent of Jordanians, today these reach 99 percent of the population. In 1960 only 33 percent of Jordanians were literate, in 1996, this number climbed to 85.5 percent. In 1961, the average Jordanian received a daily intake of 2198 calories, and by 1992, this figure had increased by 37.5 percent to reach 3022 calories. UNICEF statistics show that between 1981 and 1991, Jordan achieved the world’s fastest annual rate of decline in infant mortality -from 70 deaths per 1000 births in 1981 to 37 per 1000 in 1991, a fall of over 47 percent. King Hussein has always believed that Jordan’s people are its biggest asset, and he continues to encourage all -including the less fortunate, the disabled and the orphaned- to achieve more for themselves and their country.

King Hussein also struggled throughout his 45 year reign to promote peace in the Middle East. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he was instrumental in drafting UN Security Council Resolution 242 which calls on Israel to withdraw from Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 war in exchange for peace. This resolution has served as the benchmark for all subsequent peace negotiations. In 1991, King Hussein played a pivotal role in convening the Madrid Peace Conference, and providing an “umbrella” for Palestinians to negotiate their future as part of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. The 1994 Peace Treaty between Jordan and Israel is a major step toward achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East.

While working towards Arab-Israeli peace, King Hussein has also worked to resolve disputes between Arab states. During the 1990-91 Gulf Crisis, he exerted vigorous efforts to peacefully effect an Iraqi withdrawal and restore the sovereignty of Kuwait.

King Hussein has persevered in his pursuit of genuine Arab reconciliation, wherever a conflict may arise between neighbors or within a country, such as his recent mediation in the Yemeni civil war. Furthermore, and in almost every speech or forum, Hussein called for international humanitarian aid to relieve the people and children of Iraq from their daily suffering.

King Hussein’s commitment to democracy, civil liberties and human rights has helped pave the way in making Jordan a model state for the region. The kingdom is internationally recognized as having the most exemplary human rights record in the Middle East, while recent reforms have allowed Jordan to resume its irreversible drive to democratization. In 1990, King Hussein appointed a royal commission representing the entire spectrum of Jordanian political thought to draft a national charter. Today the National Charter, along with the Jordanian Constitution, serves as a guideline for democratic institutionalization and political pluralism in the country. In 1989. 1993 and 1997, Jordan held parliamentary elections which were accredited internationally as among the freest and fairest ever held in the Middle East.

Just in case you didn’t follow the link to the source of the biographical information, it came from the Jewish Virtual Library.