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Address Palestine-Israel Directly
What do you hope to hear from President Obama in his "major speech to the Muslim world" on June 4? How do you feel about his choosing Egypt as the location for such an address?
President Obama's visit to Cairo and his major address is anticipated with excitement by many in the Muslim world and globally. The President has the experience, vision and intelligence to reach out effectively to the Muslim world. Will he do so or will his speech generate the comment that a senior Middle East diplomat made after his Istanbul speech: "His words are wonderful but we still have not seen much action." Cairo presents Obama with an opportunity to flesh out aspects of his new paradigm, to demonstrate that when it comes to American foreign policy in the Arab and Muslim world, he is ready to walk the way he talks.
Obama must build on his inaugural, Al-Arabiyya interview and speeches in Turkey, but now more concretely indicate policies that reflect his promise of "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect." Obama's combination of principle and pragmatism will be tested as he seeks to balance relations with old allies and populist expectations in the Muslim world.
If President Obama merely demonstrates his knowledge of and expresses respect for Islam and Muslims, their historic contributions to history, culture, and science, many will be pleased at this welcome departure from the rhetoric of "Islamofascism" and of militant religious leaders, policymakers, and pundits. But that will not be enough. At a minimum, many are waiting to see what Obama says he will "do," on some of the hot-button issues, the pullout from Iraq, Guantanamo ... but the key issues he needs to address are the Palestinian-Israeli issue and American support for democracy and human rights.
The facts on the ground in the Arab and Muslim world today -- exacerbated by the brutality of the wars in Gaza, and the Obama administration's recent strong statements to the Netanyahu government regarding achieving a two state solution during his presidency and calling for a halt to Israeli settlements -- have contributed to great expectations. But he will need to spell out more specifically how he intends to deal with Israeli hardline policies (Netanyahu's post-Obama-meeting rejection of a total freeze on settlements and support for settlement expansion, his reassertion of an unshakeable commitment to Israel's control over a united Jerusalem and reluctance to speak of a two state solution). If Obama does not address Palestine-Israel directly and concretely, the response will be seen "as same old, same old."
Finally, Obama's chosen venue for his address surprised some and raised concerns among many experts as well as peoples in the region. Indonesia, a country Obama had lived in and an emerging democracy that just held successful democratic elections seemed like a natural. Egypt is a long time U.S. ally and a player in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but it is also a government whose elections have been seriously flawed and whose repression and human rights violations are well documented.
Obama the realist is faced with how to work with authoritarian Arab and Muslim regimes while at the same time support the democratic aspirations of majorities in the Muslim world, as seen increasingly in electoral politics and in calls by secular and mainstream Islamists in Egypt and across the Muslim world for greater power sharing. Will Obama address the responsibility of Arab and Muslim rulers and leaders for developing more democratic societies with strong civil societies, freedom of speech of the press and media?
June 4 will present a unique opportunity for Barack Obama. No one expects him to reverse the legacy of George W. Bush's policies overnight or to address all the relevant issues in restoring America's image. But he does enjoy the goodwill of many across the Arab and Muslim world and has the opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to that "new way forward" he promised in restoring America's leadership, respect, and moral stature in the Arab and Muslim world.
For more commentary on Obama's speech to the Muslim World, go to the Saban Center at Brookings' Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and the Doha Network.
By
John Esposito
|
June 2, 2009; 12:04 PM ET
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Posted by: ccnl1 | June 4, 2009 4:34 PM
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CCNL1 has not denied that she is Hirsi Ali.
Interesting! She has also not denied that she is being supported by right wing Islamophobes.
Nor has she denied that she lied in her visa application.
Why were the Dutch disenchanted with her?
Posted by: zebra4 | June 4, 2009 12:27 PM
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali's escape from the Islamic terrorists to the peaceful haven of the USA is well documented in her book.
Hmmm, is ZEBRA4 Faranaz's newest friend???
Posted by: ccnl1 | June 4, 2009 11:47 AM
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Mr Esposito:
You are bought and paid for by Saudi Arabia and its sheikhs. What you say is what your sponsors wish you to say. I would rather go straight to the source and learn from the horse's mouth.
Posted by: abhab | June 3, 2009 10:26 PM
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Is CCNL1 Hirsi Ali?
Didn't Hirsi Ali lie in her visa application?
Doesn't she have credibility problem?
Could she get a job of $10,000/year in her native land, Somalia, where there is nothing but pirates?
She worked her way up to the West and is being used by right wing groups who support her. Now she has a "good" life.
Now she can ponder over her past "over a drink" and smile. She made it.
Posted by: zebra4 | June 3, 2009 2:27 PM
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Until the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel, is allowed to be read by all Muslims, there will be no peace with orthodox Islamics. (Hopefully BO read the book before his trip.)
Some excerpts from said book:
"Thus begins the extraordinary story of a woman born into a family of desert nomads, circumcised as a child, educated by radical imams in Kenya and Saudi Arabia, taught to believe that if she uncovered her hair, terrible tragedies would ensue. It's a story that, with a few different twists, really could have led to a wretched life and a lonely death, as her grandmother warned. But instead, Hirsi Ali escaped -- and transformed herself into an internationally renowned spokeswoman for the rights of Muslim women."
ref: Washington Post book review.
four excerpts:
p. 47 paperback issue:
"Some of the Saudi women in our neighborhood were regularly beaten by their husbands. You could hear them at night. Their screams resounded across the courtyards. "No! Please! By Allah!"
p.68:
"The Pakistanis were Muslims but they too had castes. The Untouchable girls, both Indian and Pakistani were darker skin. The others would not play with them because they were untouchable. We thought that was funny because of course they were touchable: we touched them see? but also horrifying to think of yourself as untouchable, despicable to the human race."
p.309
"Between October 2004 and May 2005, eleven Muslim girls were killed by their families in just two regions (there are 20 regions in Holland). After that, people stopped telling me I was exaggerating."
p. 347
"The kind on thinking I saw in Saudi Arabia and among the Brotherhood of Kenya and Somalia, is incompatible with human rights and liberal values. It preserves the feudal mind-set based on tribal concepts of honor and shame. It rests on self-deception, hyprocricy, and double standards. It relies on the technologial advances of the West while pretending to ignore their origin in Western thinking. This mind-set makes the transition to modernity very painful for all who practice Islam".
Posted by: ccnl1 | June 3, 2009 12:54 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
ZEBRA4 does not deny being Faranaz's newest friend and again had ZEBRA4 read Hirsi Ali's autobiography, he/she would known that it was no longer safe in the Netherlands as shown by the assassination of her good friend, Theo Van Gogh, by a Dutch Muslim.
And as with his/her friend, Farnaz?, he/she it somehow believes anyone noting the words of Hirsi Ali is actually Hirsi Ali. Very strange!!! Considering I am a male, "Crossanized" Catholic, I am not Ms. Ali.