President Obama in his epoch speech to the Muslim world clearly proved to be the first US President to have come this close to the Muslims around the globe. On June 4, 2009 he gave his much anticipated address in the Cairo University auditorium to the whole of the Muslim world. The honesty with which he addressed the audience was not only charming but apparently convincing too. The editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed Versi, dubbed Obama's speech as "a landmark speech" and went on to say "He was respectful and impressive."
The respect with which Obama addressed the Muslims was indeed commendable and managed to win hearts around the world, which is the new Presidency's aim. However, it has also raised the bar of expectation from a US President. If Obama fails to come up to his rhetoric he probably faces a tougher reaction from the rest of the world than even before.
Analysts around the Muslim world have given a mixture of reactions to the President's speech. Despite the fact that Obama made a great effort, points of criticism have come forward and should be kept in mind while praising Obama's speech.
Summary of Critique on Obama's Speech
1. Over the Palestine-Israeli issue, Obama was courageous in bringing many of the facts to the table. He acknowledged that Palestinians were suffering every day and did point out that Jews were historically persecuted around the world. He went on to ask the Palestinians to stop their violence. Ahmed Versi points out however that Obama failed to address the Israeli violence against Palestinians. He also did not clarify why the Palestinians had to suffer occupation as a result of Jew persecution at the hand of "others" around the world.
2. Dr Maleeha Lodhi, ex-Pakistani ambassador to the US and UK, in her article "Turning a new page?" pointed out "President Obama demonstrated both a grasp of history and an ability to understand the Muslim narrative. Disappointingly the speech did not show similar understanding and empathy for South and South West Asia. The history review made no mention of the US contribution...to the toxic mix of problems bequeathed to the region by the long campaign waged against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan."
3. Listeners in Pakistan have voiced their critique that they felt that the address to the Muslim world was more of an address to the Arab world. Obama did not mention the Kashmir issue at all, which as Dr. Lodhi correctly pointed out would have won the hearts and minds of the Pakistani people. He spoke of justice and freedom, but overlooked the occupation, persecution and suppression of Kashmiris at the hands of the Indian government.
4. Iran was picked on with regards the subject of nuclear weapons. In Versi's words "He remains opposed to Iran being allowed to enrich its own uranium when Japan, Brazil and others are allowed to, as it is a right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In contrast, not a single word was uttered about Israel’s existing stockpile of between 100 to 300 nuclear weapons, the only state in the Middle East to have any."
5. The speech only briefly touched upon the issue of Afghanistan and Pakistan leaving the audience wanting to hear more on what the President thought about it. Although in his speech in general, Obama said violence every where had to be rejected, he failed to mention the drone attacks US was conducting in Pakistan against the supposed threat of the Taliban. He also did not bring into his speech the fact the millions who had been internally displaced in Pakistan.
Did Obama Do More Good Than Harm at Cairo
Despite the critique against Obama's speech, it cannot be ignored that the US President is firstly the President of his country and has to confront domestic politics before he can please the whole world with his words and actions. No US President in the past has had a Muslim middle name, or quoted Quran several times in his speech. Obama conscientously did not use the term "terrorist" in his speech which showed his empathy towards the Muslim world.
Our Responsibility as Listeners of Obama's Address at Cairo University
In the real world, however, the justice to Palestinians, the withdrawal of Western troops from Iraq, the freedom for Kashmiris, the halt of violence against innocent Pakistanis via drone attacks need to become a reality before hearts and minds can be won over.
In a CNN interview of Malaysian Anwar Ibrahim by Fareed Zakaria the weekend after Obama's speech, Anwar pointed out something interesting. He said that Muslims expected Obama to speak to them almost like a caliph of the Muslim nation.
Obama's first responsibility lies to his country and the public opinion's first priority lies with the public. Hence, it is our responsibility to remember history, Obama's address and promises to the Muslim world, the loopholes in his speech and then hold the US government accountable in the future if and when it does stray from its rhetoric. In the meantime, we need to acknowledge how far Obama has already brought the world and hope that this rhetoric will lead to positive actions in the coming days.
Reference:
Aljazeerah: Cross-Cultural Understanding – Opinions Editorials
Maleeha Lodhi, "Turning a New Page"
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