Problems on hold : Obama does his bit

President Barack Obama’s visit to Cairo last Thursday preoccupied the Egyptian media across-the-board, even before it started. The implications of the visit and its expected repercussions on the Middle East and the Arab and Islamic worlds were tackled inside out, again and again. For some analysts, it was as though President Obama was expected to come kneeling, asking for forgiveness for all the misfortunes that befell the region during the past decades, and waving a magic wand that would eliminate them and make the people’s dreams come true.
Other analysts exercised caution and conservatism. They expected no more than that the US president would extend a hand of friendship and respect to the Arab and Muslim people, hoping to set off a new phase of mutual understanding and effort towards building peace and prosperity. I admit I was among the second, cautious group of people. Now that President Obama has already delivered his address, it is obvious that there was no magic wand; only a hand extended in friendship to embark upon a long, arduous road of joint effort between the US and the Arab Islamic World.
On the collective psychological level, President Obama’s initiative was needed to reconcile the US, the predominant power in today’s world, with the Arab Islamic World. The 9/11 terrorist attack and the subsequent boom in terrorism related to political Islam led the US to implement anti-terrorist policies that were deemed heavy-handed by the Islamic World. Added to the Arab feeling of injustice owing to the long-standing American support for Israel, the outcome generated bitter, hateful anti-American sentiments. President Obama and his administration inherited this legacy and had to do something about it. They had to ameliorate America’s image in the world so that, instead of being seen as an oppressive, tyrannical power, the US would go back to its image of decades ago, a friendly power and an advocate of freedom and democracy. The fact that Barack Obama himself is today president of the US is full proof of humanistic American values, and is a precedent achieved by no other nation except perhaps India.
President Obama did his bit. However, the challenges ahead cannot be confronted by him alone. He has reached out to the Arab Islamic World and defined the road to be courageously taken to achieve the common goal of global peace and prosperity. Do the peoples and rulers of the Arab and Islamic World realise the challenges ahead and the responsibility they have to shoulder in order to accord President Obama’s initiative its due worth?
President Obama spoke of Egypt appreciatively, calling her a strategic US ally—he had after all chosen Cairo to address the Muslim World. In a talk with the BBC before his visit President Obama said that Egypt was a pivotal power in the region. Throughout three decades, he said, Egypt has respected the peace treaty it had signed with Israel, and maintained stability in the region. President Obama, however, evaded comments on Egypt’s respect of human, political, and religious rights, or on its democratic record compared to western standards. So the Egyptian administration ought not to interpret the US president’s visit as a seal of approval, but ought to work courageously to improve its freedom and democracy records, and to implement political reform. It should moreover cease to use double standards while dealing with the US—a fact that has made it the topic of local and international political jokes. It has been happily accepting US aid, investment, and development effort for some sixty years now, while at the same time using a political address that condones the hatred of America propagated by the media.
President Obama confirmed America’s perspective of a two-State solution to the Palestinian Israeli struggle, but he also stressed that the only way to achieve that would be through direct negotiations. This should naturally entail some difficult, courageous decisions on both sides. Do we take this to mean that the Palestinians should stand by while the US pressures Israel to give up Palestinian lands? It would be a grave error on our side to do so; the Palestinians have to work hard to repair their disturbed, fragmented home front, in order to be able to sit down to the negotiation table. Hamas ought to realise that, if it is to take part in peace making, it has to end its enmity with Israel and go back on its Iranian affiliation. This President Obama cannot himself do.
The message was that the US is not against Islam and is at no war with the Muslim World. Can the Muslim World separate between its religion and those who exploit Islam to commit terrorist acts? President Obama has put at rest fears that America disrespects Islam or Muslims, but he said nothing about America giving up its war against political Islam or terrorism.
President Obama came to Cairo with no magic. Obama is a bright image of the new US administration, but it is after all the old American interests that will continue to govern the new American policy.

Comments

comments