ANALYSIS:There are deep wells of goodwill within the Islamic world towards Barack Obama, even if he has some way to go to prove his good intentions, writes MARY FITZGERALD
WHEN BARACK Obama stepped onto the podium at Cairo University yesterday afternoon, it was to deliver a speech widely considered as one of the most important of his presidency.
Obama came to the city Egyptians fondly referred to as Umm ad Dunya – Mother of the World – as part of the “conversation” with Muslims that began in his inaugural address in January when he envisioned a new relationship based on mutual interest and respect.
Mindful of the need to address the legacy of nearly a decade of what many Muslims consider the darkest chapter of their relationship with the US, Obama followed those initial overtures with announcements that he planned to close the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay and withdraw troops from Iraq – two pledges that created ripples in the Middle East and beyond.
Obama continued with the conciliatory tone on a visit to Turkey in April, stating that the US “is not, and will never be, at war with Islam”. All this, together with the interview he gave to an Arabic satellite channel and his address to Iranians on Nowruz, the Persian new year, have inclined many Muslims to at least listen to what he has to say.
In conversations I have had with Muslims in several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, in the months since Obama became president of a nation despised for its misadventures in these regions, it is clear that most like the idea of Obama.
There is much that Muslims find intriguing about America’s first black president. His first name is redolent of the Arabic word for blessing. His middle name – Hussein – which he emphasised in his speech yesterday, is also that of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, a revered figure for Shias. His personal story, which he so expertly and evocatively wove through his address in Cairo – the generations of Muslims in his father’s Kenyan family, and his own school days in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation – resonates with many.
More than any US president for decades, Obama has at his disposal a deep reservoir of goodwill. A recent Gallup survey of 11 majority-Muslim nations found that since Obama’s inauguration the number of those with positive views of the US, while still low, has risen. It also reported Obama’s approval ratings are much higher than his predecessors.
But there is still some considerable way to go towards unpicking the knots of distrust and suspicion that have calcified over decades – or centuries, according to Obama – and choked the relationship between the US and the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims. Many of the 1,000 people gathered at Cairo University yesterday and the millions more watching and listening around the world feel themselves torn between high hopes and low expectations. Despite the soaring rhetoric and sometimes Pollyannaish flourishes of his address, Obama took care to admit that there is a limit to what any single speech can achieve. He outlined an ambitious seven-point manifesto for improving that troubled relationship, though starting off with a lengthy discourse on the need to tackle violent extremism, which rankled with some Muslim commentators.
Obama stoutly defended his policies for Afghanistan and Iraq, but told the audience he did not wish to keep a permanent US presence in either country. As well as the expected atonement for the likes of Guantánamo and the use of torture, Obama also made some more startling admissions such as his oblique mention of the CIA’s role in the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected Mossadeq government in 1953.
He flattered his audience with frequent quotations from the Koran and a liberal sprinkling of Arabic words (though his pronunciation was cringingly bad at times. He said " haajib" instead of " hijab" when referring to the headscarf worn by Muslim women). He paid tribute to Islam's influence on science, culture and civilisation and drew applause when he stressed the need to counter negative stereotypes of the faith and its adherents. But there were flashes of steel among the honeyed words. Tellingly, the applause was considerably muted when Obama urged Muslims to reject the stereotype that everything the US represents and does is bad, and there was no applause when he railed against the argument, still common in Muslim countries, that the 9/11 attacks were somehow justifiable. His account of the role Muslims have played in US history and the contribution Muslim Americans make today was a clever challenge to the idea propagated by extremists that Islam and the West are implacably at odds.
Many political and human rights activists, particularly in countries like Egypt, which has chafed under the authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak for decades, were left disappointed by the non-specific nature of his passages on democracy, human rights and women’s rights. He did, however, warn Arab regimes not to use the conflict with Israel to divert attention from badly-needed domestic reforms. Though many had anticipated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to provide the backbone of the speech, there was little new in Obama’s treatment of the issue centred on the two-state solution. Though his strong words on illegal Israeli settlements and his description of the Palestinian plight as intolerable were appreciated by the audience, his call for Palestinians to abandon violent struggle was met with silence.
Surprisingly brief on the thorny issue of contemporary relations with Iran, Obama repeated his willingness to move forward on the basis of mutual respect. While defending Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy, he sternly warned against a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Politicians, activists, commentators and bloggers in Muslim communities throughout the world will parse yesterday’s historic speech for details that may confirm their own prejudices or challenge them. Some will find balm in Obama’s words. Others will dismiss the address as nothing more than grandiloquent rhetoric. But all will be waiting to see what comes next. And all will be wondering whether the US president can translate those fine words into action.
Mary Fitzgerald is Foreign Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times