President Obama Addresses the Muslim World in Cairo

by Pythiian1 | June 2, 2009 at 06:43 pm

882 views | 56 Recommendations | 7 comments

Updates: The White House has invited people from around the world to sign up here to receive texts, tweets, highlights, and a copy of President Obama's Cairo speech on June 4.

This website is set up in the following languages: Persian, Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Spanish, French, and English. The speech will be translated into at least 13 languages by the State Department.

The speech will also be streamed live from the White House.

This week, the US President travels to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany, and France. President Obama is expected to deliver his long-awaited speech to the Muslim world at Cairo University's Great Celebration Hall on Thursday, June 4.

In some ways, Mr. Obama is fulfilling part of his presidential campaign promise to reach out to the Muslim world by giving this speech at Cairo University in Giza, Egypt. Although the visit to Egypt was announced weeks ago, the choice of venue for his speech was made only in the recent days.

President Obama's speech would be seen and heard by an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. This Muslim world is a myriad of cultures and diverse polities. President Obama would be facing another daunting task as he sought to change Muslim perception about America and Americans since Sept. 11.

President Obama's Cairo speech has been touted to set a new course for U.S. policy in the turbulent Middle East. Mr. Obama hopes to promote the message that his administration is taking a more even-handed approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict than did his predecessors.

Government officials and political pundits are preparing for minute analyses of President Obama's message. It is an important speech as President Obama is opening a new chapter of US relation with the Middle East at-large.

This writer wrote about President Obama's last town hall held in Istanbul, Turkey when he had urged Turkish students to listen and break down stereotypes on both sides, while accepting that neither side was perfect as he encouraged them to stand up against prejudice, whether it was religious bigotry or virulent anti-Americanism. At the time, the audience was small and comprised of university students who were receptive to Mr. Obama's message.

President Obama won't have the same intimate venue as the Tophane Cultural Center in Istanbul, however, his speech would be heard by a diverse Muslim population, including those that view America and Americans with suspicion and wariness due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while some are angry at the US, and those who have high expectations of the change of policy under the Obama administration.

Some questions to mind, namely, will President Obama carry his change message to the Muslim world? How will President Obama battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims, or will he focus on reaching out to young Muslims like he did in Istanbul, Turkey?

The answers to this writer's questions will be seen, heard, and read after the US President delivers his speech at Cairo University.

In the meantime, the Brookings Institution has published the perspectives of several Middle East experts and two clergymen.

The Saban Center at the Brookings Institution Project on US Relations with the Islamic World asked some of the leading experts in the United States to offer their thoughts on President Obama's address at Cairo University in Giza.

Professor John L. Esposito, founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University cautiously welcomed the upcoming Obama's Cairo speech by asking a pragmatic question, "Is he ready to walk the way he talks?"

The good news is that Barack Obama's visit to Cairo and address is anticipated with excitement by many in the Muslim world and will receive global attention. However, Obama will be challenged to build on his inaugural, Al-Arabiyya interview and speeches in Turkey by indicating more concretely his promise of "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

At a minimum, many are waiting to see what Obama says he will "do," especially on hot-button issues like the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

That President Barack Obama has the desire, vision and intelligence to reach out to the broader Muslim world is without doubt. But will his speech in Cairo generate the same comment that a senior Middle East diplomat made after his Istanbul speech: "His words are wonderful but we still have not seen much action."

It was equally important to hear the thoughts of one of the prominent US clergymen, John Bryson Chane, Episcopal Bishop of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

Bishop Chane also cautiously applauded President Obama's trip and speech. He urged the US to work jointly with Saudi Arabia and Egypt to seek a a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine on the one hand. On the other, Bishop Chane voiced his concerns about human rights violations in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt that had gone unchecked under previous administrations.

As for priorities, this very first visit by the President must assure leaders such as King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt that the United States seeks a new cooperative, respectful relationship that will serve the interests of all 3 countries, especially as those interests attempt to seek a two state solution that is fair and equitable to both Palestine and Israel.

The second is to encourage a much stronger, collective leadership from the Muslim countries of the Middle East and their leadership in accomplishing this objective.

The priority is for the president to continue to press the cause of human rights in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, an issue that has often raised questions about U.S. Foreign Policy turning a blind eye to the issues of human rights violations in order to advance America's interests in the region.

Ms. Robin Wright, author of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, offered an angle to her cautious sentiments about the Obama's Cairo speech, as she cited the highs and lows that Middle East Arabs experienced under the Bush administration.

President Bush particularly raised hopes with his 2003 speech conceding that the United States made mistakes during the previous 60 years giving priority to stability (that served our interests) over freedoms (that were in their interests). But then the Bush administration did nothing to follow up, except give more speeches - including one the Arabs particularly remember in Cairo by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Vastly diverse Muslim societies now share a common interest in hearing more than another pronouncement that the United States is not at war with the Muslim world or that America backs greater freedoms in the last bloc of countries to hold out against the democratic tide. Either will only irritate them more. They now want substance to prove good intent. It's a simple rejoinder: "Where's the beef?"

Ms. Wright echoed Professor Esposito's sentiments about the importance of follow-up actions in dealing with the Muslim world. Ms. Wright was most optimistic about a potential socio-political transformation in the Muslim world.

Polls indicate that the Muslim world is increasingly turning against extremism because militant groups can only destroy.
Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and others have failed to provide tangible answers to the problems of daily life, all worsened by the global economic crisis. For the U.S. to really regain credibility and reverse the trends that led to 9/11, Obama will need to help provide specific answers, ideas, and programs addressing the needs of people-economically as well as on political and regional issues such as the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Suhaib Webb, Imam of the Muslim American Society, optimistically expected that President Obama's message would resonate in the Middle East in the long run combined with conciliatory actions.

Obama's visit means many things to me, and I have a basic set of hopes for his visit. I supported him because I found those hopes constantly echoed in his words, actions and policies. And it is that same message that I hope will resonate here in the Middle East. While I do not expect him to change the world with one speech, I expect him to offer those qualities mentioned previously as well as address the following:

The chronic disease of dictatorial autocratic regimes and systems coupled with the lack of culturally sensitive freedoms are the greatest contributor to the Middle East's problems.

End the partnerships of torture used in conjunction with some Middle Eastern states and the past administration; expressing a clear commitment to human rights.

Economic development, investment and cooperation that would serve to address the festering unemployment problem amongst many young people here and the evaporation of a once growing middle class.

A realistic compassed position on the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.

These individuals temper their optimism about President Obama's overture with a clear sense of pragmatism about US foreign policy and the Middle East.

The world at-large also knows that the US President can not change US policy overnight, but it is hoped that he can usher a different and new approach of engagement and dialogue in the course of conducting foreign policy around the world, and not just with the Middle East.

Related Article by Pythiian1:

Wrap-Up: President Obama's Istanbul Town Hall

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amyjudd

at 19:17 on June 2nd, 2009

Speeches are great and I have no doubt that Obama will deliver a good speech on June 4th, as I personally think that he is a great speaker and an inspiring one, but I agree with other examples you have put here, it is going to be the ultimate test to look beyond this speech and see what he implements for a change in policy.

This is the beginning though, and hopefully the first step of many.

Pythiian1

at 03:25 on June 4th, 2009

Thanks so much, Amy, for sharing your thoughts on this piece. As several experts whose views cited in the piece also share your opinion insofar as the need for concrete actions to follow up on speeches.

It remains to be seen how President Obama's speech will be received by the Muslim world. The key questions is, will he be able to reach the younger Muslim community? As the article concluded that we all know one speech won't change any policy, but it is an opening to possible dialogues.

One of the Al-Qaeda's leaders had already condemned Mr. Obama's trip and upcoming speech.

happybrunette23

at 09:18 on June 3rd, 2009

Obama will further elaborate and convince that the "special relationship" between America and Israel have some limits in his administration and will enforce it. Pretty sure he's a man of his words- but in the popularity wise it wouldn't be advisable to pressure Israel because since 1960s the American political trend had been seen to over throw any president that would not follow the plans of American Jews Organization.

QueensHart

at 22:42 on June 3rd, 2009

"Pretty sure of his words?" He has lied so many times it is ridiculous.

Therefore, the question whether Obama is a Muslim or a Christian, whether he is pro Palestine, as he has been all his life or whether he is pro Israel, whether he is a black supremacist or an agent of racial harmony, are moot. Obama is anything you want him to be and situation dictates. He takes the side that is more expedient to his cause. To communists he is a comrade, to Islamists he is their man, to Palestinian fighters he is their hope and to the Jews he is a staunch Zionist. The narcissist’s creed is himself. Everything else is negotiable.

The best description of Obama comes from himself. “I serve as a blank screen,” he wrote in The Audacity of Hope, “on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” This is the key to Obama’s personality. He will do and say anything as long as it suits him. He will embrace any cause, will align himself with anyone, and will shift his position wherever the wind blows. Narcissists are chameleons.

Obama voted “present” in the Senate most of the time, (130 times to be precise) not because they were too difficult decisions, as Rudy Giuliani said at the GOP convention, but because those issues were not relevant to his cause.

Narcissists have no interest in things that do not help them to reach their personal objective. They are focused on one thing alone and that is power. All other issues are meaningless to them and they do not want to waste their precious time on trivialities. Anything that does not help them is beneath them and do not deserve their attention. If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or another, he has no interest in it. The “present” vote is a safe vote. No one can criticize him if things go wrong. Why should he implicate himself in issues that may become controversial when they don’t help him personally? Those issues are unworthy by their very nature because they are not about him.

Now this here is the most absurd of all that demonstrates his making everything about

him. .he received an advance to write a book on race relations so he wrote about

himself. We all know where he is from. That is why Harvard will not release his

grades.

Obama’s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations. The University of Chicago Law School provided him with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. The book took him a lot longer than expected and at the end it devolved into…, guess what? His own autobiography! Instead of writing a scholarly paper focusing on race relations, for which, he had been paid, Obama could not resist writing about his most sublime self. He entitled the book Dreams from My Father .

Do you have any idea what this book really shows? Fantasies about his life not facts.

Not about his abuse, abandonment his pain.

From FaithFreedom.org..... not a right wing for you lefties to discredit..it is truly the

greatest summary of the Obama you all worship. May God have mercy on America.

I pray for tthe man who wrote this article's safety . I have never seen all the true information about Obama in one place like this.

Karen Hatter

at 03:57 on June 4th, 2009

Aside from restating here several of the Conservative Right Wing talking points that have been parroted for more than two years by Conservatives and Republicans, referencing and linking a site that proclaims its mission is to eradicate Islam has nothing to do with President Obama as he is not Muslim.

Attempts by the current administration to steer the nation out of the isolationist corner in which it has been moored for the last eight years will be challenging but, to proceed on the same course as was done for the past eight years would be foolish.