June 1, 2009
What Obama Needs To Tell The Muslim World
Juan Cole: If He Wants The Region To Heed His Words, The President Has A Golden Opportunity
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Will President Obama's Cairo speech help win hearts and minds? (CBS)
President Barack Obama's determination to alter the terms of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world has so far mainly been displayed in his rhetoric. White House aides say that he will focus in his speech in Cairo on Thursday on commonalities between American and Muslim values, and will stress the need to fight extremism. Most Muslims, however, tell pollsters that they do not hate the American way of life or our values, but rather Washington's policies. They will want to hear what concrete steps Obama will take to address the American wars, occupations and commitments that trouble them.
In order to make a genuine and lasting impact, Obama needs to tell the Muslim world that the long years in the desert for the Palestinian people are over and that he will devote his energies to ensuring the establishment of a viable Palestinian state by the end of his first term. No one in the region believes in the so-called peace process any more, inasmuch as progress has been scant and the condition of the Palestinians has steadily worsened.
Obama needs to underline his commitment to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq on the timetable approved by the Iraqi parliament, that is, by the end of 2011. He needs to counter the statements of some of his generals casting doubt on that timetable. He should point out that he is acting in accordance with the wishes of an elected Arab parliament in Baghdad and their constituents.
Likewise, he needs to reaffirm that, despite opposition from his own party, he will close the Guantanamo Bay prison, a symbol of torture. Obama faces an uphill task. Polling shows that approval ratings for the United States plummeted in most of the Muslim world during the past eight years. A Gallup poll based on face-to-face interviews in 10 Muslim-majority countries last summer found that only 15 percent approved of the leadership that the United States had shown on the global stage.
Majorities or pluralities in most of the ten countries polled by Gallup said that their opinion of the United States would significantly improve if it withdrew its troops from Iraq and closed Guantanamo
Bay. Other practical steps that would change their minds, most said, included greater direct humanitarian aid, help with transfer of technology and business expertise, and support for the right of Muslim publics to elect their own governments.
The good news is that most of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world are not holding up signs that say, "Yankee go home!" They want an engagement with the United States, but they want that relationship to proceed on the basis of mutual respect. They want the U.S. to help them get wired and start businesses and improve their health and move toward greater democracy.
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On the positive side, then, President Obama needs to lay out how his economic policies and posture on health, global warming, world trade and finance will help pull the world, including the Muslim world, out of its current economic doldrums. He needs to stress the positive role the United States has played in providing Muslims with the everyday technology, innovations and social tools to create a better life for themselves. The good news is that most of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world are not holding up signs that say, 'Yankee go home!'
Juan ColeObama needs to convince Muslims that America respects their sovereignty even as it reaffirms its commitment to democracy and human rights, and that the U.S. stands for further investments in improving peoples lives. He must point out that those investments can only bear fruit if radicals and war-mongers both in the region and in the West are decisively side-lined.
Juan Cole teaches history at the University of Michigan. He is author of the recent book, Engaging the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and maintains the weblog, Informed Comment.
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- Well, I hear and/or read what everyone is saying about the things that are going on but I do not see where anyone is doing anything but talking about these things. I do not see the entire U.S. citizenry standing up and saying Mr.Obama show your birth certificate and prove you have the legal right to be President or we, right now, start proceedings to recall you. I don't see anyone getting real shook up that he is courting the Muslim's - but he will do whatever necessary to try and turn the U.S. over to them because HE IS ONE HIMSELF!!!He is the only President of the U.S. that I k now of to ever so dishonor this country by bowing to a Muslim king! I'd like to boot him out of office for that alone.He dishonors this country quite often in his speeches. How much better off are any of you, unless you are part of Acorn, since he was elected President?? How much worse off are you?? He wants to turn us into a socialist country in the name of health care. Even our near neighbors, Canada, can tell you it does not work!! He is running all over the world, like a child in a toy factory, making repeated appearances on TV like some new star,but really doing one sensible thing to help this country??NO!!! Instead he is making every effort to lose us our best allies, wants to grant amnesty to thousands of people when our own citizens are living on the streets and going hungry, and I can not see where he is accomplishing a whole lot of anything except spending money we don't have!!!
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- "In order to make a genuine and lasting impact, Obama needs to tell the Muslim world that the long years in the desert for the Palestinian people are over and that he will devote his energies to ensuring the establishment of a viable Palestinian state by the end of his first term." -- Juan Cole
Obama needs to be the President of the United States of America. There are any number of peoples in the world who are led by kings, dictators and mystics. It is not the job of the POTUS to ensure their individual rights when they are unwilling to live rational lives as 21st Century individuals. It is the job of the POTUS to protect the lives, rights and property of US citizens under American law, in some cases, against the Jihadists described in this op-ed article. If not for xenophobic, religious bigotry on the part of the Muslim world, the Israelis would not have needed a state of their own, much less an alliance with America. - Reply to this comment
- Islam is the single most horrific cancer ever introduced into this world. Mohammad was a megamanical thief, murderer, torturer, child molester, rapist, pedophile and cross dresser - all documented by the Qur'an and Haddiths. If God exists, the pervert prophet had nothing to do with him, and God certainly had nothing to do with Mohammad. If any supernatural being influenced his actions and legacy, it would have had to have been Satan. Of course, Obama can not publically make such statements without inflaming the passions of the entire moronically ignorant Islamic world, but he, and all western leaders, need to be aware of these truthes when dealing and talking to them. Islam has as its goal the subdugation of the entire world, and is willing to do whatever it takes to reach that goal. The west needs to have as its goal the eradication of Islam as a political force (it is not just a religion), and needs to spend money, effort and time in educating it's own peoples and the peoples in Islamic countries tto the true nature of the pervert prophet's legacy. While being aware for the need of some amount of diplomacy and tact, we also need to stop being so damn politically correct. The abuses and oppressions of sharia law need to be publically discussed and vilified, and we shouldn't be so afraid of pointing the finger at the source of that oppression - the words of the false and satanic prophet.
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- President Obama should certainly not offer changes in US policy except in a series of reciprocal agreements with individual Islamic countries. US policy towards Turkey ought not to be the same as US policy towards Nigeria or Indonesia, and the President has to have a clear idea of US interests. He is not the chief executive of the "Muslim world".
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- Jihad is first and foremost a religious war against the secular world
Posted by YrSoWrong at 3:39 PM : Jun 1, 2009
That's a lie. Jihad as instructed in the Quran is a war against all of those who refuse to submit to Islam and the religion of allah. Don't make me start posting Quranic verses. - Reply to this comment
- Jihad is first and foremost a religious war against the secular world
Posted by YrSoWrong at 3:39 PM : Jun 1, 2009
NO! Jihad is war against EVERYBODY. In islam, the world is divided between the House of Peace (where muslims rule) and the HOUSE OF THE SWORD (where nonmuslims rule). Likewise, humanity is divided between muslims and infidels (nonmuslims)--the term infidel is by its very nature perjorative. It is not the same difference as say Jews and gentiles. Not a religion of peace, to be sure.
Apparently, the muslims polled by gallup fail to see their own complicity for their own problems. Consider Egypt, there are several islamic political and terror movements that object to Hosni Mubarak. Yet they fail to realize is that Mubarak is THEIR candidate.
He took power after they murdered his predecessor Anwar Sadat. WHy did they murder Sadat?? He made peace with the Jews! - Reply to this comment
- The USA was founded on a separation of Church and State that the Founding Fathers thought was a benefit to both. Jihad is first and foremost a religious war against the secular world, a war that secularists mostly have surrendered and that US Christians are willing to fight, but for the wrong reasons.
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- An exert from the article above:
"White House aides say that he will focus in his speech in Cairo on Thursday on commonalities between American and Muslim values"
-There are no "commonalities". In America, we believe in freedom of each and every individual to choose their own paths in life. In Islamic countries, it's submit to the Shariah law, which includes mistreating women and marrying many people at once. In such countries as Saudi Arabia for example, you can't even become a citizen unless you convert to Islam. You also are not allowed in the country if you are a Jew, and if you are caught practicing any other faith than Islam, you can be arrested, imprisoned, and sometimes even killed.
The United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian Biblical principles. Not the Quran.
They can have their "values" to themselves. In America, we don't oppress women and children and teach them to die for allah.
In America, we have a document called the Constitution, which grants each and every individual the freedoms that our predominantly Christian founding fathers fought ever so courageously to achieve. - Reply to this comment
- Obama needs to convince Muslims that America respects their sovereignty even as it reaffirms its commitment to democracy and human rights
posted by excop1949
-Obama can't convince one of his own. He will most likely go over there and say the same thing that he said in Turkey, how America "embraces" the Islamic faith and how much it has done for his country. He'll probably bow down to the Saudi King again, as well.
Obama's very first interview as President wasn't even on an American TV station, it was on an Arab-Muslim one.
Time to wake up USA. Don't let the Audacity of Deception real you in. Put your trust and faith in the LORD Jesus Christ, and the Truth will set you free! - Reply to this comment
- What Obama needs to tell the "Muslim world" - see my sig
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- WOW, I gotta admit CBS really knows how to bring the right-wing extremists out of their hiding places. Run a story like this and "pow-zap" it's an Obama slugfest. My apologies to any who were kind to our President. But after reading a bunch of these right sided posts it makes me realize what's wrong with the Republican Party, particularly if these are the sort of people who represent it. Scary. Can anyone spell Independent Party? Now is the time!
Posted by afrazier1 at 12:52 PM : Jun 1, 2009
Just take comfort in the fact that the opinions of these extremists represent less than 22% of the USA population, and sinking fast! The majority of our fellow American citizens understand that our current situation did not develop overnight....hence the correction will not happen overnight.....although many of these extremists have rumored that Obama is a messiah and should be able to turn our country around overnight!! ;=) - Reply to this comment
- Bend over Muslim World - you're about to have your A S S kissed by the leader of the used-to-be-free world.
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- afrazier1 - just because some is critical of the president, please don't go all left and loopy and ill-conclude that a person is automatically a Republican. Many Independents and informed and objective Democrats are challenging the president. That is, afterall, the right, duty and responsibility of any involved citizen. I neither voted for Bush 43 either time and I proudly didn't vote for Obama. I'm an Independent.
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- prayer4u2 - - it right-wing rantings like yours that gives fodder to anyone that leans the slightest left from center. Radicalism in ANY form is equally repulsive.
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- jamesguy - - do you really think Bush - - single handedly - - made all the decisions that you are accusing him of?? Hardly ! ! ! for the past 2 years.... who had the majority in the Senate and/or the house??
The Republicans are not the hate-mongers.... read any of the blogs, the hatred that spews from the left is awful - Reply to this comment
- WOW, I gotta admit CBS really knows how to bring the right-wing extremists out of their hiding places. Run a story like this and "pow-zap" it's an Obama slugfest. My apologies to any who were kind to our President. But after reading a bunch of these right sided posts it makes me realize what's wrong with the Republican Party, particularly if these are the sort of people who represent it. Scary. Can anyone spell Independent Party? Now is the time!
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- He's already demonstrated that he identifies with them. First, by using his full Muslim name when being sworn in, although this was a total no-no while he was the candidate, especially off-limits for the Republicans due to the perverted perception that it was "racist". Second, he bowed to the Saudi King. Third, he didn't demand that any Islamic symbols be removed or covered up while he visited Mosques in the Middle East.
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- The "Muslim world" is not any more a unity than the "Christian world."
What people say will make them think better of the US will not necessarily make them look more favorably on the US. Not that they are lying. They just don't really know.
I happen to think closing Guantanamo is the right thing to do. That's why we should do it, not because of how it will make some other part of the world view us.
The Palestinians, and all the Arab governments, refused a state in 1947. I happen to think they should have a state now in spite of that. I have no illusions, however, that such a state will lead either to lasting peace in the area or to a lasting, or even temporary, improvement in the US "image."
So make a realistic assessment of what is wright to do, what is in line with or principles and values, what will protect us. Then act on that assessment. - Reply to this comment
- This Arab Israeli conflict has gone far too long. The USA has been sticking its nose into this conflict way too long. I say we let boths side go at it and let the best man win. Only a general confligration can set the stage for a lasting peace. Look at how well Europe did after WWII. Would it have done as well if the Nazi Party had continued in charge of Germany and the equally murderous Bolsheviks in charge of the Soviet Union?
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- The Republican minority are the sorest losers I've ever seen. Bush failed in every measurable way. If you hate Democrats and Black people, you should be even more angry at Bush for assuring Obama's election. If Obama's power is scary to you, you should realize that Bush seized more power than any president since Washington has had with the Patriot Act, and gave that power to Obama. If you hate the bailouts, you have to remember that Bush started them, leaving Obama to hold the bag. Yes, everything that's wrong in the world truly is Bush's fault.
What would McCain be doing differently? - Reply to this comment
The road ahead in Afghanistan, and the crucial decision Obama faces.
