The Economist-let's be friends

JaneissogreatUID: 2647890

Let's be friendsJun 4th 2009 | CAIRO
From The Economist print edition
Barack Obama delivers a convincing speech to Muslims around the world“WE AWAIT your arrival impatiently because we admire your noble principles and lofty virtues,” gushed an open letter from Sheikh Ali Yusuf, a Muslim cleric(牧师，教士，神职人员) who, long ago, was Egypt’s most popular columnist. Printed in an Arabic daily, it went on to express hope that in his speech at Cairo University, the American president would show support for Egyptian aspirations to freedom and dignity.
Those words were penned 99 years ago in advance of a lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, an American president whose imperialist tone then sourly disappointed Egyptian hopes. But now the long-dead sheikh may rest reassured. In a rousing speech on June 4th, Barack Obama used the magnifying force of the American presidency, his own charisma and a podium at the heart of the Arab world to address the concerns of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims. Speaking at Cairo University, he sought to project an openness to Islam and a sense of shared values, support for Muslim aspirations, and a determination to use American power to help fix the problems that most trouble them. It was widely praised as a superb oratorical performance.

“The cycle of suspicion and discord must end,” he declared, to enthusiastic applause. “I have come to seek a new beginning, based on co-operation and respect.” Punctuated with quotations from the Koran(古兰经), the speech ranged from pressing issues such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, to questions such as democracy and women’s rights, ending with a vision of a more tolerant and peaceful world.
The American president did not shy from chiding Muslims for the reticence of some to condemn violent extremism or a tendency to measure one’s own faith by rejection of another. He made a strong pitch for America’s own model of religious freedom, and called for understanding of the historical suffering of Jews, castigating the denial of the Nazi Holocaust as “baseless, ignorant and hateful”, in an indirect swipe at Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But he also evoked Palestinian suffering, describing their situation as intolerable. He forthrightly repeated his demand for an end to Jewish colonisation of Palestinian territory.
Mr Obama has reached out to Muslims before, granting his first interview as president to an Arab satellite channel, beaming a warm message to Iranians for their spring festival, and speaking at a conference on religious tolerance in Istanbul. But this speech fulfilled his pre-inauguration promise to make a bold bid to restore American prestige with a direct public address in a major Muslim capital.
Will Mr Obama’s rousing oratory have the desired effect? The legacy of the Bush years, which accumulated injuries ranging from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to scandalous treatment of Muslim prisoners to a perceived deepening of American bias towards a belligerent Israel, still embitters many Muslims. Opinion polls that showed a drastic slide in American prestige have nudged upward under Mr Obama, with his own popularity far higher than that of the nation he represents.
Yet the constant refrain, heard on Cairo’s streets as well as from media pundits, is that Arabs and Muslims would like to see Mr Obama’s words matched by deeds. “To win our hearts, you must win our minds first, and our minds are set on the protection of our interests,” declared one of the reams of editorials, columns and open letters from across the region.
Broadly speaking, and despite the latest internet tirades of Osama bin Laden, most Muslims recognise the complexity and sincerity of Mr Obama’s effort to extricate America from Iraq, and, more grudgingly, his similarly tricky quandary in Afghanistan. The one issue where Muslim opinion converges, with a demand for a change in America’s approach, is Palestine. Here, arguably, no American action can be expected fully to assuage Muslim and Arab grievances fast, partly because of what Mr Obama described as America’s “unbreakable bond” with Israel and partly because half of the Palestinians’ divided polity is run by Hamas, an Islamist group still seen as anathema to the America. But the fact that Israelis are plainly rattled by Mr Obama’s intentions, as his administration persists in pressing them on the issue of Jewish settlement on occupied land, has cheered their foes immensely.
Mr Obama’s determination to make communication with Muslims a priority will bring relief and hope across the Middle East and farther afield. The difficulty now lies in translating the new goodwill into action, not just by America, but by its Arab and Muslim allies.