December 13, 2008

Muslims Cautioned About Hopey Changey Expectations

According to this article Obama was elected because he wants to repair America's image with Muslims.

WASHINGTON // Barack Obama, the US president elect, had a ready audience this week when he spoke of repairing the country’s image among Muslims and the international community – issues he trumpeted on the campaign trail that last month led him to victory.

“One of the problems he faces is expectations, they’ll be very high,” said James Zogby, the president of the Washington, DC-based Arab American Institute.

“Many Muslims hope to see a swift resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a fast fix for the Iraq war, neither of which will be solved within the first 100 days of Mr Obama’s presidency,” said Mr Zogby, who also writes a column for The National. He has to look for smaller, but real, things to do. The small things don’t let people down and they win him time.”

For instance, Mr Obama must “make clear his commitment not just to two states, because that doesn’t say much anymore, but to make a statement of concern about the suffering of the Palestinian people – and then to do something about it”[Israel has to put up with daily katyusha rockets and he says Palestinians are suffering?.. ed]

In an interview with The Chicago Tribune this week, Mr Obama promised an “unrelenting” desire to create good relationships with countries “who want their citizens and ours to prosper together”.

“I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular.”

Mr Obama also reaffirmed his plan to make a major speech in an Islamic capital some time after he is sworn in on Jan 20 – news that spurred much speculation about which city that might be and what he might discuss there. Some reports have suggested Cairo, the Egyptian capital, would provide a central and safe destination for Mr Obama to speak.

Obama needs to assure the Muslim world that the US does not see Islam as an illness to be treated or something defective and flawed that ought to be fixed,” said Mr abou el Fadl, a former Bush appointee to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“If Obama recognises that, like racism and anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Islam hating has become a major problem in today’s world and proclaims that the US affirmatively condemns and is strongly opposed to all acts designed to perpetuate religious hatred and bigotry, this will have a very healing effect,” he said in an e-mail.

Mr Obama is uniquely suited to rebuilding America’s image with Muslims, observers say. He is a Christian with ties to Islam – his Kenyan father was raised a Muslim. As a child he lived for several years in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democrac said that with his ties and experience abroad, Mr Obama is bound to have more knowledge and respect for other religions[Ties and experience?...ed]

“And frankly I think that’s why he was elected,” Mr Masmoudi said. “I think that the American people are tired of the wars and the confrontation. They want to see more respect and more dialogue and more reaching out to the Muslim world.”

Nothing will please the Muslim world unless we become the "United States of Islam"