Welcome to Cairo, Obama!
Published in Rose Al Yousef
(Egypt) on 11 Febuary 2009
by Osama Al Ghazoly (link to original)
(Egypt) on 11 Febuary 2009
by Osama Al Ghazoly (link to original)
Translated from
by Asmaa Sharaf El Deen.
Edited by Louis Standish.
It goes without saying that the structural flaws in the U.S.’s consideration of every Muslim country comes when it views every Muslim country not as individual nation-states, but as part of a larger incoherent entity, quintessentially religious, and also its refusal to approve to the formation of an independent national identity from the intellectual and political practices in most of these countries.
This was crystal clear when al-Arabia’s reporter, Hisham Melhem’s, the Lebanese Marionite of national and Arab views, interviewed American President Barack Obama. When Obama said that tackling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would come within a wider framework that extends to the Islamic world as a whole, this beyond any shadow of a doubt builds upon the resolutions of the Arab league, and clearly plays to the tune of the next potential players: Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Moreover, it is also the double dealing indicated by every American president’s promise, and Obama is not the exception, of preserving Israel's security, even with its military might, nuclear monopoly, technical and economic boom and superiority to all its neighbors. And to be right about that, what already threatens Israel's security is its defiance of law, ethics, history, geography and insistence upon doing to the benefits of the American policies even with their unreasonableness.
And strangely enough, Obama regards the region, where many Muslim states are located, as a playing field for two powers: the terrorist al-Qaeda network and moderate Islam. This is total nonsense, because the differences lie between a country of various views and obligations and the other are schools of reform: either comply with reason and law or follow the radical trends of specific ideologies. The difference comes between a regional power that is attempting to maintain the national identity of every nation-state and another that is satisfied with tempting others to wear the gown of religious or ethnic factions and abandon developing a stout army and security forces to form militias, like the example of the non-institutional forces in Iraq, especially when the occupation forces differentiate between the army, the police forces and the government.
Apparently, Obama came to the White House to put out the fires George W. Bush and his vice president intentionally ignited in the whole world in general and in the Muslim countries in particular. And when this happens, the already tiny size of al-Qaeda and other radical movements shall be revealed.
Only then will politically-charged Islamic group unconditionally consent to the force of national law and can be included into a serious political and society dialogue that tops the national agenda and not only America’s.
Obama’s new attitude attempts to push the ME to abandon violence and focus on the ordinary needs of everyone. And he can seek advice based on Egypt’s own expertise in order to deepen this understanding and break new ground for mutual cooperative efforts by paying Cairo a visit, the most sublime pulpit from which both Islamic and human cultures were addressed during the past 1000 years. I actually do not know when shall Obama come to Egypt but I can say it from now on: welcome to Cairo, Mr. President!
This was crystal clear when al-Arabia’s reporter, Hisham Melhem’s, the Lebanese Marionite of national and Arab views, interviewed American President Barack Obama. When Obama said that tackling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would come within a wider framework that extends to the Islamic world as a whole, this beyond any shadow of a doubt builds upon the resolutions of the Arab league, and clearly plays to the tune of the next potential players: Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Moreover, it is also the double dealing indicated by every American president’s promise, and Obama is not the exception, of preserving Israel's security, even with its military might, nuclear monopoly, technical and economic boom and superiority to all its neighbors. And to be right about that, what already threatens Israel's security is its defiance of law, ethics, history, geography and insistence upon doing to the benefits of the American policies even with their unreasonableness.
And strangely enough, Obama regards the region, where many Muslim states are located, as a playing field for two powers: the terrorist al-Qaeda network and moderate Islam. This is total nonsense, because the differences lie between a country of various views and obligations and the other are schools of reform: either comply with reason and law or follow the radical trends of specific ideologies. The difference comes between a regional power that is attempting to maintain the national identity of every nation-state and another that is satisfied with tempting others to wear the gown of religious or ethnic factions and abandon developing a stout army and security forces to form militias, like the example of the non-institutional forces in Iraq, especially when the occupation forces differentiate between the army, the police forces and the government.
Apparently, Obama came to the White House to put out the fires George W. Bush and his vice president intentionally ignited in the whole world in general and in the Muslim countries in particular. And when this happens, the already tiny size of al-Qaeda and other radical movements shall be revealed.
Only then will politically-charged Islamic group unconditionally consent to the force of national law and can be included into a serious political and society dialogue that tops the national agenda and not only America’s.
Obama’s new attitude attempts to push the ME to abandon violence and focus on the ordinary needs of everyone. And he can seek advice based on Egypt’s own expertise in order to deepen this understanding and break new ground for mutual cooperative efforts by paying Cairo a visit, the most sublime pulpit from which both Islamic and human cultures were addressed during the past 1000 years. I actually do not know when shall Obama come to Egypt but I can say it from now on: welcome to Cairo, Mr. President!