"… Hope that American Policies Towards Arab Countries are Changing"

Barack Obama is raising great hope among those who practice moderate Islam, explains Nadia Khouri-Dagher author of “Modern Islam, Muslims Against Fundamentalism” (1)

La Croix: Monday April 6th in Turkey, President Barack Obama announced a program to aid of Muslim countries. How is this perceived and what are the expectations of him in the Arab world?

Nadia Khouri-Dagher: There is great hope that American policies towards Arab countries are changing. George W. Bush was hated because of the destruction of Iraq and his inaction in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Barack Obama, whose father was Muslim – his middle name is Hussein – is considered a little bit like one “of them.” And, because of his past, his work in the suburbs, he is seen as having more compassion and more interest for the poor. Modern Islam represents a known current in the United States. Many of its thinkers have taken refuge there, organizing conferences on campuses.

How are the proponents of modern Islam heard in the Arab countries?

By means of the written press and especially the media in French, which are freer than those in Arabic. Although they address an elite, they are influential. In Algeria, newspapers like El Watan, Le Matin, in Morocco, Telquel, which put out a version in Arabic, Nichane, the weekly newspaper Hebdomadaire, the weekly Realites, in Tunisia; all advocate a moderate Islam. The other means of expression is the Internet where information from Western media picked up by the media in Maghreb is distributed.

The Tunisian sociologist and opposition figure, Khadija Cherif, who doesn’t have access to media because of censure, expresses herself on the Internet, by means of interviews given to the French media, which are then put on the Net. France plays a key role in the Maghreb. Like the members of the French resistance, who were helped by America in the Second World War, the moderate and secular Muslims are helped by the West and by the French media. They are not clandestine. In Algeria, Morocco, or in Tunisian, the civil societies react in a rather strong way because they have been touched by Islamism, they were committed modernism. It is in Morocco that the associations have more freedom to act. King Mohammed VI follows supports such a policy. With certain limitations.

What is the role of women?

They have very powerful networks to fight fundamentalism and are financial supporters of international organizations. The women’s NGOs in Maghreb, created thirty years after the conference of the United Nations in Mexico on women in 1975, penetrate all layers of society and bring together lawyers, doctors, and militants as well as illiterate peasants. They were the first to react against the Islamism that has targeted them. In Morocco, for example, the Democratic League for the rights of women, which unites tens of thousands of supporters, does formidable work. Like the Islamists, its members go into the villages where they distribute audio cassettes in Moroccan Arabic dialect, containing modern sermons of the new thinkers.

How to interpret the increase in wearing the veil?

In Casablanca like in Cairo, the majority of women are either the wives of rural migrants are rural migrants themselves. For them, the veil is a way of protecting themselves against the city, against harassment. Twenty years ago, women were less veiled, but also less active. Today, sixty percent of students in the University of Algiers are students. The female doctors, doctors in biology are veiled, a boxing champion in Morocco is veiled. For these women, the veil is not a sign of ideological belonging. It is a sign of sociological transition from the country to the city.”

(1) Éditions Hugo & Cie, 254 p., 17,95 €.