US President Barack Obama has awoken hope for redress of grievances in the hearts of some of the more than a billion Muslims scattered in diverse communities across the globe.
To win their minds, sceptical after a “war on terror” waged by his predecessor George W. Bush that many saw as an assault on Islam, Obama must follow his speech to the Muslim world this week with evidence of real change in US policy and outlook.
That, at least, is a common thread stressed by politicians and analysts from Muslim-majority countries — as is the urgency of US action to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
From Kuala Lumpur to Kabul, from Ramallah to Riyadh, the messages for Obama throb with that central concern, along with a yearning for a break from the divisive, militaristic, pro-Israel stance many Muslims associate with the eight-year Bush era.
“It’s not too late to repair relations between the US and the Muslim world,” said Tifatul Sembiring, president of an Islamist party in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population. “But Obama has to give us some proof that there will not be another opportunistic war, such as happened in Iraq.”
Sembiring, who leads the PKS (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera or Prosperous Justice Party), homed in on the Palestinian issue: “Are they [the Americans] serious about creating a real solution for Palestine? We are waiting for justice on this.”
Obama’s best chance to win over Muslims and Arabs was to use Washington’s leverage on its Israeli ally, Saudi political analyst Turad al-Amri said.
“By pressuring Israel, Obama will win in more than one area — in terrorism, the Iran file, Lebanon,” he said.
Obama has said Israel must halt all settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, a demand that sets him on a collision course with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For Palestine Liberation Organization negotiator Saeb Erekat, Obama’s task was to ensure creation of a Palestinian state: “People of this region don’t want to hear words any more. They want to see deeds.”
In Kabul, Afghan lawmaker Sabrina Saqib said Obama’s roots, as a black American with a Muslim father, meant he understood deprivation and would work to settle the Palestinian issue.
“One speech will not work, but it’s good for a start,” she said of Obama’s planned address on Thursday. “When you pay homage to others and respect them, you enliven their spirit.”
“The change of US language under Obama must be translated on the ground,” said Ali Baraka, deputy representative of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in Damascus. “The first step would be to pressure [Israel] to stop its aggression against Gaza and lift the siege on the Strip.”
In Iran, Mohammad Marandi, a professor who heads North American Studies at Tehran University, said Obama was “slowly running out of time” to repair the US image in the region.
He called for “substantial change” in US foreign policy toward the non-Western world, without detailing how Iran, under scrutiny over its nuclear program, might reciprocate.
Asked what he would like Obama to say, Marandi said: “That the US no longer sees itself as a country which is exceptional and has exceptional rights. It’s a country like all others ... I think Muslims and non-Muslims would all like to hear that.”
However, Obama’s decision to make Cairo the venue for his appeal to the Muslim world drew criticism as well as understanding.
“He could have thought out of the box and chosen Indonesia or even Malaysia to give a new shift in the paradigm for addressing the Muslim world’s issues,” said Dzulkifli Ahmad, strategist for the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS