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President Barack Obama sought a “new beginning” between the United States and Muslims around the world in a major speech…but offered no new initiative to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world — tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate,” the U.S. president said in a speech at Cairo University.
“I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect,” he said. “America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition.”
Obama’s speech, interrupted by applause and occasional shouts of “we love you,” was an effort to restore the tarnished U.S. image among many of the more than 1 billion Muslims around the world, badly damaged by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the treatment of U.S. military detainees…
The choice of Cairo for the speech underscored Obama’s focus on the Middle East, where he faces huge foreign policy challenges, from trying to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
How many Americans ask the same questions that people in the Middle East are asking? How many Americans questioned the policies that brought us to where we are?
How many of you believe that the relationship between the United States and the world of Islam can and will improve?
Here’s the prepared text of the speech.
I just read the text of it this a.m. Good speech to start a new Admin into that part of the world. I only disagreed with one policy point; giving $ to those morally corrupt countries. Minor point for me though.
Nope sorry. I am from da south and i now that muslims are bad peeple. i will not stand for this from owr prezident1 up in arms by brothers!
Question: How many of you believe that the relationship between the United States and the world of Islam can and will improve?
It’s not just a problem involving the USA.
For your answer: Take a look at the huge influx of Muslims into Europe over the past decade and the resulting rioting and problems the Europeans are now faced with.
*Can* is improve, sure. *Will* it? Far tougher sell. I am by no means an expert on Islamic sociology, but my understanding of the situation leads me to believe there are a smattering of fundamental, and often conflicting, problems, starting from the very basest – Western worldview is simply working off of a vastly different reference point than Islam. I would even go so far as to say they are incompatible. (It’s the same problem we’ve had with China, though *their* worldview is also vastly different than Islam’s.)
I haven’t read the speech, so I don’t know if Obama’s administration is prepared for the challenge of negotiating from that standpoint. Bush, with his ‘welcomed as liberators’ perspective, clearly failed to understand this basic point. In fact, pretty much all western world leaders since World War II have failed to understand this. (The problem was not helped by the fact that Israel was, essentially, a Western nation – in terms of this sociological world view – at its inception.) A half way can always be reached… but one has to understand where the line lies in order to negotiate to that half mark.
Ah, the kumbayah foreign policy. It only works with nations that want to be peaceful. Most of the Muslims that are dying in the Middle East are being killed by other Muslims and that has been true long before either Bush. Does anyone seriously trust any of these nations of with nukes? Do we really trust Iran with nuclear missiles that can hit Israel? Really? In Franklin’s time, we could afford to take the attitude of allowing other nations to go kill themselves. In the nuclear era, we cannot.
I am generally happy with Obama but I am so sick of the “We are not at war with Islam” line. When will we be at war with Islam? Islam is surely at war with us.
As far back as I can remember, pretty much every act of terrorism (except OK City) commited anywhere in the world has been commited by Muslims in the name of Islam.
The idea that we can seperate the “extremists” from the rest of Islam is bull. The extremeists would not be able to function without the support of the entire Global Islamic Community.
Remember the cheering crowds of Muslims in Patterson NJ during 911? I do.
#6 Sure, scoff at what you call “kumbayah” foreign policy. You also make reference to Muslims killing themselves off before Bush and not trusting Muslim nations with nukes.
How do your lame, irrelevant “points” counter the need to improve the way average and very large Muslim population have towards the United States.
You GOP fuckers just come across as being a bunch of dickheads with no rational sense about the power of simple diplomacy and a god damn handshake. The most dangerous element to keeping the world at peace is often the fucktards that live in our own back yard.
as it this . The bottom line is
#8
The Muslim nations have to want to peaceful and that means eliminating terrorism within their own borders. If they are bent on continuing to kill others because of religion, then no amount of pandering is going to help; in fact it will make things worse. The kumbayah foreign policy approach never works with tyrannical governments. If a Muslim nation wants to join the 21st century and stop teaching their toddlers to hate Jews, then I’m all for improving relations. Looking at the landscape, I don’t see any such nation.
The whole focus on “renewing”, “rebooting”, “resetting” shows a lack of professionalism. There is a 200 year history that the Administration represents, but they prefer to play political games. Things like presenting the Russians a reset button are stupid, and even more so when they can’t translate right, and the button says overcharge.
#8 You’re a simpleton. Under Clinton, who really tried to get peace in the ME, we were constantly attacked by Muslim terrorists backed by ME gov’ts…
In public they are talking about relationships. In private they are talking about oil. If OPEC has it’s way they will set oil prices at $80-$100 a barrel. That would wreck any chance at a recovery.
IMHO
Since when does the USA or any country have a relation ship with a religion? Does the Muslim religion have a embassy in D.C.? How does a US President reset relations with a groups that itself is splintered in many different ways?
And what is to reset? Every President in the last 50 years has had some version of “Let’s bring peace to the Middle East.” None have worked for long except Carter’s Israel/Egypt work and that pretty much got Egypt’s President killed.
When one Islamic country fought against another in the Iran Iraq war we helped a country that we liked better. To say that was an attack on Islam is like saying I’m a racist if I take sides in a bar fight between to Black guys.
In 1991 we sent troops to remove an invader when one country invaded its smaller neighbor. Both also happened to be Islamic.
We were attacked by a sect of Muslims on 9/11 and we fought back. We have nothing to apologize for there.
We attacked Iraq who was killing other members of Islam on a regular basis and was run by a not very religious Muslim idiot. While you can argue that going into Iraq was a bad thing that was one country against another country not the US v. Islam.
I guess we could apologize for supporting Israel against a bunch of Islamic nations that would like to see it’s people pushed into the sea but I don’t think we should but even there we are supporting a country not a religion.
And during and during all of these events and before we have paid for moving several M.E. countries into the 21st century from the bronze age in a little over 50 years.
So what exactly is he reseting?
#10 “The whole focus on “renewing”, “rebooting”, “resetting” shows a lack of professionalism.”
When my great grandfather came over from present-day Lebanon the United States was a land of opportunity and most Arabs had a good or neutral opinion of the US. The decline in relations was relatively recent. They’ve gotten a pretty raw deal for the last century or so, and they’re tired of being kicked around by the western powers.
The middle east certainly has its problems, but I think forming good relationships can only be a good thing. How many other presidents have spoken directly to the Arab world like this?
# 15 Somebody_Else said, “The decline in relations was relatively recent.”
Wrong. Have you ever listened to the Marine Corps Hymn? Those words are there for a reason. Muslim terrorism against the U.S. 2 centuries ago, before we had anything to do with the M.E.
>How many other presidents have spoken directly to the Arab world like this?
Probably all of them in recent times. You can compare Bush’s speech in Cairo as well.
As to the decline in relations being relatively recent, here is something from Christopher Hitchens.
They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves in this way. As Jefferson later reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:
The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.
Is this Barack Obama or Neville Chamberlain – I get confused with all this peace in out time talk.
Heads-up Poland, we’ve seen this story before.
where are the speaches from the islamic world saying what they are gonna do??? odd we only hear the terroist side…. maybe because there is only a terrorist side…
#16 “Wrong. Have you ever listened to the Marine Corps Hymn? Those words are there for a reason. Muslim terrorism against the U.S. 2 centuries ago, before we had anything to do with the M.E.”
Equating the north African Barbary pirates with the entire Arab world is quite a stretch. I suppose you think the Somali pirates represent the entire Arab world as well?
# 14 GigG said,When one Islamic country fought against another in the Iran Iraq war we helped a country that we liked better. To say that was an attack on Islam is like saying I’m a racist if I take sides in a bar fight between to Black guys
To make your analogy more accurate, you wouldn’t be taking sides in the fight, you would be handing one of the two black men knives or broken bottles.
What would the other people in the bar think of you?
#20 Time for you to study the incident(s) in question. Start with the diplomatic correspondence & the Frigate Captain’s orders and communiques… You are ignorant of this part of US & Arabic history.
#11 Well, you’re a buffoon. Obama is speaking to the greater Muslim population. Guess what cowboy, the average Muslim family wants what you want – peace and prosperity. There is nothing but good that comes out of speaking softly. For those that want war and hate, we have the same crazy aunts in our own country – the Christian Taliban. But, of course, those are OK because they are white and it’s about Jesus.
You should separate the government from the people. Most people in the world hate the US and love the people largely because of the Bush fiasco, axis of evil and comments like the “crusade”. This has largely placed the US where we are today – hated and despised.
Nothing god about that.
I applaud Obama for taking closing that misunderstanding and so should you. Instead, like sheep you herd to the defensive party position. Shameful.
Wishful thinking.But I wonder how effective pandering to the right wing Islamic idea of the Mulsim world (the Muslim Caliphate is an extremist idea) is a way to bring mainstream Muslims on our side? The whole idea of this speech really generalizes the Muslim world as Arab, whereas most of the Muslim world is non-Arab, and mostly non-extremist.
#23 If you read the thread you would have noticed that I too liked the speech. Of course, being a simpleton, you couldn’t answer to the Clinton (Dem) problems I mentioned…
Slick Willy and his wife shook their hands and gave them hugs for 8 years. Only cost us an embassy or two, a Navy ship and 2 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Love the peace in the Middle East he cooked up with his buddy Arafat.
Oh, and then there is the Korean thing. That worked out well too!
I think the title of this article reveals a lot about the poster (eideard). It says “Obama reboots US/Muslim relationship”. Not “attempts to…”. It is stated as a fact, as someone who puts their trust – their faith – wholly into the man, Barack Obama.
Nothing has been rebooted, eideard. It’s just a speech, intended to appeal to weak-willed minds who want to believe it can happen. But the truth is that the enmity has existed for well over a thousand years, and will continue regardless of any human efforts, because their prophet states that death must come to all infidels. The US, whether a “Christian” nation or not, will continue to be a nation of infidels because of our love of hedonism and debauchery. We exalt sinful behavior, and that, above and beyond the relationship with Israel, will keep the extremists on the offensive.
On a tangential topic, I think it’s ironic that most of the people who comment on here favorably about Obama, and his attempts at “diplomatic negotiations” with Muslims, can’t seem to get along with ANYONE who thinks differently than they do. Your language is consistently full of insults and profanity, and that is the cause for more division and war in the world than any religious differences that have ever existed. You demean people who have faith in ANY God, and yet you have no problems putting blind faith in men like Obama, even though they lead you over a cliff.
Wise up, people.
#7 “As far back as I can remember, pretty much every act of terrorism (except OK City) commited anywhere in the world has been commited by Muslims in the name of Islam.”
Memory or news sources need improvement. Do you remember the front page news of just a couple of weeks ago? The end of the Sri Lanka – Tamil Tiger thing? That involved terrorism by the Tigers and no Islamic context (except maybe that Islamist terrorists learned a lot from the Tigers’ tactics).
If it’s only short-term memory that is impaired, how about Spain – Basque, Ireland, even Canada – Quebec, circa 1970. In a historical perspective, the Boston Tea Party might even be interpreted as a terrorist act.
#27 “….reveals a lot about the poster (eideard). It says “Obama reboots US/Muslim relationship”. Not “attempts to…”. ..”
I got it what Eideard meant. You didn’t? Perhaps it’s a reader problem not an author problem. Look inward at times – sometimes it’s you.
“…Nothing has been rebooted, …truth is that the enmity has existed for well over a thousand years, and will continue..”
Yeah Yeah, same old same old excuse to do nothing, dothe same. Stick head in sand.. Well, we have a new sheriff in town. I want to give the new sheriff the benefit of brining in new ideas to the table. Don’t like it? Tough. your party lost. STFU and listen to talk radio.
“…On a tangential topic, I think it’s ironic that most of the people who comment on here favorably about Obama, …, can’t seem to get along with ANYONE who thinks differently..”
You’re right. what goes around comes around. If you want to claim the high ground on this, sorry, there is no moral high ground for you to claim. Furthermore, this forum is about blunt facts and opinions. I’m certainly not looking for any beer buddies, you? When you stop talking out of both sides of your mouth, perhaps there will be hope but very unlikely.
#29 ROFL! Keep dodging…
#25 “..Of course, being a simpleton, you couldn’t answer to the Clinton (Dem) problems I mentioned… blah blah”
Here you’re answer. Clinton? Irrelevant and I don’t care what happened a decade ago. New world, new times, new opportunities.
If you’re still stuck in the policies and issues of last century that prevent you from looking forward, that’s your problem right there.
suking up to bullies never works. all you geek dweebs that read this blog… think back… did it work in h.s.?? case closed. the only real reason the middle east matters to us at all is oil… unless the pres follows through with a “new deal” or a “put a man on the moon in a decade”… type commitment we will be stuck in the sand of the middle east with good boys dying for no good f’ing reason.