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 relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.
Note that all but one of the factors Obama cites or suggests have Muslim countries as the victims of the wicked West. The only other factor, terrorism, is described by Obama as merely a reaction to the West’s aggressive values, and even then he seems to say that the West’s fear of terrorism is a bigger problem than the terrorism itself.
This is profoundly wrong and almost certainly dishonest.
Missing from this part of Obama’s analysis is the aggressive wars launched by Muslim nations on each other, on Israel and, covertly, on the West through sponsored terrorism such as the Lockerbie bombing. Missing is the tyranny imposed for so long on most Muslims by their own leaders, and the manipulation of the resentment of citizens into hatred of Jews and the West. Missing is the failure of so many Muslim nations to educate their own citizens and make them wealthy, leaving them to resent the richer West. Missing is that the Muslim world has tense relations not only with the US, but with Israel, Russia. India and Europe.
This is the Big Lie of Obama’s speech, and to support it Obama marshalls a fleet of little lies, too, to flatter rather than illuminate:
As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.
Which is, in fact, small, if Obama is referring to world civilisation today, however rude that may sound.
It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment.
Which is grossly exaggerated. If Islam was so central, why is the Renaissance yet to be felt in so much of the Islam world even today?
And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.
It has? Which Muslim country in the Middle East today demonstrates those possibilities as they are demonstrated in almost any nation of the West?
I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.
In what positive and substantial way?
No doubt Obama meant to offer this bow as a sign of respect to people he hopes will then heed his message a little more closely. If it works, some small good may yet come from Obama’s speech. For instance, he tackles the persistent myth in the Middle East that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, or no more than the US deserved. He points out that Muslim terrorists kill Muslims above all. He asserts the historical truth of the Holocaust. He is convincing in insisting the US has no designs on Afghanistan, and although he’s too apologetic over Iraq, he at least points out the Iraq is better off without Saddam. (So why oppose the war to remove not just Iraq’s tyrant, but the threat he posed to the region and beyond?) If Muslims will hear out Obama as they (allegedly) did not Bush, all this is good.
And Obama’s speech then offers the usual - but welcome nevertheless, even if muted - affirmations of the need for more democracy in the Middle East and for the better education of women. He also tells Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, warning we have “reached a decisive point”. But in all these areas he offers no concrete proposals at all, and even promises Iran in turn that the US is hoping to scrap its own nuclear weapons, an ambition the West must hope will never be fulfilled. Obama merely offers himself as an honest, almost literally disarming broker. A saint. Iran will not be scared by this speech.
In one area only is Obama a little more specific, although the specifics come with no threats or inducements and little hope of fulfilment. We’re talking Israel. and once again Obama’s version of history is one that offers the Muslim world too much and truth too little:
Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust… Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.
On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own…
Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed. For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding… It’s a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end…
Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities. To play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, and to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist.
At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements… And just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security; neither does the continuing lack of opportunity in the West Bank.
The weight of the guilt is laid at the door of Israel. Obama’s view suggests that Israel was simply the imposition of a Jewish state on Muslim (and Christian) inhabitants by refugees from the Holocaust, rather than also the revival of an historical entity by people with deep roots to the land. The likening of Palestinians to US slaves is an irresponsible and inflammatory exaggeration. The portrayal of Gazan residents as mere victims of Israeli cruelty, rather than people suffering the consequences of a war waged by their own leaders, also forgives more than is wise or fair. The Arab world’s deliberate creation of a permanent and now self-reproducing refugee population of Palestinians is not mentioned. Hamas is still treated as a legitimate governing entity, rather than a terrorist group which has murdered opponents. In all, Palestinians will take from Obama’s speech the message that they are the victims and Israel the aggressor.
I doubt that’s an accident. Obama’s demands are most specific when they detail what Israel must surrender or offer - an end to West Bank settlement, better living conditions in Gaza (which it does not control), a Palestinian state, “concrete steps” to improve life in the West Bank. Yes, there are also demands made of Hamas - which “must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist” - but these are standard demands made of a terrorist organisation that has shown not the slightest interest in obeying, and which Obama offers not the slightest hint of enforcing.
To sum up: Obama’s speech is designed to tell Muslims he understands and empathises. He wants them to trust him so they will hear him. But to get that trust he tells them they are actually victims of the West Obama represents, and of the Jews. Or so he will be understood. Of actual proposals to solve anything he has few. He’s offering not plans but himself. He is the Healer.
Will this work? Will Muslims, having been told they are victims, resolve to take more responsibility for peace and good governance? Will the West, having had reaffirmed a sense of their own guilt, keep any remaining resolve to defend their own interests and rights?
As you can tell, I’m deeply sceptical. I think Obama has given in, and, hoping to be liked, will earn only contempt..
Source: Herald Sun
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