FROM CAIRO to Jakarta it had been eagerly awaited and speculated on since Barack Obama first floated the idea during his inauguration speech in January. The newly installed US president promised to deliver a major speech in the capital of a Muslim country during which he would speak directly to the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims.
Yesterday Mr Obama gave that address to a 1,000-strong audience gathered in the august surroundings of Cairo University in Egypt. Millions more across the globe watched or listened as the US president called for a new beginning in relations between his country and the world’s Muslims, arguing that the “cycle of suspicion and discord” between the West and Islam must end.
“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; and one based on the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive,” he told an audience that frequently erupted with thunderous applause.
Recalling a speech he gave in Turkey earlier this year, Mr Obama said: “America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.” He struck a respectful tone during the speech, opening with a traditional greeting in Arabic and detailing many of the grievances Muslims hold against the US and the West.
Framing his address with an appeal to common humanity and shared experience, the president drew cheers when he said Islamic teachings, far from being the source of conflict, could help to bring about peace: “The holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind . . . Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace,” he said.
It was the first of several quotations from the Koran in a speech loaded with allusions to Islamic history and culture. Mr Obama went on to praise Islam’s traditions of learning, culture and tolerance, saying they could form the foundations for all faiths and nationalities to make a fresh start, and work in co-operation with one another.
He referred to his own Muslim father and recalled his childhood in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
In comments interpreted as a clear rejection of the Bush doctrine, Mr Obama said: “America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed.” Despite a robust defence of the invasion of Afghanistan, Mr Obama struck a more ambivalent note on Iraq.
“Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world,” he said.
“Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible.” The president reiterated plans for the US to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011 and said American forces would leave Afghanistan as soon as Washington was certain it and neighbouring Pakistan were no longer safe havens for al-Qaeda and other militants.
Many had expected the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to dominate the speech. It didn’t, and Mr Obama did not use the opportunity to announce any major policy shifts. He described Washington’s bond with Israel as “unbreakable” and denounced those who deny the Holocaust. But he had stern words for Israel, particularly on the issue of illegal settlements.
“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. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.”
He was equally blunt when telling Palestinian militants they must abandon violence. “It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus . . . Violence is a dead end . . . That is not how moral authority is claimed, it is how it is surrendered.” He repeated his willingness to move forward in relations with Iran “without preconditions” and on the basis of mutual trust, and defended Tehran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy. But on the vexed issue of nuclear weapons, he warned: “We have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America’s interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.”
Earlier in his speech, when listing the events that had fostered suspicion and enmity towards the US, Mr Obama had talked about how “in the middle of the cold war, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government”, a reference to the CIA-assisted coup against the Mossadeq government in 1953.
But Mr Obama, whose approval ratings in several Muslim countries were recently found to be much higher than his predecessors, admitted that words alone can only do so much in bridging the gap. “No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust,” he said.