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Politics in Depth Team
Answer
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Name
Sara
- United States
Profession
Question
Hi mr Omar,
should we expect any mention of Muslims/Islam in Obama's speech today?
Answer
We are currently awaiting the President-elect's inaugural address--to be delivered in before the noon hour here in -05:00 Eastern Time.
In short, I would guess that the inaugural address will focus on the same message of inclusivity that was the hallmark of his election campaign.
American Muslims might remember a line from Obama's infamous 2004 Democratic Convention speech (that basically launched his political career): "If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties," he said.
We never really heard this kind of rhetoric throughout the campaign--and I don't suspect we'll hear any references to Muslims/Islam in his inaugural address. It is important to remember that, during the campaign, President-elect Obama himself was the target of the same daily stereotypes that your average Muslim or Arab faces everyday in America.
Name
Amr Ali
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Maybe because he's America's first black president ,that made everyone dreams about Change ! But Is this Change would be just for Americans or the whole world including Muslims ?!
Answer
There is no question that many of the actions of (any) American President reverberate across the world. For all the talk of American decline--what Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria refers to as "the rise of the rest"--it's still very hard to acknowledge this thesis in a moment like the one the world is experiencing today.
Make no mistake about it, the change that President-elect Obama has promised will be global; it will be all-encompassing; and it will be felt by friend and foe alike. As Muslims we just hope that, God willing, his policy preferences are genuinely driven by the honest, humble character of Barack Obama that the world has come to know in recent years.
In his New Hampshire primary speech, President-elect Obama said: "We will end this war in Iraq. We will bring our troops home. We will finish the job -- we will finish the job against Al Qaida in Afghanistan. We will care for our veterans. We will restore our moral standing in the world."
If he accomplishes this alone, Muslims should be pleased.
Name
Amrosconi
-
Profession
Question
Do you think that Obama's policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict will be completely based on his team, who worked with Clinton, or he will have a "revolutionary" vision? why?
Answer
Great question. I think that there is a glimmering hope on the part of many Arab Americans, and indeed many Americans in general, that, despite the almost impenetrable forces of Washington status quo delinquency, the President-elect might see fit to exercise his sweeping powers as Commander-in-Chief to begin a new chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
I have been following the President-elect's statements on the Middle East closely, and I guess I would say that I am "cautiously optimistic" about any potential policy shift in this area. The President-elect's June 2008 speech addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (which can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cOJNC2EuJw) reveals that he has pretty much succumbed to the Israeli line.
In this speech, readers might also remember that the President-elect ruffled some feathers by declaring Jerusalem to be the unequivocal capital of the state of Israel--a position that even the truest of pro-Israeli Washington-types have been hesitant to admit. I believe he later retracted this statement...but the episode points to just some of the semantic and policy pressures that he will be facing when in office.
I personally hope and pray that, when the lobbyists (which he has decried) are back in their quarters, and when the contingent of pro-Israeli political staffers are away, that the President-elect might contemplate in his own quarters in the Oval Office the legacy he might be setting for the Middle East if he truly defines a new strategy of openness and fairness.
Name
Abbas
- United States
Profession
Engineer
Question
It's possible that Obama might be more sympathetic to the Palestinians' plights than previous US presidents. But he won't if the Arab leaders themselves become less sympathetic, as they have done this time post-Gaza. Shouldn't American Muslims focus their protests towards Arab leaders in a plea to ask them to support the current leadership in Gaza as a legitmate gov't?
Answer
Great point. Remember, though, that the frustration on the part of American Muslims should also legitimately be directed at their own government: after all, the taxes that these American Muslims pay supports the foreign and military aid that Israel then uses to wreak their carnage on the civilian population in Gaza.
Still, if one thing has become apparent in recent weeks, it is the utter incompetence, the abject failure of the Arab leaders to do scant anything for their fellow Arabs in this, their time of need. It's utter paralysis, in my opinion--a near check-mate on their ability to do anything.
I recall with sadness the decision of some Lebanese protestors a few weeks ago, who chose protest in front of the EGYPTIAN embassy in Beirut...as if to say, "Where are the Arabs?"
The late President Ronald Reagan famously noted that the politics of the Middle East is "irrational"...I have contended in the past that this irrationality has as much to do the incongruency of genuine (Islam-friendly) American values and principles, and their shameful support for Arab dictators.
Will we see a change under President-elect Obama? I doubt it.
Name
Muslim Arabian
-
Profession
Question
Dear Mr.Soliman,
I see it somehow annoying and unrealistic when we tackle Muslims in America and their needs as a political "group" as if they don't share same needs with other groups in the US; do they ask for something different really?
(Note: i would assume they now would like a better economy and a pullout of Iraq while keeping its stability and a solution concerning Pal./Israel conflict, all of which are main stream opinions and needs in America)
Answer
My point exactly. Political historians have this unfortunate tendency to categorize the concerns of immigrant communities as exclusive to the regions from which they have arrived. This approach is flawed for a number of reasons--but, above all, it carries with it the assumption that a new American should invariably be disconnected from the domestic issues that grip the host nation.
Canadian author Yann Martel describes this phenomenon of immigrants checking in to the new country, bringing along their baggage, and then leaving at whim--the nation then becomes, in her words, "the greatest hotel on earth."
The American and Canadian Muslim communities, however, are strong and vibrant communities...these people have been paying their taxes and are law-abiding citizens. They are just as concerned, as I write in my piece, with the declining state of the US economy, access to affordable health care, and the searing, unashamed exploitation of the environment.
They will (and should) be as demanding any other citizen.
Name
-
-
Profession
Question
Why does Obama avoid talking about US Muslims? Is it because he is already of the "Islamic origins" labeling?
What should US Muslims do so that they get on the top of US politicians' agendas?
Answer
They should do everything that the Jewish American community has done in order to promote their agenda in corridors of power. They should lobby, fundraise, write, debate, and challenge the status quo.
They will need to do these things intelligently. We can start by engaging ourselves in the pressing questions of foreign policy theory, and by studying the adequacies and inadequacies of American history.
Name
Amr
-
Profession
Question
Why do you think American Muslims switched in such numbers from Republicans in 2000 to Democrats in 2008? Are we looking only at foreign policy? How about marriage and other conservative issues? Do they matter less to us? Thanks
Answer
Excellent question. It's hard to say at first hand why such a shift took place. There was evidence in 2000 of a top-down bloc of Muslims who were directed to vote Republican. The effect (under-reported as it was) was felt most prominently in Florida, the battleground state that eventually shifted in President Bush's favour (by virtue of a Supreme Court decision).
A CAIR poll conducted before the campaign in 2000 revealed: 72 percent support for Bush among American Muslims, 8 percent for Gore, and 19 percent for Nader. Following the campaign, certain exit polls revealed that more than 80 percent of Muslims vote for Bush, 9 percent for Gore, and 10 percent for Nader.
The important thing to remember is that it was indeed a top-down directed system--Imams and community leaders had purportedly encouraged this vote.
In 2008, we are seeing what is undoubtedly a case of political maturity on the part of the American Muslim community...and I can contend with ease that the American Muslim community voted en masse for the President-elect for the SAME REASONS that countless other millions of Americans voted for him: because they bought into his message of hope and change, because they admired his vision (which was articulated so eloquently before the American people), and, I suspect, because they were concerned about such domestic policy issues as health care, the environment, and the economy.
The Financial Times ran an interesting piece following the Election Day describing how the election was a watershed in many respects...but most of all because it represented a generational shift in politics, away from the baby boomer generation. Obama represents "a new pragmatism: idealistic but realistic, post-partisan, unthreatened by dissent, eager and able to come up with new ways to solve problems."
In my opinion, American Muslims are privy (and indeed part and parcel) of these sociological shifts.
Name
Lama
- Egypt
Profession
Marketing Team
Question
It is Known that the United States of America and Israel are in each other interest, but would the different race of a president have an impact to change what the Middle East countries have been goin through?
Would Obama the elected president rise to the hopes that the whole world have into him and fairness will be applied in the United Nations and USA??
Answer
The question of race has been a very important consideration in the past election. It cannot be said with confidence, however, that the President-elect's race will itself result in a dramatic shift of American intentions and actions in the Middle East.
When the President-elect veers out of the Oval Office, he will literally be staring at the offices of policy wonks, think tankers, congressional staffers, wealthy lobbyists, and other such folks whose presence in the capital city is designed to further a multitude of agendas.
Richard Bulliet, Professor of History at Columbia University put it to me this way: “Washington is, for the most part, locked into certain fixations: the fixation that Iran is an ultimate enemy that cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, the fixation that Israel is always the injured party in violent exchanges, the fixation that so-called moderate governments, by which they mean pro-American, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are always our friends and will act in our interest.”
Can the President-elect rise above these "fixations"? The answer is far from certain...and many would doubt it.
Name
Rabie Muhammed
- United Arab Emirates
Profession
Question
alot of Muslims expect a change and we love to expect the same from Obama. do you think Obama will show his real foriegn policy immediately starting from tomorrow? or will he be mysterious for sometime before he shows us his real face?
Answer
For context, folks might remember that President Bush's second inaugural address, delivered on January 20, 2005, was a speech directed primarily at the Muslim world. "In a world moving toward liberty," he said, "we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.”
He continued: "Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
A cursory look at the past few years suggests that these grand exhortations were pretty much empty rhetoric.
But the idea of "spreading liberty" around the world (with a big stick, if need be) was itself rooted in a very aggressive conservative idea of American exceptionalism...and even a perceived moral mission on behalf of the United States to advance the cause of liberty in the far-flung areas of the world.
Does President-elect Obama endorse this approach? The answer is an emphatic no. Throughout the campaign, in fact, the President-elect has articulated the need to engage with enemies or hostile states in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.
The Bush Doctrine divided the world into good and evil--and, sadly for us, categorized many Muslim countries in the category of "evil." It is safe to say that President-elect Obama has a much more calculated view of America's role in the world.
The best discussion of his foreign policy abmitions can be found in an article written for Foreign Affairs magazine by the President-elect himself: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86401/barack-obama/renewing-american-leadership.html.
Muslims need to understand his vision. We need to understand the men and women and the experiences that motivate his vision.
Name
Moataz
-
Profession
Question
Assalam Alaykom...
Do you see an opportunity for Muslims in the US to have a bigger role in forming the US policy?
Answer
Absolutely. But our efforts are so far a tad bit disappointing. We've got about a half-dozen Muslim lobby groups in the United States--a few more in Canada.
We have a general idea of what we want--but we lack the coherence and the networks in being able to effect the changes we desire. How many prominent Muslim lobbyists do you know? How many Muslim political staffers are working in DC?
Our community has produced its fair share of academic scholars--we've got pretty good representation at the think tanks, for example...including prominent ones, like the Brookings Institution. We've seen an unfortunate tendency for some of these scholars tragically falling sway to Washington group-think. Any Muslim who periodically reads the news knows who these folks are...
I often wish our scholars, our academics, our religious leaders would be as assertive in Washington as their pro-Israeli counterparts.
It starts at the think tanks, the newspapers, and in the backrooms of government. We desperately need smart, talented, ambitious young Muslims to get going on this.
And we need to think of this collective effort as our CONTRIBUTION to American society--to the broader effort of returning America to it's founding ideals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"...of creating an America that is itself a testament to that "shining city on a hill."
When we demand FREEDOM for our native countries (because, after all, freedom is what we desire) we are inherently speaking the language of America.
Name
Editor
-
Profession
Question
The session has ended. We would like to thank Omar Soliman for taking the time to answer your questions, and all those who participated in the dialogue.
We apologize for not being able to answer all the questions due to time limitation.
