"Abu" Obama's Muslim Stimulus Package
What transfixed me most about President Obama's eloquently choreographed initial outreach to the broader Muslim world on the moderate pan-Arab satellite channel "Al-Arabiya" was the studied confidence of the messenger and the mastery of his message.
In an unprecedented unveiling of the new Democratic "soft power" public diplomacy, the immensely popular Obama wasted no time following directly upon his Inaugural Address outreach to the Muslim world by granting his first presidential television interview to the region's highly respected "Walter Cronkite" -- Hesham Melham, to reach out directly to an audience of hundreds of millions. It is just a matter of time before some journalists in the Arab world attach the affectionate moniker "Abu" (father) to their newly minted American friend.
Obama's message was conciliatory and purposeful: "My job is to communicate to the Muslim World that Americans are not your enemy..." "[M]y job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world that the language we use has to be a language of respect," he said. He lauded Saudi Arabia's Arab peace initiative, reiterated his promise to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, to close the Guantanamo detention facility and commit the U.S. to reconcile Palestinian and Israeli.
President Obama's goal was to lay the foundation for what surely will be an innovative and comprehensive Muslim world "stimulus" package intended to take the "battle of ideas" being waged between the West and Bin Laden directly to the so-called Arab Street. There is talk of new cultural centers and people-to-people exchanges to buttress a full-throttled re-engagement.
As president of Layalina Productions, America's most successful producer of commercial-style television for Arab media markets, I have spent nearly 7 years developing new media programs and initiatives intended to help restore the battered image of America throughout the Arab world. But with a Bush administration as the backdrop, it was like trying to fight with two hands tied behind our backs. Obama's election will surely mean new opportunities and progress for ventures like Layalina Productions, which are part of the broader private sector effort in the U.S. to bridge the divide opened up by the Bush Administration's policy failures and public diplomacy shortcomings.
In a tangible first step beyond his initial rhetoric, President Obama and Secretary Clinton wasted no time dispatching Sen. George Mitchell -- America's respected and highly admired peace envoy -- to conduct the Administration's first "listening tour" of Middle East capitals. The trip by Mitchell constitutes a tangible realization of Obama's campaign promise to immediately reinsert America as the indispensable peace broker for salvaging any hope for lasting peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Undeniably a new era in U.S.-Muslim world reconciliation has dawned with the election of President Obama. However, even his loftiest rhetoric and deepest empathy will be insufficient to bridge the divide without tangible actions and recalibration of certain policies. Many in his intended audience probably were hoping to hear new signals that the U.S. would embrace a more nuanced approach to the plight of Palestinians, particularly in the wake of the civilian suffering in Gaza witnessed by so many in the Arab world. Others want to see a president who is prepared to attentively listen to the grievances that hallmark the divided relationship.
Give it time .
All one need do is read Barack Obama's books to appreciate how much thought he has given to the task.
But the true test of Obama's presidency will not only be the innovative statecraft of its regional diplomacy, but also his ability to help mobilize a comprehensive initiative to lift the Arab world out of its economic and social poverty. Creating a new Islamic Development Reconstruction Bank funding by Muslim oil producing states, developing new vocational universities to train younger Arabs in skills, supporting new civil society institutions to build accountability within autocratic Arab regimes... all are just pieces of a broader U.S. engagement.
In the not too distant future, President Obama's staff has signaled his intention to travel to a Muslim nation to deliver his message of reconciliation in person. I hope the former senator from Illinois will select Casablanca, Morocco -- Chicago's Arab world "sister city" as his point of re-entry as president into the Muslim world. Morocco is a microcosm of the struggles taking place within the Arab world for the soul of its next generation -- pitting modernity and moderation against a determined struggle by Al Qaeda to transform North Africa into another bastion of extremism.
Not surprisingly, the President's Muslim world outreach initiative comes in the wake of a full throttled propaganda campaign by Al Qaeda to discredit our new president that is at once so inane and brazenly stupid that it has undermined itself in the process. In a deliberate and desperate name-calling offensive that reveals Al Qaeda's panic over Obama's election, Al Qaeda's websites are blaring every conceivable Arab juvenile curse at him. "A House Negro," "hypocrite," a "killer of innocents," so on an so forth. It is not by accident that Al Arabiya's competitor Al Jazeera made nary a mention of the President's interview that received enormous attention, but could not resist reporting on Al Qaeda's slurs and diatribes in recent days.
Al Qaeda is on thin ice in its effort to portray Obama as "Bush III.". Indeed, its leaders now have a true dose of Obama's dexterity. As Obama's pen drafts the message that will decay Al Qaeda's appeal within its Muslim world constituency, his sword continues to hunt down Al Qaeda's leaders in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden... meet "Abu" Obama.
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Here is why It should be Morocco
What do you call an Arab, Muslim and African country who was the first to recognize the United States independence?
Kingdom of Morocco
Morocco is the ideal country to launch a message of peace to the Muslim world.
A peace loving country with a respected voice in the region, Morocco is a long time friend of the United States and would be proud to host President Elect Barack Obama in this historical event.
Morocco enjoys political stability, a stability that is continuously strengthened as Morocco builds a modern democracy in the spirit of freedom, openness and tolerance.
Morocco is also well positioned as a Western ally in the global war on terror.
Morocco offers a rich and widely diversified potential as it is strategically located on both the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, within 7 miles from Europe and serves as a gateway to both Africa and the Arab world. The diversity of Amazigh, Arabs, and Jews, who have lived side by side for centuries, as well as its close ties to Europe, has made Morocco a different country than many of its neighbors.
Mr. President Obama, please accept our invitation. Not only do we support your vision for change, but we are ready to help you make it happen. Let this speech in Morocco be the start of a new day for America's relation with the Muslim World
www.obamatospeakinmorocco.com/home/
Hassan Samrhouni
Founder of Obama to Speak in Morocco
The reason most United States citizens do not understand why some people would resort to violence in fighting oppression is because they have been made to believe that the only acceptable reaction to oppression is for the oppressed to march around, non-violently, singing "We Shall Overcome", while the oppressor is hanging the oppressed women, men, and children from trees. Thank God for Black Americans' reactions. In most parts of the world, including the muslim world, the reaction would be violent, for what happened to Black Americans in the United States. So, U.S. citizens are used to getting away with oppressing people in this country, without any consequences, that they believe that it should be the same way all over the world. I'm telling you, it's not. Both the Israelis and Palestinians are doing what they must do, for self-preservation. As much as the Palestinians are taking the most losses, it cannot be healthy for Israelis to have to live in constant fear of extermination by their neighbors. Both parties must find a solution for mutual benefit. Neither side is in the clear. If the Palestinians really want to blame anyone, blame the British who made it possible for the existence of Israel, do not blame the Israelis who were running away from extermination. If the Israelis want to blame anyone for the precarious situation they face, blame the Europeans (especially Germany) who tried to exterminate Jews and forced Jews to abandon their home in Europe.
Obama is extremely astute. He is not just trying to gain the respect of the Arab world but the entire Muslim world in general. My guess is that he will give an address in the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, and will greet the audience with a short speech in the Indonesian language which he speaks very well. Knowing Indonesian pride, they will be so overwhelmed by this honor they will be hanging on to every word he utters and henceforth refer to him as ‘Pak Obama’ --- and not Abu. Having the nation with the largest majority of Muslims in his pocket, will be an enormous asset in influencing the rest of the Muslim world. I predict that Obama will further enamor himself with the majority Muslim nation by a personal visit to his old school there.
I predict that Obama’s audience will be even larger in Jakarta than the audience that welcomed him in Berlin.
I think that would be so wonderful!
Very well said, Abu Hussein sounds great too!
He cant be Abu Hussein or ABU Obama , He has to be Abu Natasha (ABu means the father of ) or Abu Natalia (hope i got the name of his other girl correct )
Israel is a franchise hanging by the thread of a single lobby. Brutal conflicts breed brutal people. Israel has no intentions to treat its neighbors with dignity or respect. Arabs outbreed Israeli's....America killed its indigenous population, the Spanish married theirs, but Israel can do neither. Now what?
justice2some posted:l "Israel has no intentions to treat its neighbors with dignity or respect. "
Israel is at peace with Jordan, at peace with Egypt. at peace with the world. But those who will threaten its security will go down and hard. This is how they roll in the Middle East, the most treacherous 'hood in the world.
The weak countries: Lebanon, Iraq go down. Strong countries: Egypt, Iran,.Syria, Israel survive.
The noble Palestinains tried to overrun and take over two weak countries Lebanon and Jordan.
Egypt and Jordan treacherously occupied Palestinian and Israeli lands in 1948 and did NOTHING for Palestinians. Despite the noble talk.
Middle East...
Palestinains want to negotiate, fine. Want to fight, fine.
C'est la guerre
Israel has peace with the King of Jordan , and with Mubarak and his gang , But ask the Majority of Egypt or Jordan , they do not believe in such peace , and they do not trust israel . Both People have urged theri government to tear the Akaba and Camp davids accords , and all are against Violent Israel agenda and its treatment of Palestinians . If you had access to the many hundreds of Arabic channels i have on my sattellite , you will see for yourself that the People of Jordan and Egypt DO NOT want such peace deals until the Palestinians are free . this peace has been imposed on the people who had NO SAYING IN It . if they take polls among people this peace will be rejected .
Israel has to come to its senses and be grateful it has a country (israel) it calls home . So it should stop the greed and freed the Illegal Settlments , free the westbank , east jerusalem and gaza and then Make peace with the Arab neigbours and it will be welcome by ALL , trust me , I have heard many say we are willing to make peace and welcome israel if it frees Palestinians and treats them as human beings.
Dennis Ross is the first chairman of a new JerusaIem based think tank, the Jevvish People Policy Planning Institute, funded and founded by the Jevvish Agency. (Source Wikipedia) How can he be a US special envoy to the Middle East?
What a racist remark.
By your same deluded logic then no person with Arabic or Muslim background should be allowed to represent US in the Middle East. Keep your intolerance to yourself.
America has NEVER been a fair and just Mediator . the Arab leaders fed their people lies by trusting the US special envoy that did nothing but help the Illegal settlments grow , and the Judaisation of Jerusalem and the westbank .
America belongs to the Americans. Palestine belongs to the Palestinians. What is not to understand in Palestinians right to return to their 1948 homes and land?
America belongs to the Americans". Ehhh, which Americans?! In your brilliant and profound analysis you seem to have forgotten the Native Americans. And which Palestinains? The Jewish Palestinains, the Bedouin Palestinians, the Arab Palestinains, the Christian Palestinians, the Druze Palestinains? Easy, right? hmmmm..... How about Jews being able to return to their lands and property in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Marocco, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait? Are you for that too? Ok, start thinking....
THE FAKE SAUDI PEACE PLAN
Obama lauded Saudi Arabia's so-called peace initiative which calls for the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees which would effectively destroy Israel's Jewish Democracy and make Israeli Jews an oppressed minority within a predominately Arab/Moslem state according to Islamic Law. Israel has rejected the Saudi Plan since the Right of Return for them is non negotiable and there is nothing or no one that will change that.
Those people are coming back, either to a democratic state for both Arabs and Jews, or to the ruins of the israeli apartheid state. Their choice.
The only way the refugees, created by the Arab war on Israel,, can come back to Israel is by taking up arms and fighting their way in. There is no alternative for them. Moreover, how is Israel an apartheid state when Jews and Moslems are allowed to marry?
ALL international Law and UN resolutions Give ALL refugiees the Right to return home , ALL refugiees from any conflict and war HAVE been allowed to return Home .
UN resolution 194 and 242 still apply .
Just because the Saudi initiative "calls for" the RoR doesn't that part will implemented. There aren't many 1948 refugees still alive, and if Jewish settlements are removed from the West Bank, there will be plenty of room for their descendants there.
The right of return belongs to the refugees and their descendants, It is not just a private right, It is a general peoples rights to return to their lands and their homes. And Palestinians should never surrender their rights to return to their 1948 lands.
"Israel's Jewish Democracy..." so let me get this straight. Democracy is only worth having in Israel... if Jews get to enjoy an enforced majority vote? You seem to have some misconception about the concept of democracy.
Democracy is worth having everywhere.
But so far, at this point of history, Arabs have proven to be politically immature to handle democracy and/or build truly democratic institutions. Proof? There is NO democracy in the Middle East, except for Israel.
Even Lebanon, which has a smattering of democracy is is failed state controlled like a puppet by Syria.
To make matters worse people like you are attempting to justify and excuse every kind of oppression meted out by Muslims. Start thinking.
His interview is a brilliant first step on opening a dialogue with moderate muslims. Al Qaeda, Hamas, and other radical factions will have a more difficult time fragmenting muslim states and creating safe havens for terror with this kind of initiative. Focusing on the rights of women in the third world will be thing that pulls these meager economies out of poverty. I would argue that women, as the major contribtors to the economy of the West, make the our economies more viable than in Muslim states.
This is the root of poverty and despair in the third world.
DenverJJ
AHMAD KICKS OBAMA IN THE GROIN
No sooner did Obama give his apologetic Carteresque interview with Al Arabiya than Ahmadinejad kicked him in the groin and spelled out the conditions for peace: "Withdraw US forces from the world'" he demanded, "then apologize to the Iranian people for your crimes." Ahmad's conditions were understandable for a jihadist regime whose non negotiable revolutionary goal is to replace the United States as the world's nuclear superpower.
As long as Obama accepts Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State Ahmadenijad will always be more popular with the Moslem masses. Moreover, Iran's aspirations to restore Islam as a great world power is shared by the vast number of Moslem's as this as been the political and military purpose of Islam from its foundation.
Well, he needs to drop the idea that Israel should be a "Jewish state" and adopt the idea that it should become a multi-ethnic democracy. You know, like the US.
Israel is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious democracy
Well, Mr. Ambassador, s soon as your country lifts its inhuman blockade of Gaza, we can step in and raise their standard of living. For my money, the US Navy should shoot its way past the Israeli naval blockade and drop supplies directly on the beach. First, though, we Americans need to sink your AIPAC fifth column here.
The president-elect only last week named Dennis Ross to coordinate policy toward Iran, which is of course a major position. But while Ross is unquestionably a talented diplomat, having worked the impossible job of trying to negotiate Middle East peace during the Clinton administration, he now comes directly out of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an unequivocally pro-Israeli think-tank.
Finally someone in this world understood the difference between a Muslim and a Terrorist. I am glad that someone in the white house is with a brain.
Muslims don't support terrorism (such as Al Qaida). Of course Hamas is not terrorist because they are defending their land the right to live. Regadless, the world's fighting Muslims all over. There not a single Muslim country without problems by the world powers. It is an excellent gesture to try to reach to those Muslims instead of killing them.
We need peace, we don't want wars. I hope someone is listening
Al Qaida and Hamas are bothers in the struggle against the Zionist entity. The kumbyya Gospel of Obama will never outshine the Koran and its central vision of a one world Moslem State. It is this ancient vision that empowers Jihadists, spellbinds most Moslems and must be defeated if there is to be peace between our civilizations. Trying to buy off the Moslem world with a stimulus package is a nowhere plan of secular uptopianists. We are a nation at war in a fight to the death for the fate with a determined enemy who would kill us by the millions given the chance. Obama is a well meaning fool who is returning to the failed appeasement policies of the Carter and Clinton years.
Many of us here in the United States can echo your happiness at having someone with a brain in the White House. Maybe now all the "reasonable" people of the earth will be able to come together and begin to try to honestly LISTEN to each other and accord respect to each nation.
May I correct a mistake . He wont be called ABU Obama but ABU Malia or Abu Natasha . normally when Arab men are called ABU the name that follows the word ABU is the name of their eldest child and not their own Name . same with women , OUM Malia or Oum Natasha (for Michelle )
Why should Al Jazeera be banned from cable news in the US?
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