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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Obama On Al-Arabiya: First Formal Interview As President With Arab TV Network (VIDEO)
Scroll down for video Barack Obama struck a note of foreign policy confidence Monday night, telling an Arabic news station that al Qaida leaders and...
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OBAMA AL-ARABIYA INTERVIEW: FULL TEXT
Here is the full text of President Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya Arab TV Network: INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY HISHAM MELHEM, AL ARABIYA Map Room...
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Obama's Impressive Beginnings as an Honest Broker in the Middle East: The Psychology of Perspective-taking Where Perspective is Hard to Find
Obama understands the essence of diplomacy: to step out of your own shoes and into the minds of the others around the table, with the goal of achieving your own interests by influencing their minds.
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Obama Used the Word Muslims Want to Hear: Respect
Muslims may seem too eager to seize on Obama's middle name, but Hussein is more than a symbol -- it's a crack in the wall that has kept Islam apart for so long.
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Al-Arabiya's Game Changing Interview with Barack Obama: A New Punctuation Point in US Foreign Policy
Obama's interview has provided a new punctuation point in American foreign policy, and it is not "continuous" foreign policy at all. This is a new game and a very impressive new leader.
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An Open Letter to President Obama on Future Appearances on Arab TV
If an Arab interviewer asks a question you don't like, take off your shoe and throw it at him. That will show everyone in the Arab world that you really understand us.
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Why Did Obama Choose Al-Arabiya for His First Major Interview?
Obama's remarks to al-Arabiya showed a willingness to engage, to listen, and to move toward a dialogue where Arabs are spoken to not as victims or villains, but as partners.
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Obama's Interview with Al Arabiya: New Language, New Ideas, and a New Approach
In what is a critically important exchange, Obama reveals that he is well aware that unsuccessful intellectual frameworks can end up producing bad policy approaches.
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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
I predict that Obama’s audience will be even larger in Jakarta than the audience that welcomed him in Berlin.
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
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.
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.
UN resolution 194 and 242 still apply .
This is the root of poverty and despair in the third world.
DenverJJ
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.
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