Allah & Me

The Islamic world is a vast ocean of diversity and intensity. Contrary to popular belief, most Muslim’s are simply trying to live their lives, find a way to survive or prosper, and are hardly mired in the extremes we associate with tribal brutality, car bombing and seemingly indiscriminate violence. The extremists, experts in mass media, scattered throughout the Muslim world and exceptionally well-financed by “guilt money” from many quarters, have been adept at turning American reaction to the 9/11 attacks, our misadventures in Iraq and our failures in Afghanistan, into recruiting devices and propaganda machines. And these extremists are among the most dangerous people on this earth.

On June 4^th, President Obama, speaking from within Egypt, will address the Muslim world, undoubtedly repeating his we are not and never will be at war with Islam mantra. Indeed, it is hard for a man whose father was both a Muslim and an African, who spent time during his childhood in the largest Muslim nation on earth, Indonesia, not to personalize this message, through anecdote and his own experience. The June 2^nd Los Angeles Times: “‘The fact is that the president himself experienced Islam on three continents before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world,’ said Denis McDonough, Obama's deputy national security advisor for strategic communications. The president sees a fundamental need, McDonough said, to change ‘how we engage our allies.’”

Clearly, our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been both polarizing and nothing short of disastrous for the American economy (we tried to lower taxes while escalating our military expenses, a spiral of borrowing that has only accelerated as time has passed). We need a graceful out from two nations for whom stability and peaceful internal co-existence have been and are likely to be elusive for the foreseeable future. These nations are far too fractionalized to flow naturally into the future as cohesive nation-states. So whatever we do as we leave, our own expectations, indeed those of the rest of the world, need to be managed accordingly. Indeed, even though the instability would have been there with or without our presence, undoubtedly, we will shoulder much of the blame for the inevitable.

The blame game is a global pastime. Americans are popular targets, because our shadow casts far and wide. Our economic meltdown, as bad as it is in this country, has rolled into international catastrophes that dwarf our own financial fall. And there is one more risk. For the significant pool of Americans who have been wary of an African-American president with Muslim roots, the attempt to woo the Muslim world is met with fear and distrust. For those who see Israel as our only hope in the region, Obama’s battle with the Israelis over the expansion of West Bank Jewish settlements and the divergence of how to restart the dialog process with the Palestinians is of deeper concern. Does Obama win the battle of global perception at the expense of domestic distrust?

But without repairing the damage to American credibility in the Muslim world, the ability to implement policies of military disengagement and détente with such a large segment of the earth is materially hampered. The LA Times: “‘In the Middle East and the wider Muslim world, the ratings took a sharp dip after the invasion of Iraq,’ said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. ‘They never permanently recovered anywhere during the Bush years. Now we're seeing them recover in 2009.’ …‘Our image in the world, particularly in the Muslim world, has, over the course of many years, not been what it needs to be in order to accomplish, for instance, peace in the Middle East,’ said Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary and a top advisor.”

As the President landed in Saudi Arabia for a meeting with the King, a stop en route to Egypt, our perpetual nemesis, Osama bin Laden, released an audio tape stating that Obama was simply following the prior administration’s anti-Muslim policies: “[T]elevision network Al-Jazeera aired a new audiotape, reportedly from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, saying Obama was planting seeds for ‘revenge and hatred’ toward the United States in the Muslim world… and warned that Americans should be prepared for the ‘consequences’” June 3^rd Washington Post. Clearly, Obama’s embracing ordinary Muslims in a personal way world is a huge threat to Bin Laden.

The key is to allow that vast pool of moderate Muslims to deal with their own fear of extremists. It wasn’t American pressure to fight terrorism that moved the Pakistani army to turn against the armed extremists in the Swat Valley or in the Western Tribal District; it was extremism itself. “They” are never going to fight extremists for us, but we need to stop giving extremists a reason why that moderate majority should embrace the militants’ use of America as a rallying point to secure their own power. The balance that Mr. Obama faces in his June 4^th speech is exceptionally difficult to achieve, and how we actually disengage and dialog after that speech becomes of even greater significance.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.