Obama address warmly received in Maghreb

2009-06-05

US President Barack Obama's address to Muslims left many in the Maghreb impressed, and others calling for concrete action to improve relations between the US and the Muslim world.

Jamel Arfaoui in Tunis, Siham Ali in Rabat, Said Jameh in Algiers and Mohamad Yahia Ould Abdel Wedoud in Nouakchott contributed to this report – 05/06/09

[Getty Images] Many in the Maghreb described US President Barack Obama's Cairo speech as "historic".

Many Maghreb politicians and experts viewed as "positive" the US president's address to the Muslim world Thursday (June 4th), which called for turning the page in relations between the US and the Muslim world. Some, however, called for concrete action to resolve the Arab Israeli conflict, an issue they said is crucial to improving the US image in the region.

"Obama’s speech can be described as historic," said Reda Chenouf, an international affairs journalist in Algeria's El Khabar. Chenouf said the speech could be a "turning point", signalling a new US policy in dealing with the Muslim world.

Chenouf praised Obama for reassuring more than one billion Muslims around the world that relations based on respect and partnership would be established.

In the speech, delivered at Cairo University, Obama identified several sources of tension between the US and the Muslim world, including the War in Iraq and the Arab Israeli conflict. He called for a "new beginning" based on mutual respect and removing the shackles of the past. The US president said that America "is not, and never will be, at war with Islam".

"So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end, " Obama told a mixed audience of young men and women from different political and religious beliefs.

Chenouf noted Obama's "positive" language and the absence of phrases such as "clash of civilizations" and "war on terror".

Tunisian political analyst Berhane Bousais agrees, describing the speech as "void of the vocabulary of arrogance, classification and lessons-giving". Bousais said the "positive introduction" marks a real shift in US policy towards the Arab and Muslim worlds. He specifically noted the absence of a "hostile language" when referring to Palestinian group Hamas when the US president "invited it to move from the partnership of violence to the partnership of peace-making."

Taj Eddine El Housseini, a Moroccan lecturer in international relations, described the president’s speech as balanced and realistic, and "a turning point" after years of tension. He noted the US president's attempt to clarify that all religions aspire to peace. He said that the speech's emotional tone could have an impact on the public.

"[Obama] has adopted an effective means to combat the conflict between religions and civilisations," he said.

Meriam ben Yedder, a Tunisian woman in her 40s, said that for the first time in her life she was interested in a politician’s speech. "I was drawn to his words when he confirmed his desire to start a new page with the Muslim world, and also his recognition of the values of Islam that call for tolerance and brotherhood."

Obama's emphasis on Islamic values and quoting of the Qur'an had a similar effect on Mauritanians interviewed by Magharebia.

"President Obama has come to the Muslim world carrying an enlightened vision for how things should be, as well as an open heart and unprecedented frankness," Islam Ould Mohamad, a Mauritanian journalist, said. "The most positive aspect about the speech is Obama’s visibly strong knowledge of Islam. He quoted verses from the Qur’an that urge for peaceful co-existence and relinquishing malice and extremism."

Sheikh Ahmad Ould Al Arabi, a mosque Imam, believes Obama's efforts will bear fruit. "Obama’s prosperous visits to Saudi Arabia and Cairo, the cradle of Islam, have laid down the foundations for unprecedented rapprochement between the US and Muslims. We pray that those efforts would be enhanced in order to realize peace and prosperity for our peoples."

Mauritanian MP Mohamad Al Mokhtar Ould Al Zamel said the speech is "well-timed, since the Muslim world is eagerly looking forward to turning a new leaf with the US. This is a fact emphasized by this historic speech, which has undoubtedly left quite a positive impact that calls for optimism."

Some were more sceptical and called for concrete action, especially in dealing with the Arab Israeli issue.

Islamist Moroccan MP Abdelbarri Zemzemi said that Obama's speech, setting out a number of promises, was good to hear, but hoped "that the broad lines of the speech will be turned into concrete action."

Mustapha Ferhat, an Algerian expert in Islamist groups and assistant editor at the Echourouk daily, said that Muslims are waiting for Obama to give them more than a diplomatic speech. He criticized the use of the phrase "historical relations between US and Israel", which he said could "strengthen the belief that the US wouldn’t exercise any pressures on Israel to make it change its extremist and hard-line policies."

In the address, Obama said his administration was committed to a two-state solution to the Arab Israeli conflict. The US president spoke of the suffering endured by both Palestinians and Israelis, calling on Palestinians to abandon violence and on Israelis to halt settlement activity and take concrete steps to enable progress in the daily lives of the Palestinian people.

Morocco's Justice and Development Party (PJD) chairman Saâddine El Othmani said that the speech was "certainly positive", but questioned the US government's ability to resolve the issue of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees. "Is the American government capable of achieving these goals? That’s what remains to be seen over the days ahead," he said.

Some, however, positively viewed Obama's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state and his description of Jerusalem as a "lasting home" for all three religions.

"The most important thing in the speech was the confirmation of the current US administration’s keenness on reaching a just solution in the Middle East, and that there was a need to give justice to the Palestinian people and to enable them to have their own state, and to recognize Israel’s right to exist", Mondher Thabet, a member of the Tunisian Senate, told Magharebia.

The speech, Thabet said, "corresponds to the liberal concepts we are embracing, and is especially embodied by the idea that Jerusalem be an open city for divine religions and a symbol of tolerance and communication among peoples."

Zied el Heni, in charge of external relations in the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), defended the speech against the perception that it is just a public relations campaign, saying that Obama was "quite aware of the complex situation, something that made him confirm that 'change won’t happen overnight; and just one speech won’t overcome all the differences.'"

"We need to positively deal with President Obama. We don’t have anything to lose in that," he told Magharebia. El Heni said that resolving the Palestinian issue in a just way that is based on UN resolutions "will open the door for new and good relations between the US and the Muslim world and "will help overcome the circumstances that give rise to terrorism".

Although Maghreb media coverage emphasised Obama's support for a 2-state solution, Algerian state news agency APS also highlighted Obama's mention of the $4m to be allocated each of the next 5 years for Afghanistan reconstruction. In a special news feature, the Algerian agency reported Obama's plan for new funding to support technology development in the Muslim world.

APS also published a brief report on the Arab League reaction, quoting Arab League chief Amr Moussa as saying that the speech conveyed a "clear vision and a new approach to relations with Muslim countries, including the dialogue of civilizations, the Palestinian question and the rights of the Palestinian people".

Moroccan state-run news agency MAP noted that in his first speech to the Arab and Muslim world, Obama pointed out that Morocco was the first country to recognise the United States. Communication Minister Khalid Naciri said the mention reaffirmed the friendship between the two countries.