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US-Muslim World Relations: Is there an Obama Factor? |
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Tuesday, 19 May 2009 |
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President Obama is set to deliver a speech in Egypt on June 4, 2009, to address US-Muslim World relations. Many pundits anticipate this speech to be a defining moment for Obama’s presidency on this issue and a clear break with the bully and confrontational policies of the previous administration. It may very well be a cosmetic shift but if there were to be any substance to such a shift, it would not have been anticipated by most Muslims. History of US-Muslim world, indeed of US-world relations, has been consistent in paying lip-service to supporting democracy and human rights while supporting puppet and dictatorial regimes. It would be foolish to expect anything different under Obama. It would be even more foolish to lobby the US administration to interfere in the affairs of the Muslim world in the name of democracy or human rights because history also teaches us that such interference has been selective and usually executed for ulterior, less noble motives. Therefore, while Obama is doing a great job repairing the damage to the US image in the Muslim world, the best to hope for is for the US to end its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, support education, and adopt a policy of principled non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, except maybe in the case of humanitarian crises. Muslim nations would appreciate such a shift more than any direct interference in their affairs.
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