CAIRO: US President Barack Obama will give a speech from Cairo University today in which he intends to address the Muslim world and offer a sort of rapprochement after years of tension under his predecessor George W. Bush.
During his presidential campaign, Obama promised to give this speech “from a Muslim capital and much speculation arose over which would be the most suitable venue. In the end he plumped for Cairo.
“I’m not expecting miracles, chief editor of the Coptic Al-Watani newspaper Yousef Sidhom told Daily News Egypt.
“The idea is that he is presenting an initiative in the form of reconciliation between the US and the Arab and Islamic world. This is because the previous US administration handled the issue of terrorism in an arrogant manner, he added.
Al-Badry Farghaly from the opposition Tagammu party told Daily News Egypt, “Obama is coming on a mountain of skulls created by Bush. We want Obama to talk about human rights, freedom and democracy and we don’t want grants or funds.
“We want freedom away from corruption and forgery, and we want him to help this with us. We need to have strong relations with the US for many reasons but we won’t do it at the cost of our security and the supporting of fascist dictatorships.
US-Egypt relations mirrored that of America’s relationship with the Muslim world under the previous administration. Bush had wanted staunch ally Egypt to lead the way for democratic reform in the region after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. The regime had other ideas and relations soured.
With Obama now in place matters seem to have improved somewhat. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said last week in Washington that the new administration “listens, and in that it was different from the Bush administration.
“Obama is changing US policy; in his first 100 days he instituted new policies that have been well received at home and abroad, MP from the ruling National Democratic Party Mohamed Khalil Kwaiteh told Daily News Egypt.
Sidhom said, “There was confusion with the previous administration between handling the Islamic world as opposed to political Islam and terrorism. Islamic regimes were also at fault by telling their people that this attack on political Islam and terrorism was also an attack on them.
And there is the belief that the regime has made some overtures to Obama without explicitly pointing it out, firstly by releasing opposition leader Ayman Nour from jail soon after Obama assumed office as well as overturning charges against exiled dissident and American citizen Saad Eddin Ibrahim a week before Obama’s arrival.
Yet Obama’s visit is not just about Egypt, but an attempt to address misgivings in the Muslim world about past US policies which – Muslims felt – have targeted them unfairly and indiscriminately.
“He will speak well of Muslims and Islamic culture and it will be positively received but he will not talk about policies. The most probable thing he could talk about is Iraq and how he intends to pull out of it, Diaa Rashwan from Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told Daily News Egypt.
And for some, the content of Obama’s speech is not what matters, but rather the necessary change in US policy so that it does not appear to be so antagonistic towards the Islamic world.
“Talk is not important now, what matters are actions; so instead of what he says, we want to see what he does. Talk is not enough for people who have suffered greatly as a result of US actions, General Secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood Mahmoud Ezzat told Daily News Egypt.
“We have the old actions of the US to see and they have been renewed since Obama assumed office. The situation in Pakistan has deteriorated and there has been little change in the Palestinian issue. If anything, there has just been a change in the manner of speaking, he added.
But Kwaitah said that repairing US-Muslim relations was in everybody’s interest.
“The speech is directed at the Islamic world for reconciliation after George Bush ruined this relationship and caused hatred in the Islamic world towards US policy. At the same time, it is in US interests to fix this relationship and that is their main objective, Kwaitah said.
“We also have an interest in fixing this relationship because it is important that the US, as the world’s superpower, to spread justice and deal with issues even-handedly, he added.
A press advisory sent out by the US Embassy confirmed that Obama will give his speech from Cairo University and that it was also being co-hosted by Al-Azhar University.
Al-Azhar University had initially been mooted as the possible venue for the speech since it is the oldest Islamic learning institution in the world. However, it is thought that Cairo University would potentially expand the audience as it would also appeal to secularists in the Arab world.
“The speech will cover generalities. I don’t think he will touch on any specifics. It will be given in general broad lines and he won’t say anything about initiatives. He will also mention human rights and democracy but without referring to any specific cases, Rashwan said.
“He will not criticize Israel in any way so he doesn’t get any trouble back home. To do that from Cairo will not be taken well by Israel, he added.
Sidhom said, “I admire Obama’s courage in making this speech and he will be telling the people of the Islamic world that the US will not change its strategic interests in the world but wants to include them and work with them.
