CAIRO: Mr. President Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America. I write this letter before your visit to my country, Egypt, on June 4. I write to you first as an Egyptian, Arab, Muslim citizen; second as part of the Egyptian ‘intelligentsia’; and third as the representative of an opposition party in Egypt.
Despite its brevity, I am fully aware of the significance of this visit to the US’s relations with the Arab and Islamic world, and to Egypt and its domestic conditions and foreign relations.
I will speak mainly from the perspective of Egyptian-American relations. To quote one of the greatest geographers in Egypt, Gamal Hemdan (1928-1993): “Egypt in 2000 BC was the United States of the present day in as much as the US in 2000 AD is like Egypt today.
Egypt and the US are binary opposites. While Egypt is one of the oldest political entities in history, the US is the newest and the most important. Egypt, Hemdan said, was like a great island relatively isolated between two vast seas of sand, just as the US is isolated by two large oceans. And while Egypt is the prototypical centralized authority which impedes uniqueness and creativity, the US is a model of decentralization, spurring local and individual potential. The central feature of the Egyptian State, since ancient times over 4,000 years ago, was its tyranny and despotism, while the central idea upon which the US is based is ‘freedom’. Furthermore Egypt is the heart of the “old world world. It is located in Africa, peripherally in Asia, and very close to Europe. It is also the heart of the Arab and Islamic world and a cornerstone of the Middle East and Mediterranean countries, while the United States has been, and continues to be, the new world in every sense of the phrase.
Because of this unique contrast, the US’s need for Egypt is equal to Egypt’s need for the US. The “universality of America’s undisputed power requires the “regionality of Egypt’s irreplaceable power. And just as the US needs to be inspired by Egypt’s ancient wisdom and culture, Egypt too needs to be inspired by US creativity and the sanctity of freedom.
Therefore, Mr. President, I cannot imagine that Egypt will function as a mere podium from which to address the Arab and Muslim world, rather it should be one of the main targets of your speech.
In light of all this, and taking into account the great expectations we have of you since you assumed the presidency, I would like to send you three main messages:
First, that the United States (and you personally) will never backtrack on your mission to disseminate and consolidate freedom and democracy in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Like all Arab and Egyptian democrats, I am certain that the struggle for democracy is the most important struggle of both the elite and the masses and that we are duty bound to achieve it.
I do not share the view espoused by many of my countrymen – whether they are honest or hypocritical – that US support for democracy and freedom in our countries is tantamount to interference in our internal affairs. On the contrary, I wholly believe that it is necessary and inevitable. In fact it is the American nation’s duty towards our country. Issues of democracy, freedom and respect for the will of the people (just like human rights) have gone beyond national sovereignty and so no power should deny or circumvent them under any pretext.
Your political, moral and ethical support for democracy and human rights in our countries is even more important than your economic and military aid. In fact, Mr. President, I think that your support for democracy in our countries will be a kind of penance or apology for the responsibility of the United States in previous decades by supporting authoritarian regimes and undemocratic governments that contributed – directly or indirectly – to the achievement of American interests at the expense of our peoples, our future and our children’s future.
Secondly, the United States, while striving for reconciliation and cooperation with Muslims, must admit its historical responsibility for fueling conservative and fundamentalist trends in the Muslim world. I do not think that you will repeat the speech you gave in Turkey last April, in which you emphasized that your country cannot be at war with Islam. Speaking in the Arab world, the homeland of those who executed the terrorist attack of 9/11, you cannot ignore the days when the United States worked diligently to support and encourage Islamist forces (whatever the degree of their conservatism or radicalism) to confront communism and to fight the Soviet Union. At the time, this path seemed less expensive and more effective than supporting democratic and liberal trends in the Muslim world. But with 9/11, we all realized that the price was not waived, it was merely deferred. The fall of the twin towers in New York in 2001 was the price the United States paid for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Therefore, Mr. President, we would like your speech from Cairo to the Islamic world to not be on behalf of a Christian or a Western civilization, but rather on behalf of a democratic and human rights-respecting America. It s not enough to say that the United States does not have a problem with Islam, you must also say that it does have a problem with intolerant, despotic and undemocratic forces (and terrorism, of course) in the Islamic world. It is also ready, once again, to atone for and correct its mistakes.
Thirdly, you, as the President of the United States, should announce from Cairo, which initiated peace with Israel more than 30 years ago, that the time has come to reach a final and just settlement for the Arab-Israel conflict after long delays and much procrastination. I know that the situation in Israel and Palestine is difficult and frustrating and that the extremism and intransigence of Israel’s ruling right today is equivalent to the weakness and division of the Palestinian factions, yet it is impossible, or rather illogical, that your speech to the Muslim world does not include a new and serious American initiative to resolve that chronic, long-standing conflict, which was and will remain at the top of the Muslim world’s concerns.
Mr. President, Egypt has suffered the most from the Arab-Israeli conflict and bore the burden of war and peace. The United States, on the other hand, has been the most involved in this conflict as well, both in war and in peace. Therefore, our partnership in solving it is inevitable. Official and popular Egypt is tirelessly playing its role in the reconciliation between the Palestinian factions because the Palestinian people’s security, stability and aspirations for an independent state are an integral part of Egypt’s security and stability.
It remains for the United States, under your presidency, to play its role on the other side, by curbing right-wing and fanatic forces that are ruling Israel today, which threaten, not only the future of a peaceful settlement, but also seek to spoil the hard-won achievements of the past three decades.
Mr. President, you must be aware of the feelings of frustration and discontent that have fueled the extremists who have resorted to terrorism not only on 9/11 in the United States, but also all over the world. These forces found inspiration, support and sympathy in the historical injustice against the Palestinian people. These feelings remain until this very moment.
Therefore, we are waiting for you, Mr. President to clearly address the Israeli administration, about the fact that the security of the world is far greater and more important than being locked in the extremist behavior of a handful of intolerant and short-sighted politicians, who are now holding the reins of government in Israel.
That is what we expect from His Excellency, President of the United States of America Barack Hussein Obama, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.
We hope we will not be disappointed.
Osama El-Ghazali Harbis the Editor-in-Chief of Al Siyasa Al Dawliya monthly published by Al-Ahram and is one of the founders of the D
emocratic Front Party.
