At last, the dialogue that should have begun long ago

Emile Hokayem

• Last Updated: June 03. 2009 8:55PM UAE / June 3. 2009 4:55PM GMT

Barack Obama’s brilliant oratorical skills and captivating persona will be on display today when he takes on the daunting, almost thankless, task of rehabilitating America’s image and improving relations with the Muslim world.

From his TV interview with Al Arabiya, to his Nowruz address to the Iranian people, and his Ankara speech in which he declared that “the United States is not – and will never be – at war with Islam”, reversing the worrying decline in those relations has been a consistent effort of the US president. He now comes to Cairo to answer and redress Muslim grievances and perceptions, balance Muslim expectations with core US interests, and reaffirm America’s attachment to its ideals after years of costly drift.

This reframing of America’s interaction with the Muslim world promises to be as intense and thoughtful as Obama’s address on race last year in Philadelphia, a key moment in building his relationship with the American people. Rather than apologise for every enduring source of tension between the two, some born from an undeniable cultural gulf and others from irreconcilable if legitimate differences, he will try to place them in context, and then transcend them.

To do so, he will probably weave in personal narratives – from his childhood to his work with ostracised communities; and broad policy goals – from the already announced drawdown of US troops from Iraq to a clear commitment to Palestinian statehood and, hopefully, an articulation of a grand theme for engagement of the Muslim world along the lines of justice and human dignity.

He will focus on the best in human will and spirit while conceding its darkest corners: the ability of states and societies to fail and oppress their members, and of individuals to embrace violence and radicalism. And he will hopefully emphasise the universal appeal of humanistic values, rejecting political and social determinism – the notion that societies are so different in their essence that the fundamental rights and aspirations of individuals can be ignored or denied for some larger purpose.

Mr Obama will call for action against the sources of radicalism and its terrorist manifestations. He will demand that tolerance and respect be mutual. He will press Muslim nations to accept their minorities and support peace with Israel. He will praise progress and achievements, as well as the grandeur and diversity of Islamic civilisation.

Importantly, Mr Obama will have to decide what to say, and later to do, about democracy promotion. Not all the Muslim world suffers from political stagnation: Turkey and Indonesia stand as models of political progress, several Muslim states have an improving human rights record and better participatory processes, and the political upheaval of the past decade has instigated a healthy and exciting debate about Islam, governance and democracy.

But he will speak from Egypt, the very example of how US interests and values can collide. It is the largest and influential Arab country and a key US ally, but state repression has shrunk public space and freedoms. Today it embodies the failure of traditional Arab governance to empower its citizenry. Mr Obama, who is believed to have chosen Cairo because of a convergence of interests on Israel-Palestine and Iran, cannot ignore this tension.

That he has a preference for progressive, democratic rule over other forms of authority is evident. It is the very social and political mobility that the US provides and that is lacking in much of the Muslim world that brought him to the White House.

But Mr Obama is facing a complex challenge. In his attempt to move away from the Bush era, including its well-meaning but flawed advocacy of democracy, he is at risk of coming dangerously close to a realist foreign policy that advocates diplomatic multilateralism but has little interest in social progress. A few weeks ago his defence secretary, Robert Gates, publicly rejected the idea of linking US aid to Egyptian progress on human rights. And the US administration has decided to suspend US funding to non-governmental organisations that the Egyptian state refuses to register.

Still, it is not certain that Mr Obama will completely repudiate the Bush “freedom agenda”, as many in the US and elsewhere are demanding. There were certainly many conceptual, political and operational flaws in Mr Bush’s vision, including confusion over how to deal with Islamist movements, some with a history of violence, others at odds with states aligned with the US, that participate in and even win elections.

But Mr Bush himself debunked the notion that only cold-blooded interests should determine US policy when he said in November 2003: “Sixty years of western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe – because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.”

Paradoxically, Mr Obama will probably build on this philosophy and learn from the policy contradictions that followed to press his Egyptian host on reform, but also cast democratisation as a gradual, multidimensional and generational process.

Many Americans, wary of the cost of involvement with the Muslim world, will wonder whether the US should care at all about Muslim feelings and perceptions as long as interests with Muslim states coincide. This is a fair concern, but misplaced and ultimately counterproductive. It is healthy to be circumspect about the roots and depth of anti-Americanism in opinion polls: it is easy and cost-free to criticise the US to a pollster, especially on issues that have no direct relevance to you. The same polls that crucify the US also highlight the popularity of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Bashar al Assad, but people still line up outside US consulates rather than Iranian or Syrian ones; and when asked if they would want either man as their president, many Muslims and Arabs demur. So rather than being apologetic, Mr Obama will instead project confidence in the name of a nation that sometimes fails but remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for his audience.

Since Mr Obama’s background and stunning trajectory make it difficult to dismiss America as a racist, elitist and arrogant country, he would do well to call on the Muslim world for some introspection. Many complaints about US policies are legitimate, but to blame all Arab ills on an imperialist Western agenda smacks of hypocrisy, denial and irresponsibility.

Millions of Muslims will judge Mr Obama’s sincerity today. They will find in him candour seen from few of their own leaders. This will be the beginning of the serious discussion that has been delayed for too long.

ehokayem@thenational.ae