President Obama’s Foreign Policy a Shift from “Clash” to “Cooperation”

If President Barack Obama has accomplished anything in his Cairo speech and recent foreign policy gestures, it is to refute the “clash of civilizations” theory that has tainted American foreign policy for too long. A major source of irritation I share with many Muslims is when Western leaders condescendingly refer to the tension between themselves and the Muslim world as an age-old conflict between the two cultures, now embodied by a struggle between a backwards Muslim culture and a modern Western one. However, in his speech to the Muslim world, President Obama explicitly dismissed the view that “it isn’t worth the effort – that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash.”

Probably the most effective way President Obama did this is by using the Muslim language to communicate to Muslims. Instead of using cliché phrases like “Islam means peace” that under the Bush administration was belittled by his other references to the Crusades or “Islamic fascism,” Obama opened his speech with the universal Muslim greeting “Assalamu Alaykum,” or “peace be upon you.” It is also no coincidence that Obama received enthusiastic applause every time he quoted from the Holy Qur’an, using verses that are very well known to Muslims such as, “whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind.” Not only did he use language that is universally understandable to Muslims around the world, but he attempted to pronounce the Islamic terms properly.

In another strategic move, President Obama harkened to the glorious Islamic civilizations that have contributed so much to the world then and today, mentioning a handful of achievements such as algebra and the magnetic compass. Muslims often compare the situation of the ummah, or community of Muslims, today facing poverty, war, and disease with a Muslim world that led the world in civilization. This decline in status is a source of despair for many Muslims who see these problems as exacerbated by the West. Instead of using the example of the Islamic Golden Age to question Muslims about their state today, President Obama praised this past, acknowledged that colonialism and the Cold War have created tensions between Islam and the West, mentioned some of the main problems that face the Muslim world today, and then outlined concrete measures America will use to work with the Muslim world to address these problems.

When President Obama mentioned the major issues facing the Western and Muslim worlds, he was cautious to point out the successes and failures of both to solve these problems, most notably when he cited that women have been elected as presidents and prime ministers of Muslim-majority countries and then immediately afterward acknowledged that America and other countries must follow suit.

Perhaps the President’s most important evidence that “Western” and “Islamic” civilizations are compatible is the living reality of tens of millions of Muslims in the West, including the Muslim community in America. The president began by indicating that the Muslim world and America were linked from America’s birth, when Morocco became the first nation to recognize the nascent United States. For Muslim-Americans like me, the President’s subsequent summary of some of our accomplishments was a much-needed recognition. At the same time, we understood the implicit message of the President to the Western and Muslim world through our example that Yes we can work together.

Of course, the President’s speech was lacking in some areas. For example, Muslims have been noting the irony of the President speaking about democracy in Egypt, a country ruled the repressive Hosni Mubarak. In fact, many Muslims criticize the U.S. for supporting dictatorships in the Muslim world for their own interests, a point of tension the president must address. Furthermore, unlike President Obama, many Muslims do not see American involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan as very different from American involvement in Iraq. Also, President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world was limited by its heavy focus on the Arab world, which only makes up about 15% of the Muslim world.[1]

While the substance of the speech could have been better, the tone was impeccably on target. There is no doubt that the American President’s speech has set the Muslim world abuzz with anticipation of a cooperative Western-Muslim alliance.[2]

[1] http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=4791

[2] http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/06/04/obama.anewbeginning.pdf

Nafees A. Syed, a junior at Harvard University majoring in government, is an editorial editor at The Harvard Crimson as well as a senior editor and columnist for the Harvard-MIT journal on Islam and society, Ascent. She is chairwoman of the Harvard Institute of Politics Policy Group on Racial Profiling.

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