Building bridges

Obama is wildly popular across the globe. But in the middle east, America's toxic image will not be cured by a new face and friendlier rhetoric alone
December 20, 2008
To discuss this article visit First Drafts, Prospect's blog

As an American overseas, watching the world celebrate Barack Obama's victory on 4th November was both exhilarating and a little bewildering. Over the last few years, I'd grown used to the lectures from friends and strangers on just how much my country was damaging the world. Now, there was dancing in the streets (often literally) from London to Lahore. And the official reaction was nearly as effusive. President Nicolas Sarkozy's congratulatory statement read like a love letter.

Overseas Obamamania sprang from many causes. Across the world, there is deep desire for the US to re-engage with the world. And Obama is seen not only as capable of rebuilding America's image, but also interested in doing so. Of course, there's an equally deep desire for an end to President Bush. But perhaps most important is people's fascination with Obama's personal story. A black man, with a Kenyan father, an international upbringing, and a name like Barack Hussein Obama seems both a symbolic and substantive end to the inward-looking, unilateral, war-mongering nation many had come to see America as.

But there is one part of the world where Obamamania has failed to ignite or, more precisely, where the infatuation quickly evaporates in the blistering heat of anti-US resentment. Unfortunately, it's also where the US needs an image boost most: the Muslim world. Today, a remarkable variety of Muslims believe in a grand western conspiracy against Islam, led by America and bent on punishing Muslims for 9/11. For them, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most pointed examples. Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and America's continuing relationships with middle eastern dictatorships are also cited as evidence. US support for Israel, which many see as a main driving force for American policy in the region, is powerful as well. A poll published by Pew Research in June 2008 found that in Jordan and Egypt, for instance, people expected a new president to make US policy worse, a remarkable achievement after President Bush set new lows for popularity.

Why the difference? I've met many Muslims abroad who, like Europeans, Asians and Africans, are fascinated with Obama's story. In some ways, they're more fascinated: the idea of a black man leading a country which they believe is run by a secret cabal of powerful Jews is simply irresistible.

Still, America's toxic image cannot be cured with friendlier rhetoric and a promising life story alone. Muslim friends tell me they're not dumb. Iraq may be vacated. But the other things that upset them—America's unconditional support for Israel, its cozy relationships with certain middle eastern dictators, and its willingness to attack Muslim lands in Afghanistan and Pakistan—aren't going to change with a new man in the White House.

They're right on some counts. Many are likely to be disappointed with the pace of the US withdrawal from Iraq. And in Afghanistan, Obama has promised more, not fewer, troops—though many Muslims and even some Europeans oppose an "Afghan surge."

What, then, can he do to begin to win over the hearts and minds of skeptical Muslims? His first priority should be making diplomacy, rather than military might alone, a principal tool of US policy in the region. Obama has said he will do this, most dramatically, by keeping open the possibility of talks with Iran. Closing the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, as he has announced he will, and publicly renouncing torture, as he already has done, will make a difference. The new president should also make an immediate commitment to a peace between Israel and Palestine, by appointing a new special envoy and making a concerted peace effort early in his term rather than at the end of it. And despite the tough economic times, he should boost development funding to help create jobs for alienated young people in the region. (Worryingly, Joe Biden indicated in the October vice presidential debate that Obama's plans to double foreign aid might have to be "slowed down" in the wake of the financial crisis).

It will not be an easy path. While many Afghans themselves may be eager for more troops, other Muslims will be quick to protest. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim member of the Dutch parliament, put it this way in a column for The Australian on election day: "It would remind the Islamists and their sympathisers across the Muslim world that Obama would not act out of solidarity with people based on the color of his skin or because of his origins in Kenya, but as the commander-in-chief protecting US national interests above all."

Some Muslims will find far less substantive reasons to remain sceptical of President-elect Obama. When he appointed Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff shortly after he was elected, columnists angrily derided his "Israeli chief of staff," based on Emanuel's family roots in Israel. It was proof, they said, that Obama was simply more of the same. Sadly, there will always be bigots in the region, but there are others who will listen to and be impressed by concrete change—change that is within President-elect Obama's (and America's) reach.

To discuss this article visit First Drafts, Prospect's blog

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