The current National Security Strategy document, prepared by the Bush administration, states that “the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century.” President Bush had gone further and used such meaningless terms as “Islamo-fascism” to justify his now discarded doctrine of the war on terror and pre-emptive strike. After more than a year, President Barack Obama is slowly putting his stamp on US foreign policy.This is a welcome development. Given President Obama’s promise to turn a new page in US-Muslim world relations, this will be hailed as a step in the right direction. This is a reflection of the Obama administration’s desire to develop concrete partnerships with Muslim majority countries on such diverse issues as investment, entrepreneurship, polio, healthcare and education. A major conference on joint entrepreneurship launched by the Obama administration is being held in Washington, D.C., to further explore areas of cooperation between the US and Muslim countries.
This is a good sign that the US administration does not want to see the Muslim world through the eyes of terrorism and counter-terrorism. National Security Council staffer Pradeep Ramamurthy put it as follows: “You take a country where the overwhelming majority are not going to become terrorists, and you go in and say, ‘We’re building you a hospital so you don’t become terrorists.’ That doesn’t make much sense.”
Speaking at the opening of George Mason University’s Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies just outside Washington last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed this sentiment and said that people should stop using the words Islam and terrorism in the same sentence. Terrorism is a global phenomenon and recognizes no religious, racial or cultural boundary. Terrorists do not need religion to justify their acts even though some use religious arguments to do just that. But the point is that no religion, be it Islam, Judaism, Christianity or Hinduism, can be held accountable for the terrorist acts of some fringe groups. Attributing their act to the core of a religion is to endorse the terrorist’s point of view.
It is clear that President Obama wants to leave this debate behind and start a new, constructive period in US-Muslim world relations. This is a badly needed and urgent change in US policy towards the Muslim world. But can Obama achieve his goal by avoiding the hardcore policy issues and instead focusing on soft issues such as polio and scientific research?
Many in the Muslim world look at Obama’s performance in the Middle East peace process, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and see many good wishes but very few changes. Iraq is probably the best record Mr. Obama can claim for himself. Afghanistan remains a big mess and a trap for President Obama and his allies in NATO. The Iranian nuclear file is getting more complicated. A possible decision to apply sanctions against Iran will further deteriorate US-Iranian relations, which in turn contradicts Obama’s promise to turn a new page with most Muslim countries. Obama had contradicted himself when he announced his Afghanistan plan last year: As a leader who ran on the peace ticket, he increased the number of combat troops in Afghanistan. Will the same thing happen with Iran?
Then there is the Middle East peace process, where Obama must personally be the most frustrated. No progress has been made since he took office. To the contrary, with the Benjamin Netanyahu government things have gotten worse for the Palestinians as well as US-Israeli relations. Netanyahu’s refusal to stop settlement activities has been a major blow to Obama and George Mitchell’s efforts to build trust among the Palestinians and bring the Arabs to the negotiating table. There is very little sign on the horizon that we will see a breakthrough any time soon.
While Mr. Obama should be congratulated on his efforts to change the discourse of US policy towards the Muslim world, it is clear that people expect more than new policy statements from him.
