Barack Obama’s Cairo Speech: Main Points and a Critical Review

1)      Confronting the violent extremism does not mean confronting Islam. According to Obama, the US invaded Afghanistan not ‘because of choice but because of necessity’ and with the support of the international community. Keeping the American troops in Afghanistan is actually agonizing and costly but before leaving, they have to make sure that the extremist wave is over and the terrorists will not be able to attack the US again. Obama said that the Muslim world should be on board when it comes to fighting extremism because these very same extremists have also killed innocent Muslim civilians and continue to do so. He was also clear on the fact that force alone will not solve the problem and that is why the US will provide aid to Pakistan to build schools and roads in order to increase the overall level of progress and education. The US President admitted that unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice. He believes that Iraqi people are better off without Sadam Hussain but it should also serve as a lesson for the US to use democracy whenever possible. They have no claims on Iraq’s sovereignty and that’s why they will remove all their troops by 2012 and enter into a state of partnership with Iraq.

2)      Obama acknowledged that the situation between Israel and Palestine is central to the overall relationship between the US and the Muslim world. He called the American bonds with Israel ‘unbreakable’ and stressed the agony the Jews have endured. He also accredited the Palestinian people’s suffering in pursuit of a home country. According to him, the creation of two states is the best solution and it will be in the interest of both Israel and Palestine as well as in the interest of the world community. He vowed to pursue this matter with persistence but insisted that the two sides should also put in effort. On one hand, Palestinians should stop the violence because resistance through violence is wrong and ‘violence is a dead end.’ On the other hand, Israeli settlements should be stopped because they violate previous agreements and bring the peace process to a standstill.

3)      Nuclear weapons and in particular the tension with Iran was another topic that was covered in Obama’s speech. He admitted that in the past both countries have done wrong by each other but now the US is open for dialogue. He also stated that no single nation should choose which states can have nuclear weapons and which cannot. Therefore, the long term solution is to achieve a state of world affairs where no country has nuclear weapons.  

4)      Democracy and its promotion have become subject for heated debates. Obama believes that no system of government should be imposed on any nation. But that does not mean that the government should not reflect the will of the people. The US does not presume to know what is good for everyone but he believes that transparent government and freedom to live as you choose are not just American ideas but basic human rights that need to be pursued.

5)      Religious freedom is another issue that deserved to be mentioned in Obama’s speech. He said that Islam is traditionally very tolerant to other religions but the division between Sunni and Shia is problematic and this is manifested in the current inter-religious violence in Iraq.

6)      Obama also drew attention to women’s rights. He believes that ‘a woman who is denied education is denied equality’ and added that educated women are an integral cog to a nation’s progress. The US President stated that ‘our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons’. He was also categorical that he respects women who choose traditional roles as long as it was the woman’s choice.

7)      Obama recognized that the times of modernization and globalization are confusing even for people in the US as they are afraid to lose their identities and traditions. Nevertheless, progress cannot be denied and there should not be contradiction between the two. He pointed out Japan and South Korea as examples of booming economies that coexist in harmony with traditional values. Dubai is one such example in the Muslim world. The President committed to collaborate in the spheres of education, business, science, technology and health with the Arab world in order to improve their partnership.

While listening to Obama, I could almost predict every argument that was about to follow, which is typical for diplomacy where you elaborate on the case of two sides opposed to each other but in the end you end up saying how both have their pros and cons. After all, he had to do a fragile balancing act between expressing support for the Muslim world and appearing tough on extremists. He was clearly trying to reach out and appeal to the young people of the Islamic world. He also did a great job at presenting the world as a chain of actors where everyone has their place, rights and responsibilities.

Without trying to oversimplify the complexities of his speech, one could notice two repeating lines.

1. ‘America and Islam are not exclusive’
2. ‘We should not be bound by the past’

There is little doubt that this speech on its own will not manage to break clichés but Obama succeeded in giving some food for thought by insisting that ‘just as Muslims don’t fit a crude stereotype’ it would be wrong to narrow the whole of America to a selfish power.

I did, however, find it weird that he overused his Muslim background, which was very much underplayed during his election campaign. I mean how many times did you hear him present himself to voters as Barack Hussein Obama? For me, the weakest point of his speech was the nuclear weapons issue. He walked a very broad plank and simply reaffirmed existing popular opinions that the US just does not have a case on this topic.

At the end of the day, the speech managed to move and inspire me and for a brief moment while listening to him I felt that naïve hope that maybe somehow things can change. The expectations for the speech were high and the media will spend days analyzing the resulting feedback, comments and opinions. But one thing is for certain – there are even greater expectations now!

What do you think? Was this a historical speech that decades from now will be known for being a stepping stone to better relations between the US and the Muslim world? Or was it just another political speech, which will not lead to anything?