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Obama: Americans not Muslim world's enemy
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-28 12:44 CAIRO, Egypt – US President Barack Obama chose an Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, part of a concerted effort to repair relations with the Muslim world that were damaged under the previous administration.
Obama cited his Muslim background and relatives, practically a taboo issue during the US presidential campaign, and said in the interview, which aired Tuesday, that one of his main tasks was to communicate to Muslims "that the Americans are not your enemy."
Obama said the US had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that." Obama also emphasized the importance of engaging with Iran, a country the Bush administration often singled out as the most dangerous in the region. Obama said "it is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress." Obama's predecessor, former US President George W. Bush, launched wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which prompted a massive backlash against the US in the Muslim world. In contrast to the enthusiastic reception Obama's victory has garnered around the world, the Arab world has been much more cautious about the new US president -- with most people skeptical that American policy in the region will change substantially. "I can't be optimistic until I see something tangible," said Hatem al-Kurdi, 35, a Gaza City engineer who saw parts of the interview. "Anyone can say nice words, but you have to follow with actions." "He seems very interested in the Middle East issue but he didn't say exactly what he's going to do about it," Kurdi added. After earlier dismissing Obama as following the same policies as his predecessor, officials from the militant Palestinian Hamas group softened their stance against the new US president Tuesday. "In the last couple of days there have been a lot of statements (from Obama), some of them very positive, and choosing this George Mitchell as an envoy," said Ahmed Youssef, a senior Hamas official interviewed on the Doha-based Al-Jazeera news network. "I think there are some positive things we have to count." Obama's choice of Al-Arabiya network, which is owned by a Saudi businessman, follows the lead of the Bush administration, which gave several presidential interviews to that news channel. "The US sees Al-Arabiya as a friendly Arab channel, whereas they see Al-Jazeera as confrontational," said Lawrence Pintak, director of the journalism training center at the American University in Cairo. Hady Amr, director of the Brookings Doha Center, an arm of the US think-tank in the Qatari capital, described decision to make the first presidential interview with an Arabic news network as "stunning." "President Obama has made it absolutely clear ... that a central priority will be repairing America's relations with the Muslim world," he said. "If that's his objective, I'd say he's been hitting home run after home run." In the interview, Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives. |
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