Analysis of Obama’s Speech
[This is a guest post]
I’m one of those who didn’t vote for Obama and am exceptionally critical of him and his policies. Surprisingly however, I was initially softened by his speech to the Muslim world a few days ago, although later I did reflect on it with a serious and more critical mindset. As a current student of International Politics, it’s a bit tough trying to keep myself from perceiving every leaders words and addresses to the mass public as state centric strategy and self interested jargon. After all, the dominant international relations theories all boil down to the idea that people in power in various states all act in favor of their own country and even the nicest gestures are rooted in ulterior motives revolving around state centricity. But we must remember that social science theories at the end of the day as ‘science-y’ as they may be, are not precise and are after all concerned with human beings. Human beings are unpredictable to a large extent. No matter how hard we attempt to establish cold hard social science laws, for the most part this is not possible so to completely rule out the possibility of kind gestures or good intentions in the grand scheme of things isn’t the best approach. We’re not all self interested and certainly not all of the time; indeed there is much good brought about by us which clearly should be recognized as such.
So with that I’d like to share a really interesting viewpoint on the speech by Dr. Ali Shehata from MuslimMatters.org:
Alhamdulillah.
When listening and trying to assess the President’s words from his historic Cairo speech, we have to have the correct frame of reference. Some people seem to want to judge him as if he were a Muslim and as such their focus is on the oppressive acts of the Bush/Cheney regime and issues like walaa and baraa. I personally think that we have to view President Obama as one would have viewed one of the Chiefs of Quraish or Byzantium during the lifetime of the Prophet (saas) or the rightly guided Khulafaa. It is well documented in the seerah that there were in fact people among the disbelievers whom the Prophet (saas) respected greatly, like Mut’im ibn ‘Adi for example, and the respect paid to the Patriarch of Jerusalem by Umar ibnul Khattab. While they may be at odds with Muslims to some degree, that does not detract from the good they seek to do and the gestures of respect they make towards us.
As for Mut’im ibnu Ad’i, I believe that a strong argument can be presently made that Obama is offering Muslims an opportunity to change the condition of their lands. Mut’im ibn Ad’i was still a Qurashite and still a member of those who stood by while the Prophet (saas) and his early followers were persecuted. He is no different than any current western leader who wishes better for Muslims but is also well aware of his limitations and the limits of his own people’s understanding and mentality. I see that at least Obama is making strides in trying to change that perspective and once others stand by his side, that at that point in time, more significant changes have the potential to be made on the ground level.
Furthermore, The President’s efforts yesterday may well be likened to seeking a peace with the Muslim world, and as such, Allah
orders us in the Quran to accept such an effort by saying what means:
But if they incline to peace, you also incline to it, and (put your) trust in Allâh. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower. And if they intend to deceive you, then verily, Allâh is All-Sufficient for you. He it is Who has supported you with His Help and with the believers. [8:61-62]
Ibn Kathir mentions in regard to thiese ayaat, “Allah
It would be unreasonable to expect Obama to erase or reverse eight years of Bush policy in a few months, but he is already ardently working to erase the hatred that was bred by that administration. His speech risks a great amount of criticism here in the US by conservatives and others opposed to a positive image for Islam, and I think that his efforts should be appreciated and lauded for their boldness and potential benefit to many around the world. This doesn’t mean that we will rest on these words and not expect action, but anyone who has been in a leadership position understands that dramatic actions require a sort of preparing the ground before the action behind those words will be ready to be implemented. As such, I personally was happy to hear his words and accepted his efforts and ask Allah
I can also see that there are a lot of confusing things happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan these days that even Muslim scholars in the region are opposed to and displeased with.
I for one do not have a trusted and unbiased news source to follow for events in the region, but if it is like Iraaq – then there are significant violations on both sides of the equation and it is not a simple black and white issue by any means. I am absolutely not in support of those who call themselves mujahideen but spill the blood of Muslims in a careless manner more than 75% of the time. I cannot blame the western governments in a blanket manner for their involvement when they can convincingly and effectively justify their actions to a global audience. If we ignore this, we can only do so by presuming that we are the only people on earth with our eyes open and that everyone else is clueless (politically speaking, not spiritually).
Some have called Obama an apostate; that is a serious accusation that I doubt anyone can really prove. One would have to prove clearly that he actually was a consciously practicing Muslim at some point who renegaded. That would be an even greater challenge considering his non-practicing Muslim direct family members.