There is no doubt that this is a historic moment in American history and a great opportunity for the US to refashion its relations, particularly with the Muslim world

No American president in recent history has raised such high hopes at home and abroad, and on every issue, from equality among races to settling one of the most challenging rifts between Muslim societies and the Western.

This optimism about Obama presidency is not without reason. It is not just about his personal qualities, his rise to power from a very humble background, his personal struggles or the quality of his leadership; it is also — more so — about his charisma, his liberal vision and his political capacity to build coalitions.

After the countless blunders of the Bush presidency, and a mostly flawed worldview of the neo-conservatives, Barack Obama appears to be the right person at the right time to restore faith in American ideals at home and trust in its leadership abroad.

The United States has accumulated a great trust deficit with a large number of countries. Its image as a benign and generous power always willing to help societies in need during the early Cold War years has changed dramatically over the last quarter-century.

It is now viewed generally as an imperialistic, pushy, greedy, self-centred and interventionist hegemonic power in most of Latin America. These perceptions have a history and some bitter facts behind them.

But if one looks at the larger global perception of the US, such images are not confined to Latin America alone. Even some European countries, including close allies of the US, have negative perceptions of American power and its ruling establishment.

This is only one side of the story about American society, values and culture. At a more personal level, many people who may have a negative image of the American establishment show great praise and recognition of the strength of American society, its ideals and institutions. It is not without reason that American colleges and universities attract the largest number of the brightest students, scientists, philosophers and intellectuals from every corner of the world.

Compared to many European countries, the former colonial powers, the US has treated ordinary immigrants, foreign students and intellectuals much better, often giving them the same benefits and privileges as US citizens.

Today, perhaps the greatest number of immigrant Muslims in any single foreign country might be found in the US. It has been historically a welcoming society, very warm and non-hostile to peoples from other religions, civilisations and nationalities.

Therefore, multiculturalism, individualism, personal freedoms and generally dignified space for all have been the real strength of the American society.

But like any society, it had its flaws, like resistance in some spheres to granting equal rights to members of coloured races, specifically African Americans. In fact slavery, racial segregation and denial of civil rights were the norm until the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, successfully led by a charismatic and determined American leader, Martin Luther King Jr.

The election of a black person, the son of an immigrant exchange student from Kenya with a Muslim background, to the White House, justifiably characterised as the most powerful office on earth, is not an ordinary political event. American society, in contrast to traditional societies like ours, recognises personal merit, achievement and excellence.

Obama being the first African American President represents the soft and real strength of American society, which is constant accommodation of new social forces like creativity and the ideas of positive change. He symbolises a revolution in American politics, something that many people unfamiliar with American history, institutions and values are unable to fathom.

There is no doubt that this is a historic moment in American history and a great opportunity for the US to refashion its relations, particularly with the Muslim world.

How to reach out to the Muslim world has been one of the central questions on the mind of Barack Obama, along with how to rehabilitate American prestige and respect, which seemed to be a running theme even in his inaugural address. With American troops involved in two wars in two Muslims states, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the troubling legacy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has historically fed into alienation and anger of Muslim societies, Obama faces a big challenge of selling his vision of reconciliation.

It is a liberal belief that reconciliation between the Muslim societies and the West is not only desirable but also a workable project, and very fundamental to peace and harmony in the world.

Only the conservatives in Western society, though not all brands and shades of them, and the fundamentalists and religious right in the Muslim world, again not all of them, may think that reconciliation is neither possible nor necessary. Civilisational confrontationists represent only a tiny minority and cannot be allowed to cause conflict that leads to suffering and pain, mostly in Muslim countries.

President Obama’s landmark speech in Cairo last week represents a new vision, truly a way forward in seeking co-existence and reconciliation based on mutual respect and recognition of each other’s rights and obligation to achieve peace and stability.

It is heartening that he has recognised the centrality of the Palestinian issue to the larger menu of perceptual issues between Muslims and the West. The central message is that let us not be held hostage to history and continue to live on grievances and victim-hood of the past. This is as good as it sounds though.

The real challenge for the United States and President Obama is the creation of a Palestinian state that is coherent and sustainable; the challenges being the return of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 that will require rolling back Jewish settlements on lands owned by the Palestinians and the return of Palestinian refugees that were forced to leave by the Zionists in 1948. Other American presidents in the past have been unwilling to use the power and influence that the US has over Israel, due to the countervailing force of pro-Israel lobbies in Congress and other power centres.

Have American interests changed in relation to the Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim world at large to an extent that warrants a major shift in American policy? Will Obama be able to build the necessary coalition between the Democrats and the Republicans to push forward his agenda of reconciliation with the Muslim world? And finally, how much pressure and influence can he really exercise over Israel to make genuine concessions to the Palestinians?

Talking peace is good but good speeches are hardly the stuff that peace and reconciliation are made of. They are merely statements of good intentions that require concrete steps to make others, in this case the Muslim world, believe that US policy has changed.

Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais is author of Recovering the Frontier State: War, Ethnicity and State in Afghanistan (Oxford University Press, 2008) and a professor of Political Science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. He can be reached at rasul@lums.edu.pk

__________________
CSS 2009, 2010, 2011 Qualifier