EGYPT: How Obama's speech won hearts
Even days after Barack Obama's speech, Egyptians are still captivated by the American president. While some Islamists and opposition figures are dissecting and criticizing the address, many Muslims are waiting to see what the future holds, and if Obama will implement his vision into action. The general feeling is that people's hearts were won over by Obama's rhetoric and flair.
The emotional connection between Arabs, in general, and Egyptians, in particular, with the United States has been a pull-and-push relationship over the last 60 years. The administration of George W. Bush culminated in years of ill will, forcing many Arabs to at least pretend to despise the world's most powerful country. So how did Obama's 55-minute speech succeed in nearly wiping away animosity among moderate Muslims?
Talking to politicians, analysts, religious figures and citizens, both before and after the speech, I could sense that Obama has become an accepted figure among most Egyptians. A generation of his family were Muslims, he's the first African American to lead the United States, and some of his views about peace in the Middle East -- which contradict his predecessor's -- have created a good feeling toward him.
Then he chose Cairo as his venue to address the Muslim world, which was considered by many as a massive gesture of goodwill. The previously mentioned reasons made Egyptians simply love Obama's speech before he even started it, commencing his words with "assalamu alaikum" (or "peace be upon you"). Obama's references to passages from the Koran to underline his views was more than enough for some to become infatuated with him straightaway.
It is clear that most Egyptians were waiting for any American gesture, and that hope came in the shape of Obama and his words. People here have a very strong bond with the United States as a country and a culture, especially those born in the 1950s and '60s, who grew up to watching American movies and TV and listening to its pop songs. They were struck by the American dream and many fled Egypt to follow this dream in the U.S.
Younger generations imitate Americans, even in the way they speak English. Politically, many remain suspicious of American foreign policy, but culturally, millions of Egyptians are enamored by America, and by its president. Obama reached out and they have reached back.
--Amro Hassan in Cairo
Photo: President Obama salutes the crowd at Cairo University. Credit: Associated Press
It is amazing how negative so many comment are about the Preident's speech in Egypt. I did not vote for him, and I do not like everything he does, but the speech is a great effort to reach out and try to help the peace process. The Koran is not un-holy. It can be mis-quoted as the Bible is ofter mis-quoted. I don't understand how people can put down another religion and think they have done right. We may not believe as other's do, but we can and should respect them.
Posted by: John Mutch | June 11, 2009 at 06:21 AM
Obama travels to Cairo, Egypt, for a world beating speech and his handlers set him up to meet with none other than Jew hating Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt. In an Egyptian TV interview Hawass said this about the Jews:
“For 18 centuries they were dispersed throughout the world. They went to America and took control of its economy. They have a plan. Although they are few in number, they control the entire world.”
“The reason is that they are always united over a single view. They always move together, even if in the wrong direction. We, on the other hand, are divided. If even two Arab countries could be in agreement, our voice would be stronger. Look at the control they have over America and the media.”
You can read the transcript and watch the video at MEMRI. http://tinyurl.com/akugv7 and http://tinyurl.com/c8277p.
What else does Hawass have to say about Jews?
“When I speak of the Jewish faith, I do not mean their [original] faith, but the faith that they forged and contaminated with their poison, which is aimed against all of mankind... The only thing that the Jews have learned from history is methods of tyranny and torment - so much so that they have become artists in this field. They have done to the Palestinians what Pharaoh and Sargon [of Akkad] did to the Jews..."
http://tinyurl.com/d2jo4v
Didn’t his people check out the background on Hawass?
Posted by: Israel Eidus | June 08, 2009 at 05:21 PM
Obama travels to Cairo, Egypt, for a world beating speech and his handlers set him up to meet with none other than Jew hating Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt. In an Egyptian TV interview Hawass said this about the Jews:
“For 18 centuries they were dispersed throughout the world. They went to America and took control of its economy. They have a plan. Although they are few in number, they control the entire world.”
“The reason is that they are always united over a single view. They always move together, even if in the wrong direction. We, on the other hand, are divided. If even two Arab countries could be in agreement, our voice would be stronger. Look at the control they have over America and the media.”
You can read the transcript and watch the video at MEMRI. http://tinyurl.com/akugv7 and http://tinyurl.com/c8277p.
What else does Hawass have to say about Jews?
“When I speak of the Jewish faith, I do not mean their [original] faith, but the faith that they forged and contaminated with their poison, which is aimed against all of mankind... The only thing that the Jews have learned from history is methods of tyranny and torment - so much so that they have become artists in this field. They have done to the Palestinians what Pharaoh and Sargon [of Akkad] did to the Jews..."
http://tinyurl.com/d2jo4v
Didn’t his people check out the background on Hawass?
Posted by: Israel Eidus | June 08, 2009 at 05:21 PM
I am so pround of Obama, he what he has done for the Arab Americans!!!! We are all people first and foremost, it should never be a matter of color or religion. I feel that there are many things in the past that we can not change, but we are a new generation of Human Society that should seek a new frontier to work as one and not as none!!!! I am Libyan and Hispanic from Texas, I have travelled since a very young age back and forth from Texas to North Africa, I am raised American but love my Arab culture and understand it! I just feel that America should be more open minded and welcoming to the Arab world, if we work together the possibiltes are endless!
Azeza Salama
Posted by: Azeza Salama | June 08, 2009 at 02:32 PM
How could they not be enamored by President Obama's speech? His speech was logical, straightforward and from the heart. His style, grace and common sense logic is hard to deny. Then you throw the references to the Koran, the oustretched hand of peace. How could they NOT fall in love with him like we have? II just wish MORE people had seen that speech. It should have been replayed in the prime time hour. I was very upset that it was ignored and only snipets given to the public.
Posted by: Lana Castill | June 08, 2009 at 10:41 AM
RE:
EGYPT: How Obama's speech won hearts
----------------------------------------------------
WESTERN UNIVERSALISM"
Color cannot be understood except in relation to the person who perceives it," physicist Pierre Demers wrote in the Foreword to this book entitled "BILL A RI AND THERE WAS LIGHT !". He clearly confirms the relevance of this essay. First of all, in fact, we thought it would be useful to consider the civilizational (politico-religious) attitude of the West toward the Blacks, before pointing out the deficiencies of present-day science, which is predominantly Western, in its perception of the Black Universe.The Western political attitude toward the Blacks has for many centuries been determined by the perverse ruler-servant, master-slave, exploiter-exploited relationship. In order to normalize its policy of enslaving Blacks, Judeo-Christian civilization went so far as to use Christianity to legitimize what today we generally call "crimes against humanity", such as the racist slavery peculiar to the West. That situation was facilitated by the fact that the monotheistic religion, which had originally been universalist, soon limited its horizons to the boundaries of the Western world, while the other peoples — which it thought it had attracted — seemed to find themselves there in spite of themselves. Some might wonder whether the abandonment by the West of Christian universalism does not explain that inability of Judeo-Christian civilization to adopt a universalist attitude, not only in the political but also in the scientific realm.As a matter of fact, present-day science, dominated for a few centuries by the West, can hardly claim to be "universal", since it is so deeply affected by the Westerners who perceive it. These people have — as we all know — lost any authentically universalist dimension. Did they not, by using and misusing the Bible, attempt to prove the superiority of Western Whites over Blacks and other colored peoples, limiting there too the vast universalist horizons of science to the very boundaries of the West? Everything seems to indicate that science is no longer universal; it is "Western", with all the consequences that implies for humanity and, in particular, for the Black world.In other words, the Western approach, the Western way of thinking, is far from being scientific, neutral and objective; it is subjective and distorting. Such subjectivity and distortion manifest themselves still more obviously, as we have seen, in the realm of colors, and more specifically when dealing with the concept of "black". One must therefore bring into play the social sciences — history, sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis, political science, etc. — to understand that Western handicap. Indeed, as soon as it has to deal with "black", Western reasoning vacillates, making room for the irrational and its array of fantasies.The author of the Foreword to this book, a physicist, under went a conversion in 1974, where by he would from then on wholly devote himself to the study of colors. He says that he has been attracted more and more strongly by the multidisciplinary and deeply human nature of the study of colors. He states that the "rational comprehension of colors cannot have the necessary depth, unless all the sciences are called upon: chemistry, biology, physiology, physics, and mathematics”. He even insists: “Once more the human aspect intervenes. Man is both the creator and the necessary vehicle of all sciences. It is doubly true that there is no rational knowledge of color outside of mankind." He thus admits, as we do, though in a roundabout way, that the present understanding of colors leaves much to be desired. Is it not strongly influenced by the dominant contemporary civilization, polluted so long by prejudices against peoples of color, especially Blacks?Such a serious Western handicap obviously hinders the forward march of universal science as well as that of all mankind. Both are victims of a racist — and therefore anti-scientific, selfish and limited — vision of the world. The case of Haiti, to use an example with which we are very familiar, is a symptom of the non-universalistic attitude of those who rule the world — the Westerners. Although it may still be possible to scientifically correct the erroneous vision of "blackness" fairly quickly, it is much more difficult to improve human behavior from one day to the next, since mentalities evolve rather slowly. In the meantime, we cannot help being aware that the West keeps dragging around its heavy burden of anti-Black prejudice, and that attitude is detrimental to both the Western and Black worlds.Has not the West, in its relations with the "peoples of color", always supported rulers who are docile slaves to itself, but tyrants to their own peoples?Be that as it may, like present-day science, whose universalism is now quite questionable, does not the reality of Western world politics distance itself from universalism to plunge into a quasi-particularism aiming only at the promotion and supremacy of the White world? It is right to quote the universalist Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, who states that "the visible opens our eyes to the invisible". Science, just like color, cannot be understood outside of the person who perceives it.
Lucien Bonnet
PLease, SEE :
"LETTER TO PRESIDENT CLINTON"
in "BILL A RI AND THERE WAS LIGHT !"
http://www.contact-canadahaiti.ca
Posted by: Lucien BONNET | June 07, 2009 at 05:40 PM