Obama’s Promise

Unlike Mr. Daniyal, MJ Akbar clearly understands that for Obama "Muslim world" is the same as middle-east + fake arabs of jihadistan...oops, I meant pakistan.

In other words, Akbar is concerned for the millions of indian, bangladeshi, malysian, indonesian muslims. For the middle-eastern arabs they are kala slaves like the hindus, only the arab concerns are important, other muslims are meant to be their servants.

Here is his take on Obama's speech, robustly centred on a commonsensical attitude and taking into account muslims of south and south-east asia.

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Thank you for the Nildus speech, Obama
M.J. Akbar | Arab News

Dear Brother Hussain, I am certain about two things. I am a Muslim, and I live in this world. Now the uncertainties begin. On June 4 you gave what was heavily advertised as a major speech to the “Muslim world�. Does that mean that while every Christian believes in the divinity of Jesus, he can be legitimately and widely varied in his political interests, but Muslims must have both Allah and politics in common?

As an Indian Muslim I belong to the second largest Muslim community in the world. I also live, proudly, as an equal, in India, a nation that contains the largest Hindu community in the world. Do you think I have the same political views as my fellow Muslims in Pakistan or Bangladesh or Nepal? You did mention that there are around six million Muslims in America. Were you speaking to them, or on their behalf, in Cairo? But for the accidents of life, you could have been an American Muslim, a Kenyan Muslim or an Indonesian Muslim. Would the same speech serve for all three?

Muslims live not only in different cultures and geopolitical spaces, but also under different constitutions. Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim nation, does not believe in a state religion. Pakistan, the second largest, became the world’s first Islamic republic. There are kings and autocrats and elected heads of government in the “Muslim world�, and one category that can only be described as “immovable object� unopposed by any irresistible force. Many Muslims live on the margins. Not many seem aware of this fact, and it is possible that none of your speech writers pointed it out, but 10 percent of the Russian population is Muslim. Islam came to that vast Eurasian region around the same time as the Christian church. Do Russian Muslims belong to the same “Muslim world� as Indonesians and Moroccans? The Chinese keep their Muslim-majority province, Xinjiang, a sort of closely guarded state secret, frightened that Islam might jump up and bite off communism’s ear. Which world do these Muslims belong to? And what about the chaps in Britain, who probably went over on the assumption that Britain was still Great. Or the French Muslims, whose ears are still ringing with the famous Sarkozy diktat: “Off with their head scarves!� Where would you place them? In Above-Saharan Africa?

At one point you were kind enough to suggest that “America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam�. But no sane person ever accused America of being at war with Islam. America would have to be a theocracy, with Inquisition as its preferred domestic policy, and conversion as the principal instrument of foreign affairs, to declare war on Islam. I hope you will not accuse me of being pedantic, in the sense of calling a toothache a gumache. The conflation of Islam and Muslims is precisely the kind of misconception that encourages pre-nation-state fantasies like the revival of a caliphate. One might add that while every Muslim was deeply committed to his faith, political disputes among Muslims began with the election of the very first caliph, Abu Bakr. Muslims see themselves as a brotherhood, not a nationhood. If Islam is sufficient glue for nationalism, why would Arabs be living in 22 countries? That should have been obvious while you were snacking on Arab cookies and Islamic lemonade in Cairo.

“Islam and the West� is another phrase wandering through a dialectic shaped within the Queen of Alice’s Wonderland. Islam is a faith; the West is geography. How do you construct a relationship between faith and geography?

You can have a debate on Islam and Christianity, or indeed between the West and West Asia, or the West and South Asia, or Southeast Asia. There is a past and a future to discuss. “Islam and the West� is straight out of 19th century Orientalism, laden with a subtext that is best left to warmongers. Peace requires a different idiom.

We understood your problem as you weaved through political and rhetorical swamps, because your predecessor managed to achieve what the mightiest of Muslim rulers failed to do — unite Muslims, albeit against him, rather than for something. But every Muslim does not need a homily on democracy. Muslims of Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India, who add up to nearly half the Muslim population, are not democracy-deficit.

The appropriate venue for a speech on Islam would have been Makkah, Madinah or Jerusalem.

Cairo was the perfect podium for the speech that we did hear, since your true theme was not the “Muslim world� but the region between the Nile and the Indus, which I have, elsewhere, called the “Arc of Turbulence�. Those searching for a convenient caption for the Cairo oration might want to call it the “Nildus speech�.

For the citizens of this region between Egypt and Pakistan, and particularly for Muslims, this was a brilliant gleam in the gloom to which they have become accustomed. Its great merit was justice and fairness, virtues that are repeatedly exalted in the Holy Qur’an. You did not deny Palestine its rights because you wanted to preserve what Israel has acquired. Of course, you will be criticized for being even-handed, but you have survived worse.

It was extremely important that a president of the United States quoted the Qur’an’s unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, through a verse that is particularly beautiful. This will go a long way to correct the propaganda unleashed by those who controlled the White House and influenced media before you.

There was one element of your speech that did address almost the whole of the Muslim world: Your stark, unambiguous condemnation of gender bias, one of the besetting sins of the “Muslim world�. If Muslims do not eliminate gender bias, they will not be permitted into the 20th century: Who is going to send them an invitation to join the 21st? Barack Obama has offered the key, but it is up to Muslims to open the door.

Riaz - you forgot to point that indians should abolish caste first; also build 500 million toilets (I know that is a personal obsession for you).

After that pakistan might consider normalizing relations, perhaps..

Re: #51

I think you start with getting back Bangladesh first. Then resolve Balochistan. Then come to Kashmir.

Re: # 44
I am no closet India, but I do care for both nations. If both can see what is best in their own enlightened self-interest, then I think the situation can improve dramatically. But they have to rise to the occasion, not be distracted by the narrow, short-term interests that serve neither nation in the long term.

To begin with, Pakistan should try and get India and the world to resolve issues of Kashmir, Afghanistan, etc. to spend much less on defense and more on its people in need.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Eta ke college e pele chanta marte partum...

CPM kaalchar! :P

Re: # 48

Dash_Dot, nkg,

Translation please?

Thanks,

Re: # 47 mosshay ki bolchein aapni:D chowkay kichu relief chai, baba

Re: # 44
majumder...
ha ha ha...ei malta (Riaz)ki bhabe balo to!!!Eta ke college e pele chanta marte partum....ki sab boke jachhe....mane India defence tule debe ar Pakistan eshe vir vikrame Kashmir dakhal korbe.....4 te juddhe kichhu hoi ni, jihad kore o kichhu holo na....ekhon ei sab boke jachhe....

Raiz,
Thanks for your concern for poor people of India...Can you please ask GoP to divert some of the aid (10bnUS$) to India? That will be great favour for us and we will be grateful to you....If you want, all Indians on chowk can sign on a mass petetion...
If possible, you can draft the petetion....

weak=weekend

Re: # 44 Over the weak I met this guy (at a desi charity do), and inbetween courses they had a Dutch Auction for some tickets. This guy, a Daktaar from Srinagar, suggested that basically the Kashmiris were conducting the Dutch Auction and maybe it was time for all to call the bluff - remove 370, and pakitsan ask for a withdrawal of the resolutions - without anteing the status quo.

The dutch auction part made sense...the rest was...

Riaz Haq sahib,

India's Kahmir policy has been far more damaging to India than Pakistan.

If that is true, if I were a Paki I wud hope that India wud continue with the same policy. But I have a feeling that you are a closet Indian really so you are unhappy with this state of affairs.

Regards

Re: # 42

India's Kahmir policy has been far more damaging to India than Pakistan. It maintains a huge army and a large defense budget while spending very little on domestic programs like education, healthcare, poverty-alleviation, hunger-reduction etc. Two-thirds of India's 2009 budget is allocated to police, military, security and debt service etc. That leaves only one-third for everything else. It's a real shame that a democracy treats its people so shabbily, where hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy and poverty are more widespread that most of the nations of the world.

Such stupidity on India's part has also hurts Pakistan with its outsize defense spending.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

#39 by RiazHaq

I expect Obama to turn his attention to Kashmir, although he might do it more discretely.

Riaz mian, keep expecting. For 60 years, you guys have been expecting someone to force India to hand over Kashmir to you on a platter, so what's a few more decades?

kashmir is like a cancer and slowly but surely it's eating both nations, look at the spending both are doing in hundreds of millions, it can be used in development projects on both sides. let go of it already !!! stupid politics.

Re: # 39
Keep hoping. For sixty years Pakistan has been shouting from the rooftops for foreign mediation or intervention in Kashmir. If it did not happen in the last three conflicts, it is not about to happen now.
The only face saving option for Pakistan is to accept the Line of Control as the international boundary between India and Pakistan.

Re: # 32
I think Obama is signaling a fundamental shift in US foreign policy which is not welcome in either India or Israel, who have both been the biggest beneficiaries of Bush's war on terror. Both India and Israel have demonized legitimate freedom movements by labeling them as terrorism. Obama is no longer even using the words "terrorism" or "war on terror", a change that makes India and Israel very nervous.

I expect Obama to turn his attention to Kashmir, although he might do it more discretely.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide