Muslims see shifting attitude, policy in Obama’s key speech

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Muslims greeted President's Barack Obama's speech from Cairo yesterday as a mark of a changed American attitude toward the Islamic world and a new policy toward Middle East. But some insisted they still needed to his words backed by action. 

Obama touched on many themes Muslims wanted to hear. He insisted Palestinians must have a state and said continued Israeli settlement in the West Bank was not legitimate. He assured them the United States would pull all its troops out of Iraq by 2012 and promised no permanent U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

Palestinians hailed his speech as a good start, while an Israeli government spokesman said it had no surprises and could have been worse for his country.

"It is a clear and frank speech," President Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told Agence France-Presse. "It is an innovative political step and a good beginning on which one must build."

The Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip, which Obama called on to renounce violence, must recognize Israel and past peace agreements if it wants to play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, Obama said in his speech, which according to Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum, "had many contradictions, all the while reflecting tangible change," quoted AFP. In Israel, the government said it hoped that Obama's speech would lead to a "new era of reconciliation" with the Arab world.

Israelis send mixed signals to Obama’s Muslim outreach

In its first reaction to the speech, the Israeli government said it shared Obama's hope that his outreach to the Muslim world would be "the beginning of the end" of conflict and lead to general Arab recognition of Israel. The Israeli statement made no reference to Obama's calls for a settlement freeze in the West Bank or establishment of a future independent Palestinian state.

Earlier, an Israeli government spokesman said Obama's speech could have been a lot worse for his country, adding it had no major surprises and that the current disagreements between Israel and the United States are "well-known."

Meanwhile, the head of Yesha settler organization slammed the U.S. president for saying that Washington did not support the legitimacy of continuing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and called for the enterprise to stop. "He expressed positions that are contrary to our interests and the will of the voters of Israel," Danny Dayan told public radio, referring to the Feb. 10 election that saw right-wing parties take a majority of seats in parliament.

Another settler spokesperson, Aliza Herbst, has dismissed Obama's remarks as naive and out of touch with reality, adding: "The modern history has shown that the Muslim world is at war with the West. USpresident's vision of peace sounds nice, but isn't realistic."

Iraqi government hails speech as others seek action

In Baghdad, a spokesperson for the Iraqi government hailed the speech as "historic and important," saying: "[It] reflects a positive direction for the new administration and it is a new start." Baghdad resident Mithwan Hussein called Obama "brave." "I think it's a good start and we hope he will open a new chapter with the Islamic world and the Arab nation in particular," he said.

But not everyone was impressed. Wahyudin, the 57-year-old director of a hard-line Islamic boarding school in Jakarta, Indonesia, said "I don't trust him." He spoke as he watched the speech on television.

"He's just trying to apologize to Muslims because of what America Ğ or really Bush Ğ has done in the past," said Wahyudin, who goes by one name. "He's promising to be different. But that's all it is, a promise. We want action. We want to see an end to all intervention in Muslim countries. That's what we're fighting for."

"The Islamic world does not need moral or political sermons," the BBC quoted Hassan Fadlallah, lawmaker for Lebanon's Hezbollah as saying. "We have not seen any change in U.S. policy towards the Palestinian cause."

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana voiced the bloc’s support for the new American direction toward the world’s Muslims and said the speech opened a "new page" in relations with the Arab-Muslim world and resolving the Middle East conflict. "It was a remarkable speech, a speech that without any doubt is going to open a new page in the relation with the Arab-Muslim world and I hope in the problems we have in so many theatres in the region," Solana told reporters in Brussels.