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Muslim world mellow over Obama’s outreach pledge

* Citizens from Indonesia to Sudan express hope new president would work to allay anti-US resentment among Muslim masses

JAKARTA: Muslim leaders on Wednesday cautiously welcomed President Barack Obama’s promise of a fresh start to US relations with the Islamic world and moves to halt “war on terror” trials at Guantanamo Bay.

Obama’s inauguration speech sent ripples of expectation across the Muslim world that the new administration would quickly set about repairing the rift that emerged under the presidency of George W Bush. “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” Obama said on the steps of Capitol Hill after taking the oath of office before a crowd of more than a million people. The new president vowed to “responsibly leave Iraq,” forge a “hard-earned peace” in Afghanistan and work with “old friends and former foes” on nuclear disarmament in a balance of soft and hard diplomacy. One of Obama’s first acts in office was to order prosecutors to seek a suspension of military trials at the controversial “war on terror” camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Closing Guantanamo, as Obama has promised to do as soon as possible, would mollify burning Muslim resentment over the treatment of detainees there. “This is a good sign leading to the closure of the camp,” said Makarim Wibisono, a former Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations. “That was one of Obama’s promises during his campaign. I hope this will move forward and the new US leadership is more sensitive to humanity and human rights.” But Obama made no direct reference in his speech to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza, causing some Muslim analysts to doubt his sincerity. Maskuri Abdilah, the head of the Nahdlatul Ulama - Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation with some 60 million followers - said Obama dodged the one issue at the core of the Muslim world’s concerns.

“It is very good that Obama wants to find a ‘new way forward’ with the Muslim world but first he has to change US policy over Israel and the Palestinian conflict,” he told AFP. “This is crucial because this problem is the root of all violence and tension between the Islamic world and the West.” In Pakistan, a crucial US ally in the so-called war on terror, Quaid-e-Azam University international relations professor Ishtiaq Ahmed said Obama had to face the “realities in the region.” “Troops did not work in Iraq and troops will not work in Afghanistan. Obama will have to reverse Bush’s neoconservative policies which created so many fissuers between the US and the Muslim world,” he said. “There have to be policy changes in South Asia because Pakistan and Afghanistan are big challenges.”

In neighbouring Afghanistan, where Obama is planning to send more troops to fight a stubborn Taliban insurgency, analyst Haroun Mir from the Center for Research and Policy Studies said Obama’s speech had sent a “very strong signal that he is willing to improve relations with the Muslim world.” “There is already optimism about him in the Muslim world,” he said. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the group had “no problem with Obama” as long as he pulled US forces out. “He must learn lessons from Bush and before when the Soviets were here,” he told AFP by phone in Kabul. “We never gave them the authority to build Afghanistan and decide the fate of this country.” “This is a speech that reflected a new spirit of dialogue, reaching out and working together. This is a new direction that is certainly not what the Bush administration has been pursuing,” said former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. In Britain, the umbrella Muslim Council of Britain welcomed Obama’s offer of new relations with the Muslim world. “His intentions are noble. I hope it ends the rift between the United States and the Muslim world, which has grown further and further in the last eight years,” said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the organisation.

Even in Sudan, which has had poor relations with the United States for years because of disagreements over the conflict in Darfur, the government said it was positive about Obama. “We are very optimistic... This is based on the background of what (President Obama) has been saying, about a change in foreign policy, about moving away from Iraq,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig. In Egypt the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, which has borne the brunt of repression by a government backed by the United States, said it too saw hope in Obama’s words. “I was happy when I heard him saying the relationship with the Arab and Muslim world should be based on respect,” said Essam el-Erian, head of the Brotherhood’s political committee. “We need mutual respect. If this attitude persists, I think it will transform relations between the United States and Arabs,” he added. agencies

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