A new beginning

Rhetorically, at least, President Obama moved mountains in the land of Muhammad. Speaking from Cairo University to the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims, the American president made a frank appeal for a new relationship based on mutual respect. Language matters, and this was an eloquent address of historic and moral importance meant to turn the page on strong-arm politics and ultimatums. The first U.S. president of color and the son of a Muslim, Obama brought his personal credibility to the podium, not to apologize but to acknowledge the country’s past mistakes and to set an agenda for the future. Certainly words alone will not bring peace to the Middle East or persuade America’s enemies to abandon their anger. As Obama noted, “recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task.” Still, this was a new beginning.

In recent years, U.S. relations with Muslim nations have been shaped largely by hostilities, from the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington to the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been an open wound bleeding distrust and anger. While vowing to confront violent extremism and defend Americans, Obama sought to end that era with a declaration: The United States is not at war with Islam. Rather, he said, the ties stretch from the American Revolution, when Morocco became the first country to recognize U.S. independence, to the present, with 1,200 mosques in the United States offering convincing testimony that “Islam is part of America.”

Many times during the nearly hourlong speech, Obama seemed to be trying to right the wrongs of linguistic omission. While maintaining that the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan was necessary, he stated that Iraq was “a war of choice” that sowed discord within the United States and around the world. He condemned a history of colonialism and the Cold War treatment of Muslim countries as proxies. Speaking to Iran, Obama acknowledged that the United States “played a role in the overthrow” of the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953 -- a long-awaited admission in our fractious relations with that Muslim nation.

On the issue of most concern to his Middle East audience -- Israel and Palestine -- Obama was boldly evenhanded, leading critics to charge that he was abandoning America’s most stalwart and reliable ally in the region. To the contrary. Obama expressed unequivocal U.S. support for Israel. “This bond is unbreakable,” he said. Palestinians must recognize the permanence of the Jewish state. He noted that the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust is “a tragic history that cannot be denied,” and warned that threatening Israel with destruction revives that pain and hinders the pursuit of peace.

But unyielding support for Israel need not require the denigration of its adversaries. Obama paved new ground by granting equal time and consideration to the Palestinians’ 60-year struggle for a homeland. He pointedly referred to their struggle against Israeli occupation as “resistance.” He deplored the “intolerable situation” for Palestinians living in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and in other countries, and all those who “endure the daily humiliations -- large and small -- of occupation.” Americans, he said, “will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.” He acknowledged that the Islamic movement Hamas has support among Palestinians, yet insisted that it abandon violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist.

On the issue of democracy, Obama also made strides toward overcoming a double standard for friends and adversaries in the Muslim world. Without specifically condemning allies such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt, he nonetheless spoke forcefully for free speech, rule of law, government by consent and other human rights they often deny. Beyond this, the president’s agenda included equal rights for women, economic development and halting the spread of nuclear weapons. In a global public diplomacy campaign, the government translated the speech into 13 languages, posted it on the Web in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English, and made it available on cellphones as well as the Internet.

The question now, of course, is how to turn words into deeds, and how to ensure that U.S. deeds in the far reaches of Afghanistan and Pakistan don’t undermine Obama’s reconciliation goals. Many U.S. presidents have tried and failed to make peace in the Middle East. Obama’s speech came a day after Osama bin Laden accused the United States of sowing new seeds of hatred in the Muslim world by “ordering Pakistan” to block Islamic law in the Swat Valley and to crack down on militants. Those are the views of a fanatic, but we do fear that the killing of civilians in U.S. bombing raids in Pakistan and Afghanistan risks drawing new recruits into the Islamic insurgencies fighting U.S.-backed governments.

And yet, one important change took place Thursday. Obama went to Cairo to talk, not lecture. He addressed the Muslim world honestly and directly. He spoke not as an imperial power to an underling, or a parent to a child, but as a statesman speaking to millions of men and women who have long deserved -- and rarely received -- the respect of an American president.