"In
the United States, out of a population of 305 million, there are 7 million
Muslims; whereas of the 142 million Russians, there are about 20 million Muslims.
Russia has tremendous experience dealing with Islam - both good and bad - and
that must be exploited to the fullest."
President Obama
makes his case in Cairo: One reaction from the Muslim street is that Islamic leaders ought to show the same dedication to their own people as Obama does to Americans.
"East is east, and West
is west, and never the twain shall meet," wrote the great bard of the
British Empire, Rudyard
Kipling. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama decided that they shall
"meet," and left Washington for Cairo, which is considered an
unofficial capitol of the Arab world. There he delivered a speech conceived on
the banks of the Potomac as a peace overture to conquer of the hearts of the billion
Muslims who populate our planet.
Obama's "Cairo
Declaration" is a masterpiece of political rhetoric. Both he and his
talented young speechwriters went for glory, beginning with the very first
words - "assalam aleykum!" Not one of the current political leaders
in the West has the advantages for dialogue with the Muslim East as Obama. His
father - a Kenyan, practiced Islam. His spent his childhood in Indonesia, the
largest Muslim country in the world. Finally, his full name Barack Hussein, and
his last name, Obama, inadvertently remind one of Osama. And he's African
American.
Obama skillfully threw all of
these "special qualities" into his peace offensive against the
Islamic world. He was as witty as Omar Khayyam [Persian
polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet], and as sweet-talking
as Hafez [celebrated Persian
poet], praising the Muslim contribution to world science and culture. Like the
Pope, he confesses to the evildoings of colonialism. And he promised, promised,
promised …
Omar
Khayyam and Hafez, two
of
old Persia's greatest minds.
The more specific points of
tension - the "painful prose" of the U.S. president's current
political life - took the form of seven points. Those are, "violent
extremism in all its forms" - including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the issues of Iran and nuclear weapons; the
problem of democracy and Islam; religious freedom; the rights of women in the
Islamic world, and finally, "economic development and opportunity." In
none of his seven points did Obama say anything new, although he was more
balanced (to ours and to yours) than his predecessors - more specific and more generous.
When the Soviet Union crumbled,
futurist Francis Fukuyama
proclaimed "the end of history," having mistaken this for the defeat
of communism in the "Cold War" with the West. But nature abhors a
vacuum. Another futurist Samuel Huntington (both
of them are Americans) in his famous book The Clash of Civilizations,
insisted that if the 20th century was a century of Western civilization's
struggle against dictatorial regimes - Nazism and communism, the 21st century
will be the arena for the struggle of the Christian world against Islam. The
beginning of this century so far confirms Huntington's prognosis. In spite of
all the horrors of the "major" hot and cold wars of the 20th century,
they were battles against the "ugly aberrations" of human history. After
the removal of the cancer of fascism, Germany became an exemplary democratic state.
Russia, having rejected communism, is now on the difficult path toward the
temple of democracy.
But Islam is a different matter.
It is a religion, not an ideology like fascism or communism. It's not an "ugly
aberration" or a cancer - it is the essence of essences of the Muslim
world. German Nazism and Soviet communism were only phenomena of the 20th
century. Islam has a thousand year history. The Koran cannot be defeated with
either the help of the Bible, missiles or nuclear weapons. The Koran is
something to coexist with. Peacefully.
RUSSIA TODAY: ANALYSIS OF OBAMA'S 'CAIRO DECLARATION'
At the end of his "Cairo
Declaration," President Obama quoted from the Talmud, the Koran and the Bible,
quotes full of love for peace and humanity. But his speechwriters could have
been just as successful finding horrific quotes that would freeze the blood in
one's veins in those three books. They adorned the banners of those who fought on
both sides of the Crusades in the remote Middle Ages, and those on both sides
of the recent Arab-Israeli battles.
The historic tragedy of the
Muslim world is the fact that it has fallen unacceptably behind in terms of
economic development. This isn't the place to exhaustively dissect the reasons
for this phenomenon, except to point out the major role of Islamic
fundamentalism and Western colonialism. But the fact remains. And it's far
easier to take a "Kalashnikov" away from a mujahidin than a veil from
a Muslim woman.
And as long as there is
economic backwardness, there will be no lasting peace between the Cross, the Star
of David and the Muslim Crescent. But that's not all. Perhaps what I say now
will sound sacrilegiously paradoxical and irresponsible, but one condition of lasting
peace must be military parity. As long as the Western powers and Israel can
attack any Muslim country on a whim and with impunity, one cannot expect trust
and a sincere desire to cooperate. The economic and military weakness of the
Islamic world - that's the true explosive hidden in the robes of Muslim men, women
and even children! The Islamic kamikaze will disappear only when Muslim
countries are able to successfully defend their freedom and independence with
more "civilized" means.
The issue of "what to do
with Islam?" isn't an exclusively American problem. And to make it so is
to condemn it to intractability fraught with catastrophe. Washington cannot be
left alone with Islam. In such a case, both will chop so much firewood it'll be
enough for a number of global conflagrations. Let us recall Iraq, for example. The
solution to this problem is the business of the entire global community, and to
no small degree, Russia. (Note that in the United States, out of a population
of 305 million, there are 7 million Muslims; whereas of the 142 million
Russians, there are about 20 million Muslims). Russia has tremendous experience
dealing with Islam - both good and bad - and that must be exploited to the fullest.
It is to be hoped that at the upcoming Moscow summit between presidents
Medvedev and Obama in July, this problem will be the subject of very deep discussion.
SUNNI SCHOLAR FROM QATAR COMPLAINS ABOUT OBAMA
DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN THE KORAN AND TORAH
Sunni Scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Protests: 'This is
a biblical notion – annihilate them totally, do not leave a
living soul among them. How could Obama draw a parallel
Does all this mean that Obama's
"Cairo Declaration" is merely, as Lenin liked to say, an empty
resonance of air, empty of sound? Far from it. Dialogue with Islam is necessary.
It is long overdue. Yes, the East is east, the West is west and never the twain
shall meet - if neither side makes the first move toward the other. The
initiative here should belong to the West - and not because it's smarter, but because
its fault in this historic drama of conflict and confrontation is far greater.
