Daily Lesson from Life 21 January 2009

"Muslim world cautious on Obama pledge to reach out

Obama's inauguration speech sent ripples of expectation across the Muslim world that new administration will repair rift. -Wed, Jan 21, 2009 AFP

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.


Military judges were expected to rule Wednesday on that request, which would affect the trials of five alleged plotters of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Closing Guantanamo, as Obama has promised to do as soon as possible, would mollify burning Muslim resentment over the treatment of detainees there.


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.' Obama is confronting some daunting challenges - such as withdrawing from Iraq, bringing peace to the Middle East and Afghanistan, stabilising nuclear-armed Pakistan and thwarting Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions - with the potential to poison US-Islamic relations further.

In Pakistan, 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 neo-conservative policies which created so many fissuers between the US and the Muslim world,' he said.

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 radical Islamist militia, which was ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001, 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"

Well a bold initiative in the making! The starting position is a good one. With good intention to find new way to work together and move forward on mutual respect and mutual benefit basis. It takes two to tango so the Muslim world must engage President Obama too. If the Israel-Palestine issue is resolved under his watch, it will be a miracle and the willing spirit of human being recognizing each other as such! Not as Israelis or Palestinians!

Lessons for me are:

1. daunting tasks do not mean we do not try! If you do not try when you are new, you have failed!;

2. when you try, be prepared to face skeptics and spoilers. Do not be enraged or distracted by them. Listen to them and try to respond to them with reasons and emotional appeals. When they insist on their way, you then drive down your stake on the ground and hold firm. No violence on our part always. No aggression but defensive actions are allowed!;

3. the other parties to which you try to reach out have to have the desire to want to take your hands too. Think about the positive things that will happen when 2 people live side by side peacefully! Resources to be shared and rewards to be shared too! Trust must be re-established. It will take time for sure but when the 1st step is taken and the 1st handshake made, there is hope that something permanent, something everyone has been longing for can happened!

I wish peace to the world. Love among the former enemies as they embrace as just human beings!