M A I N   N E W S

Obama for a ‘new start’ with Islamic world

US President Barack Obama delivers a speech in the Grand Hall of Cairo University on Thursday. — Reuters

Cairo, June 4
Reaching out to the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world, US President Barack Obama today called for a "new beginning" between the United States and the Islamic world by ending the "cycle of suspicion and discord" and confronting "violent extremism" together.

In a much-awaited speech at the University of Cairo in Egypt, Obama said, "America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Islam has always been a part of America's story." Starting his address with traditional Islamic greeting assalaamu alaykum, which drew a huge round of applause from the jam-packed hall, Obama said: "We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world."

He conceded that "more recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations." "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect," the US President, on his first visit to Egypt, said.

Elaborating on "some specific issues" the United States and the Islamic world will have to face together, he said "violent extremism" in all of its forms would have to be confronted.

The first African-American president of the United States noted that he was a practising Christian, but his father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims.

"And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." He asserted the same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America too. "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire," he said.

Observing that "no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust," he, however, emphasised the need for sustained effort to listen to and learn from each other and to seek a "common ground".

Obama maintained America would continue to "relentlessly confront violent extremists" whose "actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings". He quoted from the Quran to say that "whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind."

Asserting America does not want to keep its forces in Afghanistan, he said, "We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case." At the same time, he acknowledged that "military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan".

NUCLEAR WEAPONS: Obama said no single nation should "pick up and choose" which countries can have nuclear weapons and reaffirmed United States’ commitment to seek a world free from atomic arsenal.

In the backdrop of Iran's suspected efforts to build an atomic bomb, Obama also said the nuclear showdown with that country had reached a "decisive point" but that Teheran had the right to peaceful nuclear power if it abided by international treaties like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Obama's remarks came at a high-stakes speech at the Cairo University in which he tried to reach out to Muslims across the world.

In an apparent reference to Israel, believed to be only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, Obama said he understood protests "that some countries have weapons that others do not." He added this was why he reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no country has nuclear weapons.

"No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons," he said.

He said "any nation - including Iran - should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." Iran has steadfastly maintained its right to a nuclear programme that it insists is purely for peaceful means. — PTI

‘Muslim’ comment sparks row

Washington, DC: As the American president tries to reset his country's relationship with the Islamic world, Obama has sparked a row with his assertion that the US is one of the world's biggest Muslim countries and on how far he will extend himself to the community.

"If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Islamic countries in the world," Obama told French television station Canal Plus on Monday, as he prepared for his landmark five-day, overseas trip with stops in Egypt and Saudi Arabia in an effort to bridge the chasm between America and the Islamic world.

Michael Rubin, a scholar at the US think tank American Enterprise Institute, said the statement is incorrect and using such language is a "dangerous gambit." "All politicians pander. Obama is raising it to a global level," he said. "First of all, it's false: Even if you take the inflated numbers that Islamic advocacy organisations claim, Muslims are a tiny, tiny minority in the United States," he underlined.

"Obama should also not fall into the extremists trap of using Muslim as a unitary adjective. There is no more a Muslim world than a Christian world," he was quoted as saying by the Washington Times today. — PTI