What Obama Said in Cario

The president's speech to the Muslim world had its good but also its bad.

OK, my main man Obama went Muslim in Cairo. And everybody's excited. When he said, “Salaam alaikum,” was he secretly declaring his allegiance to this so-called Allah? Was he in Cairo simply because he hadn't seen the Sphinx before? Did he combine the drop-in with his trip to Europe to save money on flights?

Let's get semi-serious. First the good, then the not so good.

 1. Mirror-mirror on the wall: Obama reached out, integrating stories of his personal background with a plethora of Quranic verses culled from the Google search: Quran + Islam + peace + tolerance. Was it at the level of an Islamic scholar? No, but it didn't need to be and he has the Al Qaeda Book Club shaking in their boots, afraid of a bout of reverse Ibn Tamiya. For the first time, there was a connection between the leader of the freer world and the people of the Arab world. There was the sense that this man understood where Muslims were coming from.

 2. Take a seat on the couch: More than saying, we're brothers from another mother, Obama told his Islamic audience: "I feel you." Whether with regards to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan or any other number of places where America has visited, he said, I know you don't like it when we visit. Then he made a plea for sameness: we shouldn't hate you, but you shouldn't hate us; we shouldn't kill you, but you also shouldn't kill us; we need to respect your customs, but you need to respect our customs. It was empathetic, for a US President.

 3. You're all a bunch of Semites (at least the Arabs and Jews): Abraham – not Lincoln, the other one – was front and centre for Barack. Talmud and Quran. Jews and Palestinians. Judaism and Islam. You had the Holocaust, you had the Nakba; it may not be equal, but both of you suffered. You're the same. You both eat hummus. Live together. Love one another. It was more complex than that, but it was the first time a U.S. president clearly said: Figure your stuff out and move the hell on. You both spit when you talk. He was a bit more culturally deft in his language, but you get the point.

 4. S*it happens: We overthrew a democratic president in Iran. You kidnapped us in Iran. Deal with it. It's over. Callous. Cold. Calculated. But true. Let's acknowledge what happened. Give the requisite head nod, and run a hundred miles in the other direction. In a way it was cathartic to see such honesty, and this will go down well if acted upon. Let's turn the page, start a new chapter and have babies. You will not see a lot of smiles, their faces covered by beards and veils, but smile they will if he follows through.

On to the bad. Don't hate the player hate the game:

 1. Dislocation: Why did Obama choose the unhistoric Cairo University instead of challenging the exported state-sponsored fanaticism at the formerly enviable Al Azhar University. Instead of speaking at the world's oldest centre of learning, founded by Shiites and today a bastion of Sunni learning (something perhaps the White House doesn't know), he opted for a baroque hall full of Hosnified applause. It felt a little stilted. A little controlled and under the auspices of Mubarak.

 2. Dressed to press: The speech was polished, and will go down that way. Obama said many things that sounded good but were incongruous. Sovereignty, respect – What do you call Pakistan and the drones? Democracy – Let's see what goes down in Lebanon if Hezbollah goes up. Mr. Obama: Don't front. Even if you look good doing it. And anyway, let’s not overstate the meaning of words. Some commentators argue that Obama’s use of the word “Palestine” signals a new commitment. In fact, a number of U.S. presidents have used the term. Even Bush Jr. said: "Our efforts are guided by a clear vision: We're determined to see two democratic states, Israel and Palestine ... ". I don't remember how that worked out.

 3. Isratine: It was Qaddafi who first proposed the unrealistic one-state Isratine solution. Obama stuck with two states, but unconvincingly. Sure he has taken it to Netanyahu, but that guy’s crazy. Scolding Palestinians for violence without acknowledging the recent deaths in Gaza is not acceptable. Asking Palestinians to be non-violent when American revolutionaries fought the British with more than tea is not fair, unless you renounce Israel's right to use violence. Yet, the weirdest thing was that Obama spoke only abstractly about the Palestinian condition, as if somehow they happened to be occupied without an occupier. They were dislocated, but without someone who displaced them. They were suffering, but without an oppressor. They should fight injustice, but there was no one who was being unjust.

 4. Ops, I did it again – Iraq: Not wanting to criticize the previous White House tenant on foreign soil, Obama did not denounce the Iraq war. You know what? Get over it. Iraq. Mistake. Whether said in Cairo or Washington: deaths – bad. Whether said in Egypt or the America: torture – abominable. Stated at an Arab university or an American university: this is duplicitous talk. You know what would have been truthful: We may torture but not as much as the torturous governments of the region. We may kill people, but not as intentionally as the Sudanese in Darfur. We may suspend justice, but not as much as my host, Hosni Mubarak. Instead we got frank talk about neither what America did, nor what the puppet governments were running around doing. We got only: I know things haven't gone so well and aren't that great.

 5. Collective oversight: Probably the biggest shortcoming of the speech was its failure to acknowledge that Islam is not a monolithic entity of rabid Muslims running around wavering between Bin Laden and Britney Spears. Diversity ain't just a river in Egypt. Yet, for someone who holds diversity as a criterion for justice appointments, he kind of forgot that while there may be 3.5 billion Muslims or so, not all wear hijabs, or are religious, or are Shiite or Sunni, or are anti-Semitic or whatever. If you want to group the world's second-largest religion into an audience, you better acknowledge that that is a simplification. Otherwise you may lose the audience!

Overall, I would give it two thumbs up but sagging.