Mr. President, Welcome to Riyadh, the capital of our country. Saudi Arabia is a nation that has always been a supportive ally and friend of the US, in good times as well as in rough ones. You are in the country of King Abdullah Ibn Abdel Aziz, a Muslim leader who has always carried the torch of peace and spearheaded dialogue between diverse civilizations. He is a man under whose sponsorship reconciliation efforts between divided brothers were initiated and nurtured. Mr. President, you are in a friendly country, where the majority of its people hailed your election as President of the United States and whose youth look up to you as a role model of perseverance and self-made success. You stand as a paragon of hope and determination for all who need these traits in their lives.
We are happy that you are among us today, and we, together with more than one billion Muslims all over the globe, are excited and looking forward to hearing your long-awaited speech in Cairo. There have been divergences between Muslim countries and the United States, but these were mainly circumstantial and mostly caused by certain political ideologies and nationalist and fundamentalist movements over issues related to US foreign policy. The American model is generally admired in the Muslim world. Indeed, we learned a lot from America, which has given the world innovations, scientific models, and artistic and cultural models that have always enriched human life. Nevertheless, in recent years the US has lost its high moral image in the eyes of the Muslim world.
Mr. President, we believe you can make a difference. Millions who will listen to your speech tomorrow expect you to be the architect of change and the one US president who will restore US relations with the Muslim world to those better days of the past.
Mr. President, you hold a great chance to address yourself to the Muslim world and lay the foundation stone of a new era in its relations with the United States, based upon solid principles, some of which we hereby suggest:
-The US seeks to establish relations with the Muslim world based upon common interests and mutual respect. In return, the Muslim world should give the US a chance and the necessary trust to cooperate closely and to achieve common goals.
-The US is committed to the respect of Islam and all other beliefs, and it considers Muslims to be an integral part of the US national fabric.
- On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US will make serious efforts for peace to be achieved. It will therefore ask the Israelis to immediately stop building further settlements and put an end to the excessive use of force against civilians. It will also use its good leverage to convince Palestinian factions to surrender their violent resistance, as well as the targeting of civilians. The promise of a two-state solution and the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories is in the national interest of the United States.
-The US realizes the difference between political Islamic movements and parties that renounce armed violence against civilians and those underground groups that adopt a violent course of action. While the US recognizes the political and civil rights of the moderate political Islamic entities, it calls upon them to adopt a unified rationale. This rationale will certainly consist in guarding the rights of individuals and rejecting any form of segregation, be it based on race, color, sect or religious beliefs.
- The US will do its best to complete the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and ensure that by the time it leaves, both countries have achieved stability and national reconciliation, while maintaining its offers of assistance.
Mr. President, these suggestions represent some aspirations of the people of the Muslim world and their central theme is not a far cry from what you always reiterate in your speeches and statements. Yet, phrasing them in the form of principles that govern US-Muslim relations would have an historic impact on this part of the world. A president of Kenyan origins and Muslim roots who has spent his childhood in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, of course will share with us these aspirations. It is our strong belief that you feel what we feel and understand what we say like no other world leader.
The Muslim world wants nothing from the US other than playing its anticipated role in reaching peace and alleviating sectarian and racial tensions that were sparked by wars. Of course, the United States is not responsible for all the problems that plague the Muslim world, but it is partly responsible for wasting several opportunities for positive communication with this world and for active engagement in solving its problems.
Mr. President, of course the Muslim world does not expect you to fulfill all these wishes or be able to put an end to all grievances. But the people of the Muslim world want you to send them a true message that carries a promise of hope and sets the ground for a partnership based upon mutual respect. The US experienced animosities with some Muslim countries, using the language of intimidation and threats. It fought battles that claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians on both sides, without achieving much in pursuit of its interests.
This is a historic moment in the life of a historic leader.
Now that the time has come to turn a new page, everyone in the Muslim world wishes you the best of luck.
- Adel Al-Toraifi is a Saudi political analyst and researcher based in London. He is also the editor-in-Chief of Al Majalla magazine.
