Let us be audacious
WATCHING Barack Obama deliver his much-anticipated address to the Muslim world in Cairo, I am witnessing, I realise, an epochal moment in history.
Not only for the battered image of the Office of the President of the Unites States of America after eight years of an incompetent political son.
Not only as the day America's wobbly hegemony regained some firmness in its footing, a hegemony that we hope will now be executed with more responsibility, and greater sensitivity.
And not merely as a turning point in relations between America and the Muslim world that should bury Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilisations" thesis somewhere deep in the desert of 20th century xenophobia.
He is not even done yet, but already, Mr. Obama has stamped modern history with its most critical and tantalising challenge: after Sabra and Shatila, Oklahoma and Gaza, Auschwitz and Wall Street, can mankind still believe in humanity?
Those are two dormant, but powerful human strengths his soaring rhetoric has been advocating right from the time he first appeared on the political radar, through that long but glorious campaign, and over the first five months of what is shaping up to be a very impressive and significant presidency.
At Cairo University's majestic auditorium, he laid down the gauntlet. Personifying the very essence of leadership, the height of deference, and the audacity of hope, June 4, 2009 will serve as the day Barack Obama invited the rest of the world to participate in his project for change.
And, at least as far as foreign policy speeches go, there can hardly have been a better, more inspirational, and more comprehensive one for setting in motion the process of healing between two embittered regions and galvanizing the potential for cooperation between them.
It is what Barack Obama represents in his persona as president that is crucial to our time. His deep respect for other cultures, as well as his understanding of them; his firm grasp of the issues that surround a topic that has confounded world leaders for over 60 years now; his tireless insistence on the shared destinies of all peoples, that doesn't compromise a keen interest in their different trajectories.
In an age where insecurity has forced some Muslims to abandon certain names, he is there holding nothing back on the guttural R in his pronunciation of Arabic words, clearly betraying a familiarity with the language. When he spoke of "Palestine," and not just Palestinians, it was a logical progression from his recent commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East. It was a reiteration of his commitment, of his integrity. In Germany on Friday, he once again raised the issue, insisting that the time to act "is now."
At the very least, I believe he will be putting the full-weight of his office behind the effort for the one solution that is just, and viable. His promise may still be unmet, but it is not empty. The sceptics abound, and there is a certain need for them too. But of the majority of mankind, at this critical juncture in history, Barack Obama deserves what he has asked for: our belief in that which is good in man.
He was not just speaking to the Muslim world from Cairo. No American president has the privilege of being selective about his audience, in public. The Cairo University auditorium was symbolic only of the focus of his speech, not of its audience. He was on Muslim soil, and he made a very visible, and commendable effort to accord Islam the rightful respect it deserves as one of the world's great religions.
The wind is on his back, and this particular wind has never rested on any back more worthy. Yes, it has hardly been six months. And yes, there is still war and hunger. That will all be there when he has gone too.
Let us not succumb to some naïve fantasy of everlasting "world peace." But we can fervently, and audaciously hope that if we share in Barack Hussein Obama's remarkable vision, we might one day arrive at a future where if there is a war, it is only less inhuman, but less nevertheless; where hunger is unacceptable, and at least no child goes hungry to fund an endless supply of weapons; and where peoples from across boundaries and cultures have the sheer audacity, to put faith in their fellow man, in a world that is both a triumph and a celebration of humanity.
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