Islam and the Challenge of Civilization

Appendix B: Obama in Cairo

The speech delivered on June 4, 2009, at the University of Cairo by President Obama is first of all immensely appropriate and timely. It lays down the principles for alleviating the turbulent relations between Islam and the West. It takes on the stereotypes that rule out and demonize Islam, and does so in the name of an ethics of responsibility . And it demands in return that Islam do the same with its reductive vision of the West, and America in particular. The ethics of responsibility requires reciprocity. This call to revise one’s representations to restore the other’s dignity is the condition that establishes genuine respect. By refreshing the representation of Islam in the Western mind, Obama is attempting a form of integration that puts an end to the sense of exclusion that currently affects Muslims. Louis Massignon traced the archaeology of that exclusion from the early beginnings: He returns to the figure of the first outcast, Ishmael, son of the servant Hagar, child of an illicit union with Abraham. According to the myth, Mohammedan lineage begins with Ishmael. In fact, in medieval times, Jews called Muslims variously Hagarites or Ishmaelites. With this exclusion of Islam by Judeo-Christians, Muslims experienced one of their narcissistic wounds. This wound was assumed and healed by interior discipline so long as Muslims, and Arabs in particular, could lean on Appendix B: obama in cairo 152 Appendix B their aristocratic values, imbued by a spirit of chivalry and laws of hospitality that granted guest status to the outsider, even when the latter behaved as an aggressor or invader. This is how the figure of Emir Abd el-Kader is identified, he who despite defeat at the hands of the French never felt resentment toward them. These aristocratic values remained active, even during the colonial era. It illuminated the souls of peoples reduced to misery and frustration. It was only in the late 1920s, with the emergence of the semiliterate on the political scene of Islamic societies, that an ethics of resentment started to take hold, whereby the zealot of Islam reacted to Western domination. Refusing exclusion, which he experienced as a humiliation, he decided to take the path of violence (even when it turned criminal) as a response to his oppressor. This is the breeding ground that proved so welcoming to the fundamentalist seed, which then germinated, grew, and thrived. In the shadow of this new foliage sprang up the Muslim Brotherhood, some of whom were to become followers of al-Qā’ida. Obama’s integrating discourse seeks to free Islam from the figure of resentment that is thriving in al-Qā’ida’s sphere of influence. The integration of Islam starts with the acknowledgment of the debt that civilization owes this culture. Obama does this clearly, simply, naming specific instances. In a few summary sentences, he delivers to the public at large what is deposited in the historical archive. Not only does he situate in our joint time frame Muslim achievements in astronomy , mathematics, and medicine, he also refers to their contributions to art and beauty through architecture and calligraphy, creating spaces conducive to contemplation and meditation. Most important, however, he is foregrounding the Islamic reference , opening it up and getting it back into circulation as a material capable of enriching human experience. To this end, he makes two explicit references to the Koran, choosing verses that can guide not only Muslims but all humanity. It is thus as a non-Muslim, as an avowed Christian, that he is making use of the Koranic reference. Verse 70 of sūra 33 (there is another occurrence in 9:9): “O you who have believed, fear God and speak the truth.” (This is the American translation currently in use, but sadīd means rather “just, right, that which aims at its objective.” “Effective” might be the closest meaning . Jacques Berque translates the term into French as “adequate,” which signifies appropriateness. Another frequently used translation Obama in Cairo 153 is “adequate justice,” instead of “truth.”) And with this quote, Obama indeed lives up to the injunction to speak the truth, as he continues his speech before the Cairo audience. For in it, he speaks the truth, his aim is sure, his words are right, effective, and appropriate . He does not reserve his innermost thoughts to what gets con- fided only behind closed doors, but speaks out...