Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, Originally posted in Arabic on March 18
Barack Obama achieved something that no other American president achieved before him: the love and acceptance of the Muslim people.
He began his term in office with his famous Cairo speech, where he reached out directly to the Arab world and spoke to the Muslim people in sincerity and candidness. He reflected on his years living in Indonesia, where he met liberal Muslims who held values he, too, believed in. Things seemed to change when it came to dealing with Syria.
All of the sudden, the same Obama who viewed the Arab world as a partner in fighting radicalism, began treating the Arab world as the source of radicalism itself. His once inclusive approach to the Middle East was replaced by an exclusive stance, aimed at disengaging America from the region. He seemed to forget his experiences in Indonesia, and blamed moderate Arab governments, such as his longstanding allies in Saudi Arabia, of wreaking havoc in the region.
What President Obama is forgetting, however, is that radicalism does not take the shape in one religion or one county. Rather, it is a phenomenon prevalent all across the world, including in the United States.
While Obama sits in Washington and fears growing radicalism, what he forgets is that we, too, share the same fear here, in the Middle East. – Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed