President Obama will be speaking to the Muslim world tomorrow from Cairo, Egypt. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting op-ed by Paul Wolfowicz on the challenges involved in making that speech.
Mr. Wolfowicz points out that there is an expectation that President Obama will walk away from what was called "the freedom agenda" of the George Bush Administration. To walk away from this agenda would be a mistake. President Obama is speaking in Egypt, a country that mistreats its own people, and also a country that may be pivotal in the Middle East 'peace process'. To act as if America supports the status quo in a country that tortures and discriminates against its own citizens would be a mistake.
According to the article:
"The denial of equal rights to women is unjust. It hurts society as a whole when half the population is prevented from achieving its full potential. The countries in the Muslim world that have developed most successfully are those -- such as Indonesia, Turkey and Malaysia -- where women have been able to play a substantial role. Those same countries have also benefited enormously from giving scope to Christian and Jewish minorities to prosper, although the record is imperfect. Turkey's Jewish minority found refuge there 500 years ago from the Spanish Inquisition. In those days, when Islamic civilization was the most advanced in the world, it was also one of the most tolerant."
President Obama needs to remind the Muslim nations of their former tolerance. He also needs to remind them of the benefits of freedom and democracy in the prospering of a country. Hopefully he will be as willing to put pressure on the Muslim nations to move toward freedom (and the acceptance of the existence of Israel) as he has been willing to put pressure on Israel to give up more land.
Leave a comment