Category Archives: Obama Administration

Rebooting America

Election 2008, Islam in America


President-elect Barack Obama gestured during a news conference in Chicago, Thursday. He plans to deliver a major speech in an Islamic capital, perhaps within the first 100 days of his presidency. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

Obama plans major speech in Muslim world to ‘reboot’ America’s image abroad

How Obama addresses sensitive issues of democracy and human rights could help set the tone for efforts to distinguish himself from President Bush’s administration.

by Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 2008

Washington

During the campaign, President-elect Obama put the goal of repairing America’s image abroad – and in particular in the Muslim world – at the top of his foreign-policy agenda. Mr. Obama began defining how he intends to do that this week by discussing his plans to deliver a major speech in an Islamic capital, perhaps within the first 100 days of his presidency.

Obama’s plan, still in the formative stages, immediately set off speculation over where the new American president would choose to deliver his message and what he would say. Continue reading Rebooting America →

The Anthropologist’s Son

Anthropology/Sociology, Election 2008, Indonesia

The Anthropologist’s Son
by Ruth Behar, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 28, 2008 and History News Network

Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro earned a Ph.D. in anthropology with an 800-page dissertation about blacksmithing in Indonesia. She spent long stretches of time learning to love and rescue the cultures and communities of total strangers, at the cost of not always being around while her son was coming of age in Hawaii. Yet she had an indelible impact on him, teaching him to appreciate cultural diversity and have faith in people’s ability to understand each other across borders and identities. Continue reading The Anthropologist’s Son →

An Internationalist President

Election 2008, Iraq War, Terrorism Issue


Professor John Esposito


An internationalist president
by John Esposito, The Immanent Frame, SSRC Blogs, November 7, 2008

Barack Obama’s campaign victory was epic-making in America and across the Muslim world. On November 4, as soon as the election was called for Barack Obama, I began to receive congratulatory emails from friends in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Europe. Some had stayed up through the night to hear the final results. Of course, I wasn’t surprised at the global interest and support, which had been evident on recent visits to Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Wherever I spoke, regardless of the topic, someone in the audience would ask me a question about Obama and his prospects. Privately, it was the topic of conversation. So what will all this mean?

In the Muslim world, as in Europe and much of the world, Obama is welcomed as an internationalist president. His Kenyan father, early schooling in Indonesia, race and name symbolize for many a unique internationalist presidential profile, one that contrasts sharply with his predecessor. Indeed, he is seen as the antithesis of George W. Bush-internationally informed, experienced, aware and sensitive, a measured and articulate statesman-not, as Bush is often regarded, as a swaggering Texas cowboy. Continue reading An Internationalist President →

Friend of Israel

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Israel, Palestine


Let’s hope Obama won’t be a ‘friend of Israel’
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz,
November 9, 2008

The march of parochialism started right away. The tears of excitement invoked by U.S. president-elect Barack Obama’s wonderful speech had not yet dried, and back here people were already delving into the only real question they could think to ask: Is this good or bad for Israel? One after another, the analysts and politicians got up – all of them representing one single school of thought, of course and began prophesizing.

They spoke with the caution that the situation required, gritting their teeth as though their mouths were full of pebbles, trying to soothe all the fears and concerns. They searched and found signs in Obama: The promising appointment of the Israeli ex-patriots’ son, whose father belonged to the Irgun, and maybe also Dennis Ross and Dan Kurtzer and Martin Indyk, who may, God willing, be included in the new administration.

But in the background, a dark cloud hovered above. Careful, danger. The black man, who had associated with Palestinian expats, who speaks of human rights, who favors diplomacy over war, who even wants to engage Iran in dialogue, who will allocate more funding for America’s social needs than to weapons exports. He may not be the sort of “friend of Israel” that we have come to love in Washington, the kind of friend we have grown accustomed to. Continue reading Friend of Israel →

Obama’s Iranian Opening

Anthropology/Sociology, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Iran

by William O. Beeman, New America Media, News Analysis, November 12, 2008

New America Media Editor’s note: Diplomacy between the United States and Iran has been at a standstill. President-elect Barack Obama has a great opportunity to end the cold war between the two nations. NAM contributing writer William O. Beeman is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota.

President-elect Barack Obama has a serious opening to improving relations with Iran, if he knows how to exercise it. Unfortunately, his transition advisory team is weak on Middle East affairs, and almost non-existent on Iran. This leaves the president-elect prey to the same forces that have tried to sabotage progress on rapprochement with Iran during the Bush administration.

Paradoxically the Bush administration in its last days is flirting with a thaw on Iranian relations. They have been giving serious consideration to establishing a real United States Interests Section in Tehran. Iranians have had an Interests Section in Washington for decades. By contrast, the Swiss Embassy has represented U.S. interests with Swiss personnel. Continue reading Obama’s Iranian Opening →

The shoe is on the other fit

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Election 2008, Sudan

A Difference in Language

By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, Asharq Alawsat, November 11, 2008

I can not imagine what Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir had for dinner the evening when he made his fervent speech in Darfur where he proclaimed ‘America, Britain, and France are all underneath my shoes’. I hope that the President’s shoes remain in good condition because he will surely need them over the coming days.

That said, it is Bashir’s good fortune that the metaphor of being underneath one’s shoes is lost in translation and is not such an insult in the West, as it is in our culture, for surely such a remark made by the President about an Arab country would have led to war. Continue reading The shoe is on the other fit →

Yes, we can … chew qat

Election 2008, Yemen


qat market in the Cheikh Othman area of Aden

Qat sales tripled on the eve of American Elections
by Mohammed al-Kibsi, Yemen Observer, Nov 5, 2008 – 2:05:47 AM

For the first time in Yemen’s history Yemenis at large spent the Wednesday’s night till Wednesday morning following up the American elections results. Abdul-Ghani al-Kazan a Yemeni lawyer said he didn’t sleep the whole night till the results were released and till Obama displayed the winning speech at 7 :30 am Sana’a local time.

Ali al-Thawr a qat dealer said he sold four folds of the daily quantity last Tuesday afternoon and night. “After I had finished selling the daily quantity of qat at 3 pm. I found more people searching for qat so I phoned a qat farmer to send me one more shipment of qat” said al-Thawr.” Continue reading Yes, we can … chew qat →

Obama and Islam

Election 2008, Islam in America, Islamophobia

American Muslims overwhelmingly voted Democratic
Lorraine Ali, NEWSWEEK, November 7, 2008

For the past few months, not a day went by without the words “Muslim” and “Obama” being mentioned in the same sentence. From the divisive shouts and jeers at McCain rallies to the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times to an interview with Colin Powell on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Muslims—or at least the mention of them—have been more prevalent this campaign year than “Joe the Plumber.”

But beyond the use of the term Muslim as a pejorative, and accusations by the far right that Obama was himself a secret follower of the Quran, what did real Muslim-Americans think of the Chicago senator? And how did they vote? The American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections released a poll today of over 600 Muslims from more than 10 states, including Florida and Pennsylvania, and it revealed that 89 percent of respondents voted for Obama, while only 2 percent voted for McCain. It also indicated that 95 percent of Muslims polled cast a ballot in this year’s presidential election—the highest turnout in a U.S. election ever—and 14 percent of those were first-time voters. The Gallup Center for Muslim studies estimates that U.S. Muslims favored Obama in greater numbers than did Hispanics (67 percent of whom voted for Obama) and nearly matched that of African-Americans, 93 percent of whom voted for Obama. More than two thirds who were polled said the economy was the most important issue affecting their decision on Nov. 4th, while 16 percent said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan informed their vote—numbers that put Muslims roughly on a par with the general population. Continue reading Obama and Islam →