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• Source: The Global Times
• [21:55 June 08 2009]
• Comments

US Muslim policy shows smart power

The main purpose of Obama’s speech in Cairo is to improve the US relationship with Muslims, end the “cycle of suspicion and discord” and seek a new beginning “based upon mutual interests and respect.”

It seems that Obama is going to alter past US foreign policy, especially George W. Bush’s policy of promoting democracy by war. Some believe that Obama is shrinking back.

Actually, Obama was announcing the application of US “smart power” in the Muslim world.
Obama’s review of the relationship between the Muslim world and the Western world throughout history implies that the Muslims were unfairly treated in the past, and that he was trying to comfort the Muslims psychologically.

Those words are of no harm to US interests at all. The only function of those words is to win the Muslims’ goodwill.

Obama then attributed Americans’ hatred against Muslims to the Sept 11 attacks. Nevertheless, as early as 1993, in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Samuel Huntington singled out the Muslim world as the enemy of the Western world. As a matter of fact, the Sept 11 attacks only reinforced the people’s impression of this judgment.

When discussing the US and its relationship with the Muslim citizens, Obama emphasized that the US advocates freedom of religion and equality for all. He was promoting American values in a smart way, and indicating that the Muslim world should learn from the US practice to tolerate and coexist with other religions.

Generally speaking, Obama is testing the Muslim world’s response to the US policy of “smart power,” he is not shrinking back.