Jamie

Weinstein

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February 3, 2009

The Muslim World Can't Get No Respect?

Deliberately taking his first interview as president with the Arab TV news station Al-Arabiya, Barack Obama sought to deliver a message of respect to the Muslim world.

"We are ready to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest," he said, echoing a line from his inauguration speech.

"Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well being of the Muslim world that the language we use has to be a language of respect," he commented.

"I think that what you'll see is somebody who is listening, who is respectful," he respectfully noted. 

"We can have legitimate disagreements but still be respectful," Obama orated.

Get it? Respect, respect, respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Obama says the United States will be respectful to the Muslim world. If you are scratching your head (and you should be), it is because the United States has been respectful to the Muslim world.

It may be worthwhile to ask, has the Muslim world been respectful to us?

Burning American flags? Not respectful. Chanting “Death to America”? Not very respectful. Hanging George W. Bush in effigy? Not much respect in that. Knocking down the Twin Towers? Well, you get the point.

The respect argument has been a canard for some time. The Iranians have used the respect card, or the lack of respect card, at least as far back as the Clinton Administration. They like to use this as a reason for their failure to cooperate with the United States. “We don't believe that the behavior of the United States shows yet that it is ready for a dialogue based on mutual respect," an Iranian official told the New York Times in 1998.

It almost makes you feel that Iran is the Rodney Dangerfield of countries. Oooh, the Mullahs just can't get no respect.

Pop quiz time: Does the Iranian regime not want to give up its nuclear weapons program because a) it doesn't feel that the United States has given them sufficient respect or b) they want to develop nuclear weapons? Time’s up. The answer is B. If you said A, you are probably a prime candidate to become General Secretary of the United Nations some day. 

Instead of being disrespectful to the Muslim world, the U.S. has been sacrificial.

In 1991, America led a coalition to push Saddam Hussein out of Muslim Kuwait. In 1993, American troops lost their lives trying to provide humanitarian assistance to Somali Muslims. In 1999, the U.S., along with NATO, ended ethnic cleaning being perpetrated against Kosovoar Muslims. In this century, fighting back after the ruthless Sept. 11 attacks, the United States liberated tens of millions of Muslims from cruel and sadistic rule in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Is the United States perfect? No. But I think we deserve some credit for putting American troops in harm's way time and time again to protect innocent Muslims, sometimes when there was really no American interest at stake. 

So it is somewhat baffling why President Obama feels it is necessary to emphasize that he plans on treating the Muslim world with respect. That has been standard American policy.

I can't say that Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya was all bad. It wasn't. His goal of getting America's message across to the Arab and Muslim world is a good and noble one. George W. Bush shared the goal, but wasn't particularly effective in changing many hearts and minds in the Middle East. Obama possesses some unique attributes that make him a better spokesperson for the American cause in that part of the world.

Still, Obama should veer away from his apologizing for America. There is no reason for us to apologize. The totalitarian governments that populate the Middle East, on the other hand, have much for which to apologize – to us and to their own people.

During the Al-Arabiya interview, Obama was right when he said "I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians, and we will hunt them down."

In a similar vein, is it not hard to respect governments who brutalize their populations and sponsor those very terrorist organizations of which Obama speaks? So, yes, the Muslim world has generally been respected by the United States, but a better question to ask is – do many of the governments in the Muslim world merit respect?

Muslim governments (and non-Muslim governments for that matter) clamoring for respect should remember that respect is not a right. It has to be earned. To say that many of the fear societies that populate the Middle East have not earned it is to state the bloody obvious.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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