What the President SHOULD Say in Cairo Tomorrow

"And as I take this trip -- and I will be visiting Cairo tomorrow, I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's counsel and to discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East," said President Obama from Saudi Arabia one day before leaving for Egypt to give the first major address to the Muslim world from a major Muslim capital; Cairo. President Obama leaves late tonight (Wednesday) for Cairo, Egypt, where he is to address a mostly Muslim audience Thursday around 1pm local time (6 am EST) at Cairo University. During a January 2008 television interview with Al-Arabiya network channel, President Obama said that it was, "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…I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries…" But President Obama has his work cut out for him. For example, according a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey suggested that “more than two in five Americans, or 46 percent, have an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries”. That view is an increase of 5 percentage points from 2002. Sadly, seeing an overview of American public opinion towards Islam and Muslims since 9/11 shows the magnitude of the daunting diplomatic task in front of President Barack Obama in Cairo. For example, a September 2004 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Poll found that: - Almost 4 in 10 Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam, about the same number that has a favorable view. - A plurality of Americans (46 percent) believes that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers. Similarly, a March 2005 ABC News Poll found that over one-third (34 percent) of Americans believes that mainstream Islam encourages violence. During the same ABC News poll, forty-three (43) percent of Americans think Islam does not teach respect for the beliefs of non-Muslims and among Americans who feel they ‘understand the religion of Islam’; 59 percent of Americans call it ‘peaceful’ and 46 percent think it teaches respect for the beliefs of others. Again, in terms of general public animosity towards the religion of Islam, a February 2006 CBS News poll produced similar findings: 39 percent of respondents belied that Islam encourages violence more than other religions. It should come as little to no surprise to anyone that this general dislike of Islam by Americans would soon also correlate directly with devastating public opinion polls focused on how we should collectively, legally and politically treat tens of millions of American Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in a post-9/11 America. A December 2004 public opinion poll conducted by Cornell University found that about forty-four (44) percent of Americans said that they believe that “some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim-Americans…” Similarly, twenty-six (26) percent of Americans said that they think that American mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies; and over twenty-nine (29) percent of Americans agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising. Nearly the same overall public sentiments were captured in a March 2006 Washington Post/ABC News poll that found over forty-six (46) percent of Americans said they held unfavorable views about Islam and Muslims. In the same poll, about one-fourth of the respondents admitted to feelings of prejudice: 27 percent said that they held ‘prejudiced feelings’ towards Muslims, whereas twenty-five (25) percent of Americans said they have prejudiced feelings against Arabs. The sheer hysteria of post-9/11 America came to light when a July 2005 USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll found that fifty-three (53) percent of Americans were in favor of “requiring all Arabs, including those who are U.S. citizens, to undergo special, more intensive security checks before boarding airplanes” and forty-six (46) percent of Americans who favored “requiring Arabs, including those who are U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID…” With over 7 million American Muslims living in the United States today, President Obama can use his speech in Cairo tomorrow to show that we Americans respect Muslims worldwide; whether those Muslims are on the streets of Cairo or on our own streets of Chicago. Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.com and contributing editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington. This column was also published on CNN Anderson Cooper 360