Respect and Hope in American-Arab/Islamic Relations

DOHA, Qatar-- Is a new page being turned in Arab/Islamic-American relations? It would seem so, to judge by many of the interactions at the three-day annual United States-Islamic World Forum that is hosted every year by the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center in Washington and the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The latest gathering last weekend of over 160 engaged scholars, activists, journalists, scientists, officials, religious figures, artists and ex-officials from across the Islamic world and the United States seemed to reflect important new attitudes and subtle changes in perceptions between the two groups.

The first is due to the changes in policy and style of the new Obama administration in Washington, whose symbolic and substantive gestures in its first weeks in office send clear signals of its desire to improve relations with Islamic societies and peoples. The second is the realization within many Islamic societies that they are heading for catastrophe if they remain on their current trajectories, including perpetual warfare, deep internal divisions, and mass emigration of their most talented young men and women. And the third is that windows of opportunity may be opening -- perhaps only for a brief period -- to reverse the deterioration in Arab-Islamic-American relations.

A powerful signal of the new start that appears to be occurring in United States-Muslim world ties is the anticipation strongly felt among many in Muslim societies that the Obama team is going to usher in a more reasonable set of foreign policies that could stem rising anti-Americanism. Many Arabs and Muslims look to Obama with some expectation of change and anticipation of better days ahead, and this already indicates better than anything else -- as one former Pakistani ambassador noted -- a revived reservoir of goodwill towards the United States in the Muslim world.

Several former senior American officials for their part reflected the softer tone that seems to be emerging in Washington vis-à-vis Arab-Islamic world issues. And for the first time in the eight years that I have participated in these annual meetings, American participants seemed less defensive -- perhaps mainly because George W. Bush is no longer their president. They were more inclined to explore avenues towards solutions, and how both sides could work together in this direction, rather than merely reciting exasperation with the deficiencies of Arab-Islamic societies, including terrorism.

Citizens of mostly Arab and Asian Islamic societies for their part seemed this year to be more humble in acknowledging their own need to take the initiative to reform themselves, and not only to wait for others -- especially the United States and fellow Western powers -- to treat Arabs and Muslims more equitably, and less colonially.

This breakthrough for both sides probably reflects the fact they simultaneously realize that the antagonistic, violent, selfish paths they have both followed in recent years -- and certainly since September 11, 2001 -- have failed, and only aggravate matters. This is combined with the growing recognition all around that mutual “respect” is the key that will unlock the door to better days ahead, with security, stability and perhaps even some prosperity for all.

Obama’s election and the quick moves he made in his first three days in office -- closing Guantánamo, banning torture, naming respected special envoys to the two burning fires of Israel-Palestine and Afghanistan-Pakistan, playing diplomatic footsies with Iran, and speaking directly to Muslims on an agenda of mutual respect and shared interests -- sent an emphatic message that many Arabs and Muslims have heard loud and clear.

These policy changes and rhetorical flourishes need to be reciprocated now from our side, by both governments and those more nimble elements in civil society that have the courage and the capacity to engage the United States on an equal footing -- leaving behind the bad old ways of American-Western colonialism, neo-conservatism, and Orientalism.

The Americans, as one former senior White House security official said, cannot understand or absorb the message they seem to hear from the Arab-Islamic world -- that we want Washington to be more engaged, but also to leave us alone.

There remains one major, glaring weakness in the American approach to these issues, which is a persistent refusal to accept blame for those aspects of U.S. foreign policy that tend to aggravate violence, extremism and instability in the Arab-Asian world. Almost blind U.S. support for Israel -- or almost total Israeli veto power over decision-making in Washington -- remains an issue that American officials, and even ex-officials, cannot discuss comfortably. It is the black hole in their moral-political universe that they must grapple with more honestly if they expect the world to take them more seriously.

This is a rare moment of change and opportunity, as the mainstreams of American and Arab-Islamic societies seem today to focus on how to work together for real change based on policy adjustments by both sides. Expressions of mutual respect have unlocked a once closed door; we need to burst through it.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large ofThe Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.