WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S HISTORIC CAIRO SPEECH

I was very much impressed with President Obama's courageous speech. He addressed what a number of pundits called "third rail" subjects that few politicians, let alone presidents, would ever have the courage to tackle in such an environment. After eight years of bullying, imperialistic, and in-your-face diplomacy, which got us more enemies, and few friends, it is a remarable achieve for this young, brilliant president to have reached out to the Muslim world in the way that he did, and speak honestly to them and to us.

I am proud of President Obama and the courage he showed in speaking the truth.


Michael S. Roth, Historian and President, Wesleyan University (Ct.):

The Cairo Address will be seen as one of the great speeches by an American president on foreign soil. He spoke with conviction as someone with roots in the Islamic world, with the faith of a Christian, and with the commitment of an American leader devoted to equality, freedom and democracy. He said things his audience probably did not want to hear (on Israel, for example), and thus he did not pander. But he also said things that showed that his intelligence is informed by history as well as empathy (on Palestinians, for example). It was respectful of cultural differences, but firm in support of core principles of human rights.“If we see this conflict only from one side or the other, President Obama said, “then we will be blind to the truth.” His speech was a masterful presentation of the multi-dimensional relationship of America and Islam. Perhaps it will enable us all to see more of the truth going forward.

Malika Saada Saar, Executive Director, Rebecca Project for Human Rights:

A new children of Abraham politics

At the point that the planes hit the twin towers, and in the Bush years that followed, a language of provincialism, fear, and supremacy dominated our politics. President Obama’s speech ushered in a new children of Abraham politics—the need to recognize our inevitable intersectionality as Christians, Jews and Muslims. In his ability to hold all parts of his own varied, nuanced identity, President Obama invited the children of Abraham to recognize our shared humanity and begin a new process of dialogue and diplomacy from that place. It was an A+ speech that only a leader of multiple backgrounds, who adeptly speaks in many tongues, could effectively deliver.The Cairo Address will be seen as one of the great speeches by an American president on foreign soil. He spoke with conviction as someone with roots in the Islamic world, with the faith of a Christian, and with the commitment of an American leader devoted to equality, freedom and democracy. He said things his audience probably did not want to hear (on Israel, for example), and thus he did not pander. But he also said things that showed that his intelligence is informed by history as well as empathy (on Palestinians, for example). It was respectful of cultural differences, but firm in support of core principles of human rights.“If we see this conflict only from one side or the other, President Obama said, “then we will be blind to the truth.” His speech was a masterful presentation of the multi-dimensional relationship of America and Islam. Perhaps it will enable us all to see more of the truth going forward.

Diane Ravitch, Historian of education, NYU and Brookings:

A terrific speech that worked on many levels

First, he showed the necessary respect and deference to his hosts, even quoting from the Koran with a certain amount of ease. Second, he spoke to his American audience, not apologizing too much for America's role in the world. I was glad that he spoke about women's equality before this audience, though I fear it will fall on closed ears. I wish he had been more outspoken about the closing of girls' schools by the Taliban; I wish he had even mentioned the Taliban and their violent program to prevent girls from getting any education. I was somewhat surprised that he drew even a tenuous analogy between the blatant denial of women's rights in Muslim countries and "the struggle for women's equality" in the United States. But there were so many excellent points that he made so very well. His denunciation of violent extremism, which many Muslim nations have been unwilling to denounce. His rebuke to those who deny the existence of the Holocaust. His reminder that 9/11 was perpetrated by Muslim extremists, an implicit reminder that it was not the work of the U.S. government or the Israelis.

William Jelani Cobb, Professor of History, Spelman College:

This may well be the most important foreign policy speech of the post Cold War era. I would give it an A. There were any number of statements which individually could have been taken as significant. In its sum total it was quite remarkable. We know the structural hallmarks of an Obama speech by this point -- the balance of poetry and policy, making use of his unique biography as an advantage, offering the panoramic view of a complex problem, arguing that we have been mired in false dichotomies in approaching the problem and then offering common sense, pragmatic, non-ideological alternatives spiced with just enough idealism to spark the imagination of young people. For all that, this may have been the most brilliant iteration of that approach. On its most basic level, his speech made it that much more difficult for the caricatured view of this country to persist. You saw him hit that theme repeatedly -- the references to the role of Islam in American history and the number and prosperity of Muslims in the US. The statement "There is a mosque in every state in our union," his support for Muslim charitable giving for instance, the reference to Rep. Keith Ellison being sworn in using Jefferson's Quran. The same is the case with his argument that the US policy of democracy promotion is a human rights initiative, not an imperial one. Ditto the cultural touches -- beginning the speech with the greeting "A Salaam Alaikum."

Julian E. Zelizer, Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton:

The speech was very strong

President Obama reached out to everyone and challenged everyone as well. The point was to call for a new beginning, rejecting long-held beliefs and biases that have prevented progress and peace. While respecting the power of history and warning that change will be slow, President Obama called for new relations between the U.S. and Muslims while criticizing key aspects of Muslim society (from the treatment of women to the use of violence) to change so that improved relations will be possible. He criticized Americans for negative stereotypes of Islam but added that “America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. He stressed that he will use economic assistance and not just military might to create more stability in the region. The speech established a framework for how President Obama will think about this challenge in the coming years. Now though the real challenge begins. In the past, U.S. presidents have often learned that that the devil really is in the details when dealing with the Middle East.

James Carafano, Heritage Foundation, Defense and Homeland Security:

Green Light to Iran?President's words on Iran seem more like a "green light" to their nuclear program than the start of serious negotiations-and completely contradictory with the statement that we don't want "an ams race in the Middle East."Hope is not a strategy but it seems White House counter-proliferation strategy is to cut our missile defense programs and nuclear weapons inventories and "hope" we don't have a new arms race age.

Read the rest of the reviews here: