Tag: obama

Mubarak is a force for stability and good, says Obama

Posted on By 3arabawy

Obama has once again exposed himself for the hypocrite he is. Interviewed by the BBC yesterday, Obama showered Mubarak with praise:

…while acknowledging that there are “obviously” issues of human rights in the Middle East, the President avoided specifics that many Egyptians may have been looking for.
He said President Hosni Mubarak was a force for stability, without commenting on the President’s domestic policies. “He has been a stalwart ally, in many respects, to the United States. He has sustained peace with Israel, which is a very difficult thing to do in that region.”
The counterparts will meet in private for the first time during Obama’s visit to Cairo.
When Webb asked whether he considered Mubarak to be “authoritarian,” Obama deferred. “I tend not to use labels for folks,” he said.
Hossam El-Hamalawy, activist and blogger at arabawy.org, said he felt that Obama was not going far enough. He said that Obama’s silence regarding Mubarak was a “clear endorsement of his regime.”
“The pro-democracy movement here has allies in the west, but they are not in the Whitehouse,” El-Hamalawy said. Despite Obama’s differences from the past, El-Hamalawy was not confident that he will be fundamentally different from his predecessor.
AUC Political Science Professor Walid Kazziha said Obama’s reluctance to emphasize a purely pro-democracy policy was understandable. “He’s not going to raise that issue against any Arab regime that he considers to be moderate,” said Kazziha. “They’re opting for stability rather than democracy.”

In all cases, it seems the old man isn’t attending the speech after all!

“I don’t understand why he’s visiting”

Posted on By 3arabawy

Via the NYT…

President Obama has said he chose Cairo to address the Muslim world, not just the Arab world. But while officials at the university and in the government have expressed delight at the president’s visit, people around campus and the city were skeptical that much would change in relations between the West and the Muslim world.
“Just leave us to concentrate on our exams,” said an 18-year-old student who would give only her first name, Dina. “I’m not expecting anything. Americans don’t like us and we don’t like them. They think we’re terrorists, and we don’t like them because of what they’re doing in Iraq.”
Most heads of state coming to Egypt head to the Red Sea resort area of Sharm el Sheik, which is far easier to secure than any venue in the middle of a city of 18 million people. But the consensus here — and in Washington — was that the president needed to be in Cairo if he had any hope of his speech resonating on the street.
It remains a tough audience.
“They are cleaning things they have never cleaned before,” said Amira Abbas, 18, who had just finished a sociology exam. “I don’t understand why he’s visiting. What does he have to say to the Muslim world? He’s new, and he wants to improve the image of the U.S. in the Muslim world.”