Asian Window

President Obama came to Cairo to forge “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.” Initial reports scattered across media say the response to his speech was “cautiously positive.”

In India, where nearly 14 per cent of the population is Muslim and where political fortunes often depend on which way their vote goes, this cartoon in the Indian Express sums up the reaction. In an editorial headlined “Politics and prose,” the newspaper said: Obama’s speech itself was “a new beginning” in that this “dialogue” was long-needed and long-awaited, given the intractable differences steadily entrenched over the last eight years.

The Times of India wrote in its editorial, “Statement of purpose”: There are other large Muslim countries, like Indonesia and Bangladesh, which do not share the extreme views that emanate from some countries where the Wahhabi strain of Islam whose ideology envisions an Islamic caliphate is dominant. Expect no miracles overnight, but if even some of the tensions between parts of the Muslim world and America were lessened during Obama’s tenure, it would have benefited the entire world.

In Bangladesh, the Daily Star said in an editorial, “A breath of fresh air”: It is stating the obvious that suspicion and discord between the West and the Islamic world have evolved over decades and would therefore take sincere and determined efforts to be rolled back. But we believe Obama has offered up a new opportunity to remove the hiatus. For our part, we should seize it, as Obama does his part in matching words with deeds.

Pakistani newspaper The Nation called it “a refreshing address”: It is hoped that President Obama’s Administration sincerely wages a war against negative stereotypes of Muslims that he decried, and the Muslim world responds in the same manner to serve as the starting point of tolerance and understanding he longed for. But to remove the wall of suspicion and latent hostility, the points of tension have to be addressed.

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