Reach Out to Muslims Here in U.S., Too
The Obama administration’s efforts to improve America’s image with the Muslim world cannot be successful without healthy engagement of the American-Muslim community, which includes investigating and curtailing abuses against American Muslims that started under the Bush administration.
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Since taking office, President Barack Obama has made several positive steps. The president mentioned in his historic inaugural address the desire to seek a new way forward with the Muslim world, “based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” His first TV interview in office was with Al Arabiya, in which he reiterated this aspiration. He sent a heartfelt Nowruz greeting on video to the Iranian government and people, and he recently made his first trip to a Muslim majority country, Turkey.
With all of these efforts abroad, the Muslim world is also keenly aware of ongoing abuses against American Muslims. The knowledge of these abuses is influencing public opinion within the Muslim world that could place barriers in front of the new vision of engagement by our president. International media, including Al Arabiya, are currently reporting ongoing abuses by the FBI against American Muslims and their organizations such as recent revelations of an agent provocateur in California who confessed to being sent on fishing expeditions in mosques to entrap unsuspecting worshippers, including youths. Stories of Muslims being pressured to spy on their houses of worship have not been limited to one incident, but have been reported throughout America, including metro Detroit.
Most Muslims support the new administration’s outreach to the Islamic world, including recent cordial meetings between U.S. diplomats and counterparts from Syria and Iran, nations that Bush labeled as “Axis of Evil” regimes. However, the serious problems that face American Muslims at home should be addressed by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder in unison with venturing abroad.
American Muslims know the Muslim world like no others of this land, and we want to play a constructive role in improving relations between our country and the Muslim world.
Dawud Walid/OpEd
The Detroit Free Press
Dawud Walid is executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — Michigan (CAIR-MI.)
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Dawud Walid