This post can also be seen in FPA’s Latin America Blog.
BBC World and BBC Persian services have done a remarkable job in the last two weeks highlighting the Muslim world after President Obama’s speech in Cairo, elections in Lebanon and today’s election in Iran, as well as international links to changing events in the region. To begin, various stories put out by BBC, while not directly linked, do have an effect in relation to each other. I thought an interesting comparison would be Obama’s speech in Cairo and a story this week on Youssou N’Dour, a famous singer from Senegal who put out an album a few years ago ironically called “Egypt” which won critical acclaim and awards internationally. N’Dour is well known for his music worldwide, but as he stated, he felt that the music, liturgy, and peaceful side of Islam was not being portrayed properly in many forms of media globally. His album, which is a combination of well-known religious songs in Arabic makes up most of the tracks and is quite remarkable. N’Dour noted in the interview that many believed that because he was African, he was not Muslim, and as a result he has been touring and will tour into the United States to not only show the multi-ethnicity of Islam, but to also show the brighter side of the faith which has inspired much of his talent.
Obama’s speech in Cairo touched on many of the same issues but instead of focusing a speech on the entire Muslim world, it was focused more on the Middle East, namely Arab and perhaps the Persian world, leaving much of Africa, The Balkans, South East Asia, India, Pakistan and Turkey and Central Asia out of the main focus of the dialogue. Beyond focusing on solely the Middle East, the speech really came to represent Muslim Arabs, leaving out the recognition of the various other groups which have resided and built up communities in Arab lands over many generations and thousands of years who are not Muslims but are Arab and Persian just the same. While many of these groups have lived in the Middle East peacefully, many have outstanding issues in their respective countries that should have been addressed by the President, especially when concerning issues of human rights. While there are many cases and many cultures that deserve attention in the region, Iran’s detention of the leaders of its Baha’I community should be paramount in any speech and policy in the region as it is recent, shows evidence in the past of a likely negative result for the detained leaders, and comes from generations of persecution of this group above all others in Iran. N’Dour’s music and respect for Islam in many ways adopted the focus that Obama’s speech should have used in speaking to a Muslim world that is as diverse, multicultural and politically energetic as N’Dour’s view of a religion and culture. The challenge is not simply to build bridges between Muslims and Americans, it is to challenge the cultures that dominate North America, the Middle East and the entire Muslim world to break bread and open communications between all cultures and faiths which have roots and seek influence in the Middle East. Acknowledging all Muslims and non-Muslims who live in Islamic societies is crucial and still lacking in much of the dialogue in the region. It may be the result that people who live in the Middle East will create a change on their own, as opposed to waiting for Obama to create change for them.
The best example of real change in the Middle East came from the recent elections in Lebanon. Lebanon is the most diverse country in the region religiously as groups living in this tiny nation are relatively numerically balanced between different faiths and different perspectives on the same faith. Many believe that the coalition supported by Hezbollah would finally defeat the government of Lebanon in this last election. After years of direct protest, assassinations and political manoeuvring against Lebanon’s elected multi-party legislature and the Hariri family; who lead many of the reforms and were victims of many assassinations over the last few years, Lebanon’s people decided to give the mandate to the current government and challenge the popularity of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many Muslims, Christians and other groups in Lebanon fought for the right for fair elections and a popular vote that challenges not Hezbollah’s work with many of the poorer communities and lack of health care in the country, but with a perspective that would likely take Lebanon back into a time of civil war and conflict with its neighbours in the region. This power to change did not come from Obama or his reengagement with the Muslim world, but from the needs and perspective of many of the people inside Lebanon itself.
Currently the votes in Iran’s elections are being counted, and the various minds and debates in Iranian society has come to represent itself verbally as well as through a large popular movement via waves of voters to choose the future of Iran. Iran’s current leader appeals to the rural and poorer urban voters and seeks to take the country’s oil profit and gear them towards social programs, challenged by the candidate Mosavi who seeks to open Iran internationally and build bridges between Iran and the West, representing many in the urban perspective of Iranian society. The internal debate in Iran is very much a local debate on where Iran’s future may be. With one of the largest and youngest populations in the world, the result of Iran’s election could make the country into an international power via economic and cultural opening, or could make Iran into a regional power where nuclear proliferation will become the main focus on the region. With North Korea pouring onto the scene and US involvement in Pakistan, any support for a nuclear Iran my illicit a strong reaction from the US and its allies. This week the BBC sought to detail links between Venezuela, Iran and Bolivia. While leaders in Venezuela and Bolivia often appeal to rural and urban poor as well, and seek to support those communities with revenue from oil profits, the ever growing connection between Bolivia’s uranium deposits and a possible sale to Iran may become the first issue Iran will have after the election. The end result and the difference between one candidate and another may be the difference between threats to others in the region and a strong US response, and Iran becoming the darling of the region’s economy with great natural wealth and a young, well travelled and educated population. While Venezuela and Bolivia might be dominated by the effects of poverty and class issues, Iran has a third element as it is in the middle of one of the most militarized regions of the globe and seeks to become part of a dialogue which would surely result in direct conflict with influential powers in the region. In reality, Islam is only part of the issues dominating the election in Iran, with culture, politics and diversity of class becoming part of the dialogue between Iranians and its leaders. The end choice is one for Iranians, but the end result will involve everyone in the region no matter what their faith.
