MIDEAST: TARIQ RAMADAN, 'MUSLIMS WANT RESPECT AND HUMIILITY'

No matter what they get, Muslims always want more. Evidently, Obama has not yet sufficiently humbled himself, and America in front of Islam.

FROM ANSAMED.INFO:

MIDEAST: TARIQ RAMADAN, 'MUSLIMS WANT RESPECT AND HUMIILITY'
(ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 3

According to the controversial Swiss intellectual and Islam scholar, Tariq Ramadan, a "change in attitude" and "effective and necessary action", a "real and profound message of respect" but above all "humility" are what the Muslim world expects in the keynote speech that USA President Barack Obama will be making tomorrow in Cairo. In a statement sent to the press via email, Ramadan underlines how Obama has found himself having to "reverse the legacy" left by George W. Bush and his administration, who did not show "respect or fairness towards Muslims". Ramadan points out that, during his election campaign, Obama "often had to repeat that he was not a Muslim, as if that would have posed a problem for the American people". Thus, "the first thing that can be expected" is that, by talking to the Muslim world, he will also be talking to the "US and the West". Ramadan confirmed that during the first few months of his presidency Obama "has shown respect for Islam, announced the closure of Guantanamo and an end to torture, and adopted a firm stance against the Israeli government with regard to the building of settlements". These are "positive steps", but speeches "are not enough". The USA "does not have a monopoly on good and evil". Islam "is a great civilisation" and Obama "must announce that we all have something to learn from each other." In stressing "ideal values" and calling for "human rights", Obama must also "admit American mistakes, failures and contradictions" in pursuing these aims, and he must show "humility" in acknowledging that the USA "can and will do more in order to respect the values that they are calling for." It is only in this way that he can say to Muslims that "they must fight against corruption, fundamentalism, dictatorships, discrimination against women and poor people", and in order to be "listened to with a minimum of trust". Ramadan concluded that Obama must make it understood that "after many years of deafness in Washington, he has finally listened". (ANSAmed).