What Does Obama's Speech In Cairo Mean For Americans?

Earlier today, President of the United State Barack Obama spoke to a live crowd of 3000 and a remote-view international audience of millions about renewing diplomatic relations between the US and the Muslim world. Over the course of one hour, the President highlighted several major issues that have stood as roadblocks in the peace process, including terrorism, human rights, the Israel-Palestine conflict and broad cultural misunderstandings. The rhetoric was, as Obama promised at the beginning of the speech, honest and direct. Moreover, it was intended for his Muslim audience, though not so much for his usual American listeners.

This brings up an interesting question: Would it really be so difficult to direct many of President Obama's words today to Americans and American culture? While stable, productive relations between the US and the Muslim world are extremely important, we have many similar issues to tackle in our own nation. We live with deep cultural fissures and our own human rights violations. Perhaps we should look at America through the lens of President Obama's speech in Cairo.

Early in his speech, President Obama urged people on both sides of the Muslim/non-Muslim divide to abandon crude stereotypes of one another that lead to ignorance and hatred. In our own culture, we Americans have perpetuated and intensified the stereotypes of Liberal vs. Conservative, the Blue vs. the Red, the Democrat vs. the Republican. In our own way, we have allowed a vocal minority to speak for a much more moderate majority and in doing so have created needless divisions between our people. This has been at best counterproductive and at worst actively destructive.

President Obama had some strong rhetoric concerning America's pursuit of violent Muslim extremists. In so many words, he stated that the US, while altering the approach ineffectively employed over the past 8 years, would not stop pursuing the elimination of terrorist organizations. He also urged Muslim nations to not tolerate extremists in their midst, as these violent groups have killed more Muslims than any other group of people.

We, too, in America have our own extremists and it seems that we have grown apathetic to their violence. What is the difference between an al-Qaeda jihadi and a white supremacist? When a neo-Nazi or a lone wolf from the KKK shoots pedestrians simply because they are black or assaults a Jewish day school, how is that any different than a Sunni extremist blowing up a Shia mosque or a terrorist attacking a Western consulate? Just as the governments and people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries have a responsibility to combat the extremists within their borders, we Americans have a responsibility to pursue justice against those organizations in our country that actively promote violence against innocent people.

President Obama also encouraged Muslim nations to provide equal rights for women, saying that societies that pursue equality tend to be more prosperous and peaceful than those that oppress. The United States has certainly come a long way in the past century concerning civil rights, but we still have a long way to go before we attain true equality. We cannot call ourselves a free nation until LGBT individuals have equal rights and protection under the law, nor can we be free until we reform our approach to the process of immigration.

The President's words today in Cairo set the stage for a new process of peaceful interaction between America and the Muslim world. If we are to forge peace with our global neighbors in the 21st century, we must lead by example. Righteousness, law and equity within our own borders is the key to our success in promoting peace in other nations.