While Francois Sergent of France’s Liberation has his doubts about whether Obama’s efforts begun in Cairo will succeed, he nevertheless admires his forthrightness and clear statement of ineffable truths that needed to be said out loud by someone with the president’s credibility.
For Liberation and continuing with our global coverage of the reaction to President Obama’s speech in Cairo, Francois Sergent writes in part:
“The Muslim world lives on myths, attributes its problems to the West and demonizes Israel. Meanwhile, the Hebrew state became accustomed to an impunity it thought would last forever and rhetoric that served the powers that be but failed to ensure security. One speech can’t change everything. Obama is not a demigod and the Middle East is not a land of miracles. But let us give credit to the American president for trying.”
By François Sergent
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
June 6, 2009
France – Liberation – Original Article (French)
It will take months if not years to measure the impact of Obama’s speech. But the will of the American president to reconcile two worlds, North and South, the Occident and Islam, appears in every line of his courageous speech. Obama rightly wants to end this war of civilizations, founded on fear of the other and fed by Bush and fundamentalists of all persuasions. The Muslim world cannot be encapsulated by terrorism and fanaticism. The welcome that these unprecedented words have received in the Arab-Muslim world marks an unprecedented change in American policy.
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