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Arab-Americans reflect on Obama

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Reporter Lily Jamali speaks with Arab-Americans in New York about whether President Obama’s speech in Cairo one year ago has made a difference to them.

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MARCO WERMAN:  A year after that speech in Cairo, Arab Americans are losing faith in President Obama as well.  And, for similar reasons, as Lily Jamali reports from New York City.

LILY JAMALI:  No one ever said it would be easy.  A year ago today President Obama acknowledged a history of mistrust as he sought to repair American’s relationship with the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.  For Muslim Americans, those words were a welcome change in tone after years of feeling marginalized, particularly after the 9-11 attacks.

SAMIR RAHMAN:  First of all I was very happy that there will be connection that will happen between the west and the Arab and Islamic world, and there was so much hope to solve the misunderstanding between the two cultures.

JAMALI: Samir Rahman is sitting by himself smoking in the corner of a hookah bar in New York’s Egyptian enclave in Queens.  Two men play backgammon next to him while the sound of a televised soccer blares from the back of the bar.  An Egyptian, Rahman has lived in the U.S. for 30 years, long enough that when he returns to Cairo, he says he feels like an ambassador between his adopted homeland, the U.S. and his birthplace.  Explaining America’s actions abroad is something he’s more comfortable doing now that Obama is President.

RAHMAN: I told them that the intention is good.  It’s obvious.  You see it from their corner only over there.

JAMALI: But there’s also a great deal of pessimism here.  Many are frustrated by what they call a lack of progress in Obama’s push to smooth relations with Muslims.  People like Ramy Zawara and Farid al-Baghdadi.

RAMY ZAWARA:  As words was beautiful and everything was nice, but nothing happens.  After one whole year, nothing happens, it was only words.

FARID AL-BAGHDADI:  He promised and promised and promised.  What after that?  Zero.  It’s nothing.

JAMALI: Both men are referring to the long running dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and what they see as the Obama administration’s inability to change anything.  Many here consider this American’s biggest stumbling block to repairing relations with Muslims.

FEMALE VOICE 1:  I just can’t make excuses for him anymore and . . .

JAMALI: No surprise, that topic was among the first raised today at this meeting of New York’s Muslim leaders.  On the anniversary of his speech they gather to evaluate Obama’s performance abroad and here at home.

ZEAD RAMADAN:  As far as American Muslims go, he gets a really bad grade because the scrutiny that American Muslims are getting is unfortunately.

JAMALI: Zead Ramadan runs the Council on American Islamic Relations which organized the discussion.  While he welcomes Obama’s efforts, he says Muslim Americans still have many of the same concerns they had before Cairo, like being linked with extremism, facing discrimination while traveling, and having their donations to Muslim charities picked apart since some have become associated with violence.

RAMADAN:  Government agencies such as the FBI have been so critical of anyone giving that people fear a backlash.  People fear scrutiny.

JAMALI: But Ramadan applauds other steps Obama has taken including the appointment of two Muslim Americans to his administration.  A sign of good will, but advocates say it will take more than that for Obama to complete what’s proved to be a difficult bridge to build.  For The World, I’m Lily Jamali in New York.

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