I started a piece as to why I thought President Obama choosing Cairo as a place for his speech is a good idea. During the process, the rationale became part of what I would like to see him say. Below is the speech I would like to hear, as though it were sketched on the back of an envelope. I imagine him speaking from Al-Azhar Park, evoking the famed university, but outside the religious setting.
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Peace be upon you
As-salam alaykum
As stand here at the Al-Azhar Park, I see the wonders and complexities of the Arab Islamic world. Although I have a familial affinity with Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, and I have recently spoken in Turkey, a European nation with the largest number of Muslims, it seems fitting to speak here in Cairo, to Muslim communities across the world.
Cairo is historically a cross-roads of civilizations. It has a living breathing history that stretches from the pyramids at Giza to the University of Al-Azhar, to this modern park. It is the home of political movements that have shaken the Arab world, of nobel laureates, and the incomparable Star of the East, Umm Kulthum. We can, by understanding Cairo, understand how with care, attention, and honesty, great things can be created.
Al-Azhar Park represents a new way to understand public and private partnerships. Created by a cooperative agreement between the Egyptian Government and the Aga Khan Development Network, it trains local people in skills they can keep and use elsewhere. It allows people to reclaim their dignity and it provides one of the great cities of the world a central park that it lacked. The Aga Khan, of course, claims descent from the Fatimid Dynasty, the group that founded both Cairo and Al-Azhar University. The great seat of Sunni learning is established by Shi'ah, and we cannot forget that the current moment of crisis between two great Muslim traditions is that, a moment. The dynasty not only created one of the oldest universities in the world, but also had an understanding of interfaith relations that is often eclipsed by Golden Age of Spain. Ibn Killis, one of the most well-known of Jewish viziers of the court, shows how historically all faiths have been welcome here.
Even today, the mosque that is said to hold the body of the Shi'ah Imam Husayn is in central Cairo and all Egyptians take it as a point of pride. Recently, when a bomb exploded in the area, Cairenes came out clearly and said that these attacks are not "us," they are not Egypt. This land is one where everyone is welcomed, and no one is singled out for their faith. The best of Egypt means that real emergencies are not used to contrive against minorities in this country.
Gamal Abdel Nasser is remembered for his leadership in the Arab world and Anwar Sadat is celebrated for choosing what was right over what was politically popular. For these many reasons America and Egypt have a close friendship. And it is in friendship that we learn much about each other.
The United States is dealing with questions of torture. This act is morally reprehensible and we hope that when our friends look at us, they learn not what we did wrong, but how we are dealing with our mistakes. The US does not torture. It never will. This learning is ours. We are sorry that we had to learn the wrong way about the evils of torture, and we hope we can spare our friends learning the same way. In order to show how serious we are about this point, today I am authorizing the release of all material related to the torture committed by the US and establishing Truth Commissions to be followed by a Blue Ribbon Panel to enshrine laws that make sure we never choose a wrong in the search for a right again.
We know that President Sadat's courage made a partial peace in the Middle East possible. Today, I ask for other courageous partners as we declare our open support of a peace plan that calls for an immediate cease-fire by all parties in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; the cessation of all settlement building; the declaration of Jerusalem as an international city, beholden to no one nation; and the establishment of two states in the region. Egypt's example shows that peace is possible.
The robust civic dialogue encouraged by activists in the 6 April Movement, by Wael Abbas, and others reminds us that an informed and active citizenship is the strongest support of free, democratic elections. Our journalists help keep us aware that when we serve the people, we are responsible to them; that dialogue, discourse, and debate are the ways to remove bad ideas and encourage good ones. No one person can claim to know everything or to be able to control everyone. It is for this reason that we anticipate Egypt's next free and fair elections.
Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida walked the halls of Al-Azhar, striving to find a way to deal religiously with the changing world around them. They speak a language that did not forget their religion or turn it into empty slogans, but that deals with very real questions of how to be good Muslims in a new world. We cannot forget that many of the debates they face, are debates now, and were debates during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. These questions are not new, nor should the answers be, but they must recognize the particular circumstances in which we live. If there were concrete answers, we would know them already, but life is a struggle to know things, and we should be wary of anyone who now claims to have all the answers.
Youssef Chahine, in his biography film of Ibn Rushd, Al-Massir (Destiny), shows us how blind obedience to someone leads to the death of intellect and faith, because the two can never be divorced. Nobel laureate, Naguib Mahfouz, brings the sights, sounds, and smells of Cairo life alive, but he also shows the complexity of being in Egypt. But Egypt does not stand alone. It is at the cross-roads of time and civilizations. Can we have Antony without Cleopatra? This is the home of Plato and Moses. The Fourth Caliph Ali, writes his famous letter to the governor of Egypt, Malik al-Ashtar, in which he lays out many principles we can still recognize today as being necessary for good governance. He says:
You must create in your mind kindness, compassion and love for your subjects. Do not behave towards them as if you are a voracious and ravenous beast and as if your success lies in devouring them.
Amongst your subjects there are two kinds of people: those who have the same religion as you have; they are brothers to you, and those who have religions other than that of yours, they are human beings like you. Men of either category suffer from the same weaknesses and disabilities that human beings are inclined to, they commit sins, indulge in vices either intentionally or foolishly and unintentionally without realizing the enormity of their deeds. Let your mercy and compassion come to their rescue and help in the same way and to the same extent that you expect Allah to show mercy and forgiveness to you.
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Be fair, impartial and just in your dealings with all, individually and collectively and be careful not to make your person, position and favours act as sources of malice. Do not let any such thing or such person come near to you who does not deserve your nearness and your favour. Never lower your dignity and prestige.
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Your worst ministers will be the men who had been ministers to the despotic rulers before you and who had been a party o atrocities committed by them. Such persons should not be taken into your confidence and should not be trusted because they have aided sinners and have assisted tyrants and cruel rulers.
In their stead you can comfortably find persons who are equally wise and learned but who have not developed sinful and criminal mentalities, who have neither helped the tyrants in their tyrannies nor have they assisted them to carry on their sinful deeds. Such persons will prove the least troublesome to you. They will be the most helpful. They will sincerely sympathise with you. If you take them in your confidence they will sever their connections with your opponents. Keep such people with you as your companions in your informal company as well as in official gatherings in audience. From amongst such honest and humane companions and ministers some would receive your fullest confidence and trust. They are those who can always speak out the bitter truth to you and unreservedly and without fear of your status, can refuse to assist you or associate with you in the deeds which Allah does not like His good creatures to commit.
If we can remember and live up to some of these ideals, than we can compete with each other in righteousness, to build a more just, fair, and equitable future.
as-salam alaykum