Dubai: Arabs reacted with enthusiasm and caution at Obama’s election victory on Twitter, with many appreciating the democratic process in the United States but decrying its foreign policy.
While everyday Arabs reacted with jokes and parodies, commentators and journalists welcomed the president’s re-election but expressed skepticism on prospects for change in foreign policy.
London based Arab academic Madawi Al Rasheed expressed happiness on Obama’s relection but had strong words of criticism. She called on Obama not to be like British prime minister David Cameron, saying “a man of politics cannot be a sales manager”.
“The Islamic world is not just oil, or a strategic location or an arena to fight terrorism. It has people too”. Referring to Obama’s historic post election speech to the Muslim world in 2009 in Cairo, she continued: “Obama, Muslims don’t need lectures in universities. They have enough preachers… Arab dictatorships are a thing of the past. The future is for the people”.
Israel, she said, was not “the eternal ally” and that Obama should stand with the rights of Palestinians. “We have been waiting for a state for sixty years,” she said.
Palestinian commentator and editor in chief of London-based Al Quds Al Arabi said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to consider Romney’s defeat as his own defeat. “He put all his eggs in one basket and that was political stupidity. He is now betting on Congress to [be a] hurdle in Obama’s second term”.
Emirati political scientists Abdul Khaleq Abdullah said: “Obama is the president of America and the world for the next four years… Anyone who likes peace will be happy with Obama’s victor. He is the best [candidate] for world peace, and he will be more assertive against the Israeli enemy that did the impossible to [keep him from] winning”.
A number of Arabic-speaking users were live-tweeting the inauguration address, translating it from English on Twitter as the event was taking place.
Majed Al Dihani (@majed5060) wrote: “As expected, Abu Hussain won”, using the common Arabic tongue-in-cheek reference to Obama that mistakes his middle name, Hussain, as his father’s name.
Badi Al Otaibi (@badialotaibi) tweeted about the disappearing taboos in American politics today: “Both presidential candidates come from previously persecuted groups: blacks and Mormons. Great [job], America!”
A number of twitter users praised what they saw as the dignified way in which Romney accepted defeat, with some saying that such an occurrence in the Middle East would be followed with violent protests from the losing camp. Ahmed (@el)sha3rawy) joked that Romney accused Obama of giving out free oil and sugar in Chicago, his home city.
The Arabic twitter account that was perhaps one of the most active was Obama’s Arabic parody account that has over 250,000 followers. In a tweet directed at American billionaire and Romney supporter, the fake Obama says: “This idiot has been trying to market Romney but had failed. If you don’t like it go to the constitutional court”.
He said earlier, in an address to the Arabs: “Don’t go to work today… Stay up with us, the American people. I will call your governments to get you a day off”.
Abdul Aziz, @abuabullah2010, from Saudi Arabia said his grandmother reacted happily upon being told of Obama’s victory. “I will ask her about her Democratic leanings and whether she prefers them because for their [Middle East] policy or for her hatred of the cowboy [Romney]”.
Saudi twitter user @kyeslam was not as enthusiastic: “I remember celebrating Obama’s victory with the [American] consulate four years ago… Today I watch the film ‘A Good Year’ on MBC3, and feel better [than then]”.
Saudi user, Ibrahim Abdul Karim (@abonawafxx), said he knew that Romney would lose “from the day he mixed politics with what he thinks is religion. Unlike with us, where he who [uses] religion wins”. Another user referred to Romney as an “Ikhwanji”, or Ikhwanist, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist group.
