Obama slipping in popularity among Muslims

Washington: A year after President Barack Obama pledged a new beginning to US-Muslim relations in a historic speech here, much of the excitement he inspired is turning to disappointment.

The Cairo speech, in which Obama outlined a relationship based on mutual interests and respect, left many in the region hopeful of significant change from Bush policies.

But while many still believe that Obama has good intentions, the perception that he has failed to deliver on his promises has deflated those hopes and led some to conclude he is backing down from positions laid out on June 4 last year.

Former investment banker Rana Jarbou of Saudi Arabia says none of Obama's efforts so far has been in line with the "new beginning" he pledged.

She has been disappointed with what she views as a turn to Bush-era rhetoric about terrorism, which she fears could be used as a pretext for attacking Iran, and what she calls his unilateral decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Conflict's influence

"With regard to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, no concrete steps have been made, and the whole region is definitely affected and influenced by this conflict," Rana, now an aspiring social entrepreneur, said. "It didn't take too long to make note of his contradictory approach."

Israel's raid on May 31 on a humanitarian flotilla set for Gaza, which brought fierce criticism on Israel from governments around of world, has brought further calls for Obama to prove he is an ally to Muslim countries.

"The US response to Israel's disproportionate use of violence against innocent civilians constitutes a test case for US credibility in the Middle East," Suat Kiniklioglu, the ruling AK (Justice and Development) Party's deputy chairman of external affairs, said in a op-ed.

"The United States will itself determine what sort of Middle East it will be dealing with in the future by its response to Israel's actions."

Perhaps most prominent to the Muslim world was Obama's pledge to take real steps to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

His failure to make significant progress on that front — in particular on convincing Israel to implement a full settlement freeze in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem — has become a regional focal point for disappointment, and a gauge of his commitment to advance a new era of US policy in the Middle East.

"Obama promised he would solve the Arab-Israeli conflict for good, not just push ahead with the process.

"But in fact he's just pushing ahead with the process," said Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahoma's Centre for Middle East Studies and a renowned expert on Syria. "And as long as that happens, things are going to be bad."

Too weak

According to a recent poll conducted by YouGov, 60 per cent of Arabs now believe Obama is too weak to deliver a peace agreement. The poll also found that 58 per cent believe Obama has good intentions.

Landis says Obama quickly realised the political costs of a commitment to a two-state solution and backed off.

That is now costing the US dearly in its relations with regional allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which have already begun distancing themselves from some US policies.