Amman - Jordanian Islamists Tuesday welcomed the overtures
voiced in Turkey towards Muslims by US President Barack Obama, saying
they were indicative of a promising 'new stage' in relations between
Washington and the Arab and Islamic worlds.
'If President Obama really meant it, this could indicate that we
are on the threshold of a new era that paves the ground for real
dialogue, rather than conflict, among civilizations,' Zaki Bani
Ershaid, Secretary General of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), told
German Press Agency dpa.
'Obama has apparently conducted a deep revision of the US policies
and drew benefits from the mistakes and sins committed by his
predecessor, George Bush, who pushed America to an unprecedented
isolation and won it hatred of the entire world by adopting policies
based on arrogance of power,' he said.
Bani Ershaid was responding to Obama's declaration in Turkey that
his country was not at war with Islam and that he supported the
creation of a Palestinian state.
'Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not,
and will never be, at war with Islam,' Obama said in a speech to the
Turkish parliament in the capital Ankara on Monday.
The IAF leader considered Obama's remarks as an 'indication that
he has come to know the importance of the Islamic presence in the
world'.
However, he said that the US president had to translate his words
into 'tangible deeds on the ground'.
'First of all, Obama has to adopt an even-handed policy towards
the Palestinian question by ending the complete US bias to the
Zionist entity, a policy responsible for the worsening US image in
the Arab world,' Bani Ershaid said.
'Israel, particularly after the takeover of an extremist
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is increasingly proving that it
is becoming a burden for the United States,' he added.
The IAF chief contended that any real change in the US policies in
the region should involve the opening of dialogue between the US
administration and Islamic movements, including the Palestinian Hamas
group and Lebanon's Hezbollah party, saying 'they held the key for
the region's future'.
'If the United States wants to open a new chapter with the Arab
world, it has to quit the previous approach that considered certain
groups, which wage a struggle for national liberation, as terrorist
factions,' he said.
USA
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