Metro Detroit Muslims Applaud Award to Obama

posted on: Oct 9, 2009

One of the main reasons the Nobel committee gave for awarding President Barack Obama its Peace Prize award today was his outreach to the Muslim world – an outreach that has been seen in metro Detroit in recent months because of its sizable Muslim population.

Several department leaders in the Obama administration have met with Muslims and Arab Americans in Dearborn, most recently U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, who met metro Detroiters Wednesday at the Lebanese-American Heritage Club in Dearborn.

And last month, CIA Director Leon Panetta met with Muslims and Arab Americans in Dearborn for a Ramadan dinner. Panetta and Locke said in their talks that Muslims and Arab Americans are vital parts of the United States. Other visits were made to Dearborn in recent months by the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Agriculture.

The outreach to Dearborn is part of an effort by Obama that he laid out in a speech he gave to Muslims in June in Cairo, Egypt, in which he called for a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims.”

The Commerce Department cited that speech in explaining why Locke visited Dearborn this week.

“Obama has made a point to reach out to the Muslim world,” said Tarek Baydoun, 25, of Dearborn, who attended Locke’s speech. “He’s expressed the view that Muslim-American relations are paramount to global security and peace. That was sorely missed under the Bush administration… It serves America to have someone so in touch with the faith of over a billion people around the world.”

Kareem Shora, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which has a chapter based in Dearborn, said in a release that: “Today’s award is indicative of President Obama’s moral leadership as a global voice for human rights. ADC and the Arab-American community stand with all Americans in appreciation of this historic award.”

“The outreach to the Muslim world was long warranted,” said Victor Begg, who attended the Dearborn dinner with Panetta and heads the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan. “Changing the tone was very important.”

Richard Nodel, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metro Detroit, said in a statement today:

“We were pleased to hear the president say, in response to his winning the Peace Prize, that he has an ‘unwavering commitment… to the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.’ ”

Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press