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5 - Barack Hussein Obama and young Muslims' political awareness

Nahid Afrose Kabir
Nahid Afrose Kabir
Affiliation:
International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia
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Summary

Oh, in the symbolic sense, absolutely, it is a big change to have a black president. I think there's a change of attitude more than there's a change of policy. And, above all the other promises that he made, I think – the promise that he's uniting a country, and to a further extent uniting the global community, I think he's really held true to that promise more than all the other promises that he's made. I think he's had outreach into the Muslim community a few times so far. First in Turkey, then in Cairo, in a more political way to the Islamic Republic of Iran, so his outreach efforts definitely helps … Well, US foreign policy doesn't change as drastically as we would like.

(Faisal, male, 20, US born, Uzbek origin, interviewed in Massachusetts, November 2009)

Faisal identified himself as American Muslim and his opinions suggest that President Obama's election in 2008 was a ‘big change in the symbolic sense’. Arguably, Faisal connected with the American half of his identity when he cited Obama's success in uniting the country, and then he linked the Muslim side of his identity with Obama's efforts to reach the Muslim world. In his interview Faisal also said that he was actively involved in Obama's campaign and that he ‘was a fervent supporter of Obama’. Yet, despite his optimism, Faisal was sceptical of US foreign policy when he observed that it could not be radically changed.

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Young American Muslims
Dynamics of Identity
 , pp. 148 - 177
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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