Muslim Grand Strategy During the Obama Administration

by Dr. Robert D. Crane

The euphoria of accomplishing the impossible in an Obama victory eventually will wear off.  The time will soon come to take stock of what next.  Some pundits have compared the Obama campaign to a grayhound that finally catches the car or truck.  Now what?

Muslims are discussing how best to influence the transition team, now that Obama in his first major act as President-Elect has appointed Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff, who has dual Israeli citizenship, served in the Israeli military, and whose father was a member of the Israeli terrorist group, Irgun.

At the strictly tactical level, which rarely achieves much of anything, it would be harder for the transition team to ignore a letter from many Muslim organizations rather than from many Muslims writing as individuals.  Generally one has the most leverage in influencing policy during the transition, because by January 20th the policies of the next administration are set, as are also the key personnel to implement them.  Nevertheless, it is also beneficial to follow up with input on specific policies as they are announced because these interventions can be more targeted even though of less influence.

Another strategy is to let Obama make so many mistakes that a chastened Republican Party can critique both the NeoCon policies that brought down Bush and the NeoCon look-alikes that may bring down Obama too. 

This is indeed a grand strategy, but not a very good one.  It is based on the cynical assumption that the same foreign policies will continue under Obama but perhaps with greater sensitivity and effectiveness in carrying them out.  No change in the support of the Likudniks but more effort to co-opt the Palestinians.  No bombing of Iran but only because we will be bogged down in both Afghanistan and Iraq and in dealing with Pakistan as a failed state.  No military confrontation with Russia and China, but a major arms buildup just in case, which would rattle and alienate most of our allies around the world.  Continued starvation and mayhem in much of the developing world, aggravated by adverse side effects of globalization, including global warming.  No change at all in our support of tyrants, but more sweet talk about helping the marginalized and oppressed by promoting freedom and democracy.  A lot of talk about maintaining ecological balance during the search for more oil, but no real action.  Absolutely no trail blazing moves to address the causes of the wealth gap within and among nations.  Perhaps the greatest challenge will be a great upsurge in terrorism worldwide because of policies limited to tinkering with the premises and institutions of the present system without changing them. 

The cynics might admit that Obama will innovate in the field of domestic policy, such as dealing with entitlements, but even here he might resort to budget-busting policies that cannot be sustained.  He may do nothing to perfect the institutions of money and credit, except require more openness in maintaining a system that is hopelessly bankrupt in addressing the need to broaden ownership of wealth from the bottom up, which is the only solution to the entitlements dilemma.  Political freedom thus would continue to be mainly symbolic with the result that the same economic power wielders would continue to wield political power.

Another scenario is that the providential collapse of the Republican Party and impending mayhem within the Democratic Party may open up the way for third parties to address the opportunities to promote peace, prosperity, and freedom through compassionate justice in a paradigmatic tsunami to return America to the values and principles that gave rise to the Great American Experiment.  Such third-party optimism would be based on the fact that the election of an African-American to the presidency shows what can be done when our values are finally acknowledged and respected.  This, however, is nothing more than a necessary beginning.  Obama has great challenges and great opportunities.  These lesser cynics would pray that he can measure up to them, even though they fear that the new Democratic Administration will be more of the same dressed up a little differently.

A third scenario would call for those who were strongly pro-Obama during the election to work within both the Democratic and Republican parties in the hopes that perhaps Sarah Palin could dress the Republican Party the way she can dress a moose in Alaska.  This grand strategy would call for those traditionally Republican voters in the Muslim community to continue to work within the Republican Party in order to restore it to the moral leadership that it had under Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. This might take decades.  If both parties bomb out within the next decade or so, then a third party would be the only choice.

This third option in the choice among grand strategies calls for Muslims to enrich the American political process by working for reform and renaissance within both of the two major parties, as well as within third parties.  Introducing the classical Islamic wisdom, however, based on the normative jurisprudence of the maqasid al shari’ah, must overcome the temptation to focus narrowly on promoting Muslims and so-called Muslim issues.  The primary Muslim political objective in the policy process should be to help Americans develop enlightened domestic and foreign policies for the good of America and the world.  Our past focus on ourselves has caused us to be marginalized.  Eventually we will mature, God willing, but the challenge is to do this in less than a few more decades.