> By: DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEVEN ERLANGER
> CAIRO — On the eve of his first trip to the United States as Egypt’s new
> Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi said the United States needed to
> fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater
> respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it
> hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.
>
> A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s first
> democratically elected president, Mr. Morsi sought in a 90-minute
> interview with The New York Times to introduce himself to the American
> public and to revise the terms of relations between his country and the
> United States after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, an autocratic but
> reliable ally.
>
> He said it was up to Washington to repair relations with the Arab world
> and to revitalize the alliance with Egypt, long a cornerstone of
> regional stability.
>
> If Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, he said,
> Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to
> Palestinian self-rule. He said the United States must respect the Arab
> world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.
>
> And he dismissed criticism from the White House that he did not move
> fast enough to condemn protesters who recently climbed over the United
> States Embassy wall and burned the American flag in anger over a video
> that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
>
> “We took our time” in responding to avoid an explosive backlash, he
> said, but then dealt “decisively” with the small, violent element among
> the demonstrators.
>
> “We can never condone this kind of violence, but we need to deal with
> the situation wisely,” he said, noting that the embassy employees were
> never in danger.
>
> Mr. Morsi, who will travel to New York on Sunday for a meeting of the
> United Nations General Assembly, arrives at a delicate moment. He faces
> political pressure at home to prove his independence, but demands from
> the West for reassurance that Egypt under Islamist rule will remain a
> stable partner.
>
> Mr. Morsi, 61, whose office was still adorned with nautical paintings
> that Mr. Mubarak left behind, said the United States should not expect
> Egypt to live by its rules.
>
> “If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the
> standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no
> room for judgment,” he said. “When the Egyptians decide something,
> probably it is not appropriate for the U.S. When the Americans decide
> something, this, of course, is not appropriate for Egypt.”
>
> He suggested that Egypt would not be hostile to the West, but would not
> be as compliant as Mr. Mubarak either.
>
> “Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American
> taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the
> region,” he said, by backing dictatorial governments over popular
> opposition and supporting Israel over the Palestinians.
>
> He initially sought to meet with President Obama at the White House
> during his visit this week, but he received a cool reception, aides to
> both presidents said. Mindful of the complicated election-year politics
> of a visit with Egypt’s Islamist leader, Mr. Morsi dropped his request.
>
> His silence in the immediate aftermath of the embassy protest elicited a
> tense telephone call from Mr. Obama, who also told a television
> interviewer that at that moment he did not consider Egypt an ally, if
> not an enemy either. When asked if he considered the United States an
> ally, Mr. Morsi answered in English, “That depends on your definition of
> ally,” smiling at his deliberate echo of Mr. Obama. But he said he
> envisioned the two nations as “real friends.”
>
> Mr. Morsi spoke in an ornate palace that Mr. Mubarak inaugurated three
> decades ago, a world away from the Nile Delta farm where the new
> president grew up, or the prison cells where he had been confined by Mr.
> Mubarak for his role in the Brotherhood. Three months after his
> swearing-in, the most noticeable change to the presidential office was a
> plaque on his desk bearing the Koranic admonition, “Be conscious of a
> day on which you will return to God.”
>
> A stocky figure with a trim beard and wire-rim glasses, he earned a
> doctorate in materials science at the University of Southern California
> in the early 1980s. He spoke with an easy confidence in his new
> authority, reveling in an approval rating he said was at 70 percent.
> When he grew animated, he slipped from Arabic into crisp English.
>
> Little known at home or abroad until just a few months ago, he was the
> Brotherhood’s second choice as a presidential nominee after the first
> choice was disqualified. On the night of the election, the generals who
> had ruled since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster issued a decree keeping most
> presidential powers for themselves.
>
> But last month Mr. Morsi confounded all expectations by prying full
> executive authority back from the generals. In the interview, when an
> interpreter suggested that the generals had “decided” to exit politics,
> Mr. Morsi quickly corrected him.
>
> “No, no, it is not that they ‘decided’ to do it,” he interjected in
> English, determined to clarify that it was he who removed them. “This is
> the will of the Egyptian people through the elected president, right?
>
> “The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the commander of the
> armed forces, full stop. Egypt now is a real civil state. It is not
> theocratic, it is not military. It is democratic, free, constitutional,
> lawful and modern.”
>
> He added, “We are behaving according to the Egyptian people’s choice and
> will, nothing else — is it clear?”
>
> He praised Mr. Obama for moving “decisively and quickly” to support the
> Arab Spring revolutions, and he said he believed that Americans
> supported “the right of the people of the region to enjoy the same
> freedoms that Americans have.”
>
> Arabs and Americans have “a shared objective, each to live free in their
> own land, according to their customs and values, in a fair and
> democratic fashion,” he said, adding that he hoped for “a harmonious,
> peaceful coexistence.”
>
> But he also argued that Americans “have a special responsibility” for
> the Palestinians because the United States had signed the 1978 Camp
> David accord. The agreement called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops
> from the West Bank and Gaza to make way for full Palestinian self-rule.
>
> “As long as peace and justice are not fulfilled for the Palestinians,
> then the treaty remains unfulfilled,” he said.
>
> He made no apologies for his roots in the Brotherhood, the insular
> religious revival group that was Mr. Mubarak’s main opposition and now
> dominates Egyptian politics.
>
> “I grew up with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “I learned my
> principles in the Muslim Brotherhood. I learned how to love my country
> with the Muslim Brotherhood. I learned politics with the Brotherhood. I
> was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
>
> He left the group when he took office but remains a member of its
> political party. But he said he sees “absolutely no conflict” between
> his loyalty to the Brotherhood and his vows to govern on behalf of all,
> including members of the Christian minority or those with more secular
> views.
>
> “I prove my independence by taking the correct acts for my country,” he
> said. “If I see something good from the Muslim Brotherhood, I will take
> it. If I see something better in the Wafd” — Egypt’s oldest liberal
> party — “I will take it.”
>
> He repeatedly vowed to uphold equal citizenship rights of all Egyptians,
> regardless of religion, sex or class. But he stood by the religious
> arguments he once made as a Brotherhood leader that neither a woman nor
> a Christian would be a suitable president.
>
> “We are talking about values, beliefs, cultures, history, reality,” he
> said. He said the Islamic position on presidential eligibility was a
> matter for Muslim scholars to decide, not him. But regardless of his own
> views or the Brotherhood’s, he said, civil law was another matter.
>
> “I will not prevent a woman from being nominated as a candidate for the
> presidential campaign,” he said. “This is not in the Constitution. This
> is not in the law. But if you want to ask me if I will vote for her or
> not, that is something else, that is different.”
>
> He was also eager to reminisce about his taste of American culture as a
> graduate student at the University of Southern California. “Go,
> Trojans!” he said, and he remembered learning about the world from
> Barbara Walters in the morning and Walter Cronkite at night. “And that’s
> the way it is!” Mr. Morsi said with a smile.
>
> But he also displayed some ambivalence. He effused about his admiration
> for American work habits, punctuality and time management. But when an
> interpreter said that Mr. Morsi had “learned a lot” in the United
> States, he quickly interjected a qualifier in English: “Scientifically!”
>
> He was troubled by the gangs and street of violence of Los Angeles, he
> said, and dismayed by the West’s looser sexual mores, mentioning couples
> living together out of wedlock and what he called “naked restaurants,”
> like Hooters.
>
> “I don’t admire that,” he said. “But that is the society. They are
> living their way.”
>
> fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater
> respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it
> hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.
>
> A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s first
> democratically elected president, Mr. Morsi sought in a 90-minute
> interview with The New York Times to introduce himself to the American
> public and to revise the terms of relations between his country and the
> United States after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, an autocratic but
> reliable ally.
>
> He said it was up to Washington to repair relations with the Arab world
> and to revitalize the alliance with Egypt, long a cornerstone of
> regional stability.
>
> If Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, he said,
> Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to
> Palestinian self-rule. He said the United States must respect the Arab
> world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.
>
> And he dismissed criticism from the White House that he did not move
> fast enough to condemn protesters who recently climbed over the United
> States Embassy wall and burned the American flag in anger over a video
> that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
>
> “We took our time” in responding to avoid an explosive backlash, he
> said, but then dealt “decisively” with the small, violent element among
> the demonstrators.
>
> “We can never condone this kind of violence, but we need to deal with
> the situation wisely,” he said, noting that the embassy employees were
> never in danger.
>
> Mr. Morsi, who will travel to New York on Sunday for a meeting of the
> United Nations General Assembly, arrives at a delicate moment. He faces
> political pressure at home to prove his independence, but demands from
> the West for reassurance that Egypt under Islamist rule will remain a
> stable partner.
>
> Mr. Morsi, 61, whose office was still adorned with nautical paintings
> that Mr. Mubarak left behind, said the United States should not expect
> Egypt to live by its rules.
>
> “If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the
> standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no
> room for judgment,” he said. “When the Egyptians decide something,
> probably it is not appropriate for the U.S. When the Americans decide
> something, this, of course, is not appropriate for Egypt.”
>
> He suggested that Egypt would not be hostile to the West, but would not
> be as compliant as Mr. Mubarak either.
>
> “Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American
> taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the
> region,” he said, by backing dictatorial governments over popular
> opposition and supporting Israel over the Palestinians.
>
> He initially sought to meet with President Obama at the White House
> during his visit this week, but he received a cool reception, aides to
> both presidents said. Mindful of the complicated election-year politics
> of a visit with Egypt’s Islamist leader, Mr. Morsi dropped his request.
>
> His silence in the immediate aftermath of the embassy protest elicited a
> tense telephone call from Mr. Obama, who also told a television
> interviewer that at that moment he did not consider Egypt an ally, if
> not an enemy either. When asked if he considered the United States an
> ally, Mr. Morsi answered in English, “That depends on your definition of
> ally,” smiling at his deliberate echo of Mr. Obama. But he said he
> envisioned the two nations as “real friends.”
>
> Mr. Morsi spoke in an ornate palace that Mr. Mubarak inaugurated three
> decades ago, a world away from the Nile Delta farm where the new
> president grew up, or the prison cells where he had been confined by Mr.
> Mubarak for his role in the Brotherhood. Three months after his
> swearing-in, the most noticeable change to the presidential office was a
> plaque on his desk bearing the Koranic admonition, “Be conscious of a
> day on which you will return to God.”
>
> A stocky figure with a trim beard and wire-rim glasses, he earned a
> doctorate in materials science at the University of Southern California
> in the early 1980s. He spoke with an easy confidence in his new
> authority, reveling in an approval rating he said was at 70 percent.
> When he grew animated, he slipped from Arabic into crisp English.
>
> Little known at home or abroad until just a few months ago, he was the
> Brotherhood’s second choice as a presidential nominee after the first
> choice was disqualified. On the night of the election, the generals who
> had ruled since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster issued a decree keeping most
> presidential powers for themselves.
>
> But last month Mr. Morsi confounded all expectations by prying full
> executive authority back from the generals. In the interview, when an
> interpreter suggested that the generals had “decided” to exit politics,
> Mr. Morsi quickly corrected him.
>
> “No, no, it is not that they ‘decided’ to do it,” he interjected in
> English, determined to clarify that it was he who removed them. “This is
> the will of the Egyptian people through the elected president, right?
>
> “The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the commander of the
> armed forces, full stop. Egypt now is a real civil state. It is not
> theocratic, it is not military. It is democratic, free, constitutional,
> lawful and modern.”
>
> He added, “We are behaving according to the Egyptian people’s choice and
> will, nothing else — is it clear?”
>
> He praised Mr. Obama for moving “decisively and quickly” to support the
> Arab Spring revolutions, and he said he believed that Americans
> supported “the right of the people of the region to enjoy the same
> freedoms that Americans have.”
>
> Arabs and Americans have “a shared objective, each to live free in their
> own land, according to their customs and values, in a fair and
> democratic fashion,” he said, adding that he hoped for “a harmonious,
> peaceful coexistence.”
>
> But he also argued that Americans “have a special responsibility” for
> the Palestinians because the United States had signed the 1978 Camp
> David accord. The agreement called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops
> from the West Bank and Gaza to make way for full Palestinian self-rule.
>
> “As long as peace and justice are not fulfilled for the Palestinians,
> then the treaty remains unfulfilled,” he said.
>
> He made no apologies for his roots in the Brotherhood, the insular
> religious revival group that was Mr. Mubarak’s main opposition and now
> dominates Egyptian politics.
>
> “I grew up with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “I learned my
> principles in the Muslim Brotherhood. I learned how to love my country
> with the Muslim Brotherhood. I learned politics with the Brotherhood. I
> was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
>
> He left the group when he took office but remains a member of its
> political party. But he said he sees “absolutely no conflict” between
> his loyalty to the Brotherhood and his vows to govern on behalf of all,
> including members of the Christian minority or those with more secular
> views.
>
> “I prove my independence by taking the correct acts for my country,” he
> said. “If I see something good from the Muslim Brotherhood, I will take
> it. If I see something better in the Wafd” — Egypt’s oldest liberal
> party — “I will take it.”
>
> He repeatedly vowed to uphold equal citizenship rights of all Egyptians,
> regardless of religion, sex or class. But he stood by the religious
> arguments he once made as a Brotherhood leader that neither a woman nor
> a Christian would be a suitable president.
>
> “We are talking about values, beliefs, cultures, history, reality,” he
> said. He said the Islamic position on presidential eligibility was a
> matter for Muslim scholars to decide, not him. But regardless of his own
> views or the Brotherhood’s, he said, civil law was another matter.
>
> “I will not prevent a woman from being nominated as a candidate for the
> presidential campaign,” he said. “This is not in the Constitution. This
> is not in the law. But if you want to ask me if I will vote for her or
> not, that is something else, that is different.”
>
> He was also eager to reminisce about his taste of American culture as a
> graduate student at the University of Southern California. “Go,
> Trojans!” he said, and he remembered learning about the world from
> Barbara Walters in the morning and Walter Cronkite at night. “And that’s
> the way it is!” Mr. Morsi said with a smile.
>
> But he also displayed some ambivalence. He effused about his admiration
> for American work habits, punctuality and time management. But when an
> interpreter said that Mr. Morsi had “learned a lot” in the United
> States, he quickly interjected a qualifier in English: “Scientifically!”
>
> He was troubled by the gangs and street of violence of Los Angeles, he
> said, and dismayed by the West’s looser sexual mores, mentioning couples
> living together out of wedlock and what he called “naked restaurants,”
> like Hooters.
>
> “I don’t admire that,” he said. “But that is the society. They are
> living their way.”
>
No comments:
Post a Comment