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October 12, 2009 By Farrah Hamid Yes he can...but yes he did? Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win was a shocker on Friday, sending the world in a tailspin over whether the popular president deserved such prestigious recognition on the merits of hope and inspiration. The Nobel committee particularly cited Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world as one of the main accomplishments deserving of the prize. “One of the first things he did was to go to Cairo to try to reach out to the Muslim world, then to restart the Mideast negotiations and then he reached out to the rest of the world through international institutions,” said Thorbjorn Jagland, head of the committee, in Oslo. So what are Muslims saying about the news? Read our round-up below: From Al-Jazeera: Al-Jazeera posted the above image, stating: “But after less than a year in office does the US president deserve the award? Is the decision a clever political move by the Nobel committee? Will it help or hinder Obama’s presidency?” From Former Egyptian Foreign Minister and Arab League Secretary-General Esmet Abdel Meguid: “I want to say that we feel that Obama has achieved a lot for his country and for the world and he deserves what has been granted to him. It is a positive move that would lead to more understanding and relations between the United States and other countries, including Egypt. So, I feel that this is a good occasion to build on that for the future,” he said. From Paul Haidostian, president of Haigazian University in Lebanon: “I was initially surprised by the news, because I usually expect older people, with longer experience in the peace process, but I took President Obama’s winning of the prize as a promise for the future, as much as it is for his approach in the past. So, I guess it hits the right tone in that it is a promise that US policy in the Middle East and in the peace process, President Obama will try to do his best in the future,” said Haidostian. Jamal Khashoggi, editor of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Watan newspaper: “It is a good sign and it is very quick for a president to receive the Nobel Prize even though he didn’t finish a whole year in his term. But, his speech in Cairo was a very good blueprint for peace. He did not only address Israeli’s interests as American presidents usually do, he addressed also Palestinians concerns and rights. Not only Palestinians ... he even talked to Hamas. That was really good. I was there in Cairo and I was very much impressed. It is a very good step. I just hope that Hamas and others in the Palestinian camp will realize that.” From Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent for The Independent in England, as quoted in Pakistan’s Dawn: “And now President Barack Obama has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. After only eight months in office. Not bad. No wonder he said he was ‘humbled’ when told the news. He should have felt humiliated. But perhaps weakness becomes a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Shimon Peres won it, too, and he never won an Israeli election. Yasser Arafat won it. And look what happened to him. For the first time in history, the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded its peace prize to a man who has achieved nothing - in the faint hope that he will do something good in the future. That’s how bad things are. That’s how explosive the Middle East has become.” From Ahmad Chalabi, whose false reports on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction influenced decision-making over the Iraq War: “He took the poison out of the U.S. relationship with the world, and especially the Muslim world.” From Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan: “We also have no doubt that, as part of this noble mission, you will draw world attention to the long- festering disputes that threaten world peace, including in our region. Fair and just solutions of these issues would usher in a new era of peace and amity. We, in Pakistan, will support you every step of the way. Please accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my highest consideration” From Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, to Reuters: “The Nobel prize for peace? Obama should have won ‘the Nobel Prize for escalating violence and killing civilians’.” From Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s aide: “We hope that this gives him the incentive to walk in the path of bringing justice to the world order”. http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/featured_articles_detail/obamas_nobel_peace_prize_muslims_react/