Monsieur le Président Obama

TO PRESIDENT OBAMA



Sunday, January 30, 2011http://www.accuracy.org/an-open-letter-to-president-barack-obama/


An Open Letter to President Barack Obama


January 30, 2010

Dear President Obama:

As political scientists, historians, and researchers in related fields who have studied the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, we the undersigned believe you have a chance to move beyond rhetoric to support the democratic movement sweeping over Egypt. As citizens, we expect our president to uphold those values.


For thirty years, our government has spent billions of dollars to help build and sustain the system the Egyptian people are now trying to dismantle. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Egypt and around the world have spoken. We believe their message is bold and clear: Mubarak should resign from office and allow Egyptians to establish a new government free of his and his family’s influence. It is also clear to us that if you seek, as you said Friday “political, social, and economic reforms that meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people,” your administration should publicly acknowledge those reforms will not be advanced by Mubarak or any of his adjutants.


There is another lesson from this crisis, a lesson not for the Egyptian government but for our own. In order for the United States to stand with the Egyptian people it must approach Egypt through a framework of shared values and hopes, not the prism of geostrategy. On Friday you rightly said that “suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.” For that reason we urge your administration to seize this chance, turn away from the policies that brought us here, and embark on a new course toward peace, democracy and prosperity for the people of the Middle East. And we call on you to undertake a comprehensive review of US foreign policy on the major grievances voiced by the democratic opposition in Egypt and all other societies of the region.


Sincerely,


Jason Brownlee, University of Texas at Austin



Joshua Stacher, Kent State University



Tamir Moustafa, Simon Fraser University



Arang Keshavarzian, New York University



Clement Henry, University of Texas at Austin



Robert Springborg, Naval Postgraduate School



Jillian Schwedler, University of Massachusetts at Amherst



Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology



Chris Toensing, Middle East Research and Information Project


Joel Beinin, Stanford University



Ellen Lust, Yale University



Tarek Massoud, Harvard University


Amaney Jamal, Princeton University


Helga Tawil-Souri, New York University



Anne Mariel Peters, Wesleyan College



Gregory White, Smith College



Asef Bayat, University of Illinois



Diane Singerman, American University



Cathy Lisa Schneider, American University



Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania



Ahmet T. Kuru San Diego State University



Toby Jones, Rutgers University



Lara Deeb, Scripps College



Michaelle Browers, Wake Forest University



Mark Gasiorowski, Louisiana State University



Samer Shehata, Georgetown University



Farideh Farhi, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa



Emad Shahin, University of Notre Dame



John P. Entelis, Fordham University



Tamara Sonn, College of William & Mary



Ali Mirsepassi, New York University



Kumru Toktamis, Pratt Institute



Rebecca C. Johnson, Northwestern University



Nader Hashemi, University of Denver



Carlene J. Edie, University of Massachusetts at Amherst



Laryssa Chomiak, University of Maryland



Mohamed Nimer, American University



Steven Heydemann, Georgetown University



Miriam Lowi, The College of New Jersey



Wendy Pearlman, Northwestern University



Hesham Sallam, Georgetown University



Melani Cammett, Brown University



Michael Robbins, University of Michigan



Katherine E. Hoffman, Northwestern University



Asli Bali, UCLA School of Law



Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University



Guilain Denoeux, Colby College



Tom Farer, University of Denver



Norma Claire Moruzzi, University of Illinois at Chicago



Saad Eddin Ibrahim, American University of Cairo & Drew University



Asma Barlas, Ithaca College



Ethel Brooks, Rutgers University



Maren Milligan, Oberlin College



Alan Gilbert, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver



Glenn Robinson, Naval Postgraduate School



Ahmed Ragab, Harvard University



Kenneth M. Cuno, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign



Agnieszka Paczynska, George Mason University



Zillah Eisenstein, Ithaca College



Quinn Mecham, Middlebury College



Riahi Hamida, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences Sousse Tunisia



Jeannie Sowers, University of New Hampshire



Hussein Banai, Brown University



Joel Gordon, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville



Ed Webb, Dickinson College



David Siddhartha Patel, Cornell University



Bassam Haddad, George Mason University


Thomas Pierret, Princeton University



Nadine Naber, University of Michigan



As`ad AbuKhalil, California State University at Stanislaus



Dina Al-Kassim, University of California at Irvine



Ziad Fahmy, Cornell University



William B. Quandt, University of Virginia



Lori A. Allen, University of Cambridge



Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, Notre Dame University Lebanon



Alfred G. Gerteiny, University of Connecticut (ret.)



Lucia Volk, San Francisco State University



Anne Marie Baylouny, Naval Postgraduate School



Ulrika Mårtensson, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology



Emma Deputy, University of Texas at Austin



Sherry Lowrance, University of Georgia



Kaveh Ehsani, DePaul University



Ebrahim Moosa, Duke University



Benjamin N. Schiff, Oberlin College



Jeff Goodwin, New York University



Margaret Scott, New York University (adjunct)



Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Syracuse University



Kevin M. DeJesus, York University, Toronto



Courtney C. Radsch, American University



Gamze Cavdar, Colorado State University



John F. Robertson, Central Michigan University


Amir Niknejad, College of Mount Saint Vincent


Mehdi Noorbaksh, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology


Anthony Tirado Chase, Occidental College


Russell E. Lucas, Florida International University


Ariel Saizmann, Queen’s University


Patrick Kane, Clatsop Community College


Behrooz Moazami, Loyola University New Orleans


Anthony Shenoda, Scripps College


Mark Allen Peterson, Miami University


Amel Ahmed, University of Massachusetts-Amherst


Ilana Feldman, George Washington University


Marwan M. Kraidy, University of Pennsylvania


Mohamad Daadaoui, Oklahoma City University


Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University


Nathalie Peutz, New York University Abu Dhabi


Kamran Rastegar, Tufts University


Najib Ghadbian, University of Arkansas


Mojtaba Mahdavi, University of Alberta, Canada


Stefanie Nanes, Hofstra University


Rochelle Davis, Georgetown University


Zeinab Abul-Magd, Oberlin College


Stephen Zunes, University of San Francisco


Andrea Teti, University of Aberdeen


Denise M. Walsh, University of Virginia


Frances S. Hasso, Duke University


Waad El Hadidy, New York University


Elliot Colla, Georgetown University


Monika Halkort, Queen’s University


Sonia Alvarez, University of Massachusetts, Amherst


Christa Salamandra, City University of New York


Shirin Saeidi, Cambridge University


Shiera Malik, DePaul University


Steve Tamari, Southern Illinois University


Sean Yom, Temple University


Ali Banuazizi, Boston College


Sinan Antoon, New York University


Moustafa Bayoumi, City University of New York


Jennifer Derr, Bard College


Mirjam Künkler, Princeton University Wilson


Jacob, Concordia University, Montreal


Alan Mikhail, Yale University


Narges Erami, Yale University


Gwenn Okruhlik, Trinity University


Pete Moore, Case Western Reserve University


Max Weiss, Princeton University


Margaret Susan Thompson, Syracuse University


Sarah Shields, University of North Carolina


Sonia Alcarez, University of Massachusetts Amherst


Roberto Alejandro, University of Massachusetts Amherst


Manal Jamal, James Madison University


Justin Stearns, New York University at Abu Dhabi


Nicholas Xenos, University of Massachusetts Amherst


Rebecca Hopkins, University of Texas Austin


John Calvert, Creighton University


Nir Rosen, New York University


Ian Lustik, University of Pennsylvania


Steve Niva, The Evergreen State University


Michael C. Hudson, Georgetown University and National University of Singapore


Shane Minkin, Swarthmore College


Feisal Mohamed, University of Illinois


Ahmed Kamel Khattab, Free University Berlin


Benjamin Simuin, University of Utah


Stephen Engelmann, University of Illinois at Chicago


Stacy Fahrenthold, Northeastern University


Sondra Hale, UCLA


Nicole Watts, San Francisco State University


Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Hobart and William Smith Colleges


Alan Fisher, Michigan State University


Laurie King-Irani, Georgetown University


Gary Fields, UC San Diego


Curtis Ryan, Appalachian State University


Keelu Fahoum, Naval Postgraduate School


Steven Brooke, University of Texas Austin


Andrew Fibbert, Trinity College


Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas


John Womack Jr. Harvard University


Sayed Eisisi, University of Maryland


Louis Cristillo, Columbia University


David Waldner, University of Virginia


John Measor, St. Mary’s University










Institutional affiliations are listed for identification purposes only. Views reflected in this letter are those of the individual signatories.