VZCZCXRO9301
PP RUEHRG
DE RUEHSO #0421/01 1971630
ZNY EEEEE ZZH
P 161630Z JUL 09
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9401
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 3842
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0548
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 3593
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 0808
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ PRIORITY 4133
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 2941
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 2840
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE PRIORITY 4400
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 9201
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS E F T O SECTION 01 OF 03 SAO PAULO 000421 
 
SENSITIVE NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, 
NSC FOR ROSSELLO 
SP FOR JARED COHEN 
R FOR KATIE DOWD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/13/2019 
TAGS: BR KPAO PGOV PREL PTER
SUBJECT: AFTER CAIRO: PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH ECHOES IN 
SAO PAULO AMONG MUSLIMS/NON-MUSLIMS 
 
REF: A. STATE 71325 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 709 
     ¶C. SAO PAULO 310 
     ¶D. SAO PAULO 542 (08) 
 
Classified By: Consul A/CG William Popp; Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
Summary: 
 
¶1.  (SBU) President Obama's June 4 address to the world's 
Muslim population has echoed favorably in both Sao Paulo's 
Muslim and non-Muslim communities, producing distinct 
reactions within key groups.  Moderate Sunni Muslims, many of 
them eager to work with the U.S., were euphoric, as reported 
Ref B.  Harder line Sunnis praised the speech, albeit in 
guarded terms, though they have proved open to engagement. 
Non-Muslim Brazilian foreign policy experts and editorialists 
also reacted favorably.  This cable examines the reactions of 
each group with an eye toward finding general opportunities 
to further our relations with Sao Paulo's varied and growing 
Muslim community and with non-Muslim Brazilians interested in 
Middle Eastern/foreign policy issues.   (Note: This cable was 
prepared before Ref A, State 71325, to which Post will 
respond septel.  End Note.)  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Sao Paulo hosts Brazil's largest Muslim 
communities.  The vast majority are Sunnis of Lebanese 
descent.  Politically, they range from U.S.-friendly to those 
highly critical of both the U.S. and Israel.  Generally, the 
more strictly religious Muslims embrace a more critical 
orientation of U.S. policy and of Israel.  Frequently, the 
Sheik's most interested in meeting with us have less 
influence in the Muslim community.  In preparing this cable, 
a range of Arab and Muslim interlocutors were consulted, 
including: Sheik Armando Hussein Saleh (moderate, 
Brazil-born, frequently tapped by the GOB to represent 
Muslims); Mohammed Hussein El-Zoghbi (Lebanese-descended, 
moderate); Sheik Suheil Yamout (Lebanese-born, Moderate, head 
of the Future Movement); Helmi Nasr (Egyptian born, 
translator of Koran into Portuguese); Sheik Mohammed 
Al-Boustani (Lebanese, moderate); Sheik Ahmad Ali Saifi 
(critical of the U.S., head of the Brazil chapter of the 
Islamic Dissemination Center for Latin America); Sheik Jihad 
Hammadeh (critic of U.S. policy, works with Ali Saifi, Vice 
President of the World Association of Muslim Youth (WAMY)); 
Lebanon Consul General Joseph Sayah (Maronite Christian, 
moderate) as well as a range of non-Muslim Brazil foreign 
policy-oriented academics and experts. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Following the President's June 4 address, Post 
e-mailed copies of the speech in Portuguese and in Arabic 
under a cover letter from the CG to Muslim/Middle Eastern 
contacts.  We believe that sending the Arabic copy was an 
important gesture that helped to produce solid responses.  In 
fact, according to Sheik Jihad Hammadeh, many Sheiks in 
Brazil do not have good Portuguese language skills.  These 
tend to be contacts with the strongest critical orientations 
toward U.S. policy. 
 
"Relief" Among the Moderates 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Muslim friends of the U.S. were delighted to see a 
U.S. President speak with both respect and personal knowledge 
of Islam.  Lebanon CG Joseph Sayah singled out President 
Obama's ability to give a heartfelt address as a key strong 
point of his presentation.  The moderates' comments indicated 
that the President's speech had given them more room to 
cooperate with the United States.  Praise came with warnings, 
however.  Moderate Sheik Saleh cautioned that the U.S. had to 
follow up the President's remarks with actions.  There will 
always be radicals who are impossible to win over, he warned, 
and they will seize the initiative if there are no results. 
 
The More Distant and Critical: Obliged to Engage... 
 
SAO PAULO 00000421  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Sheiks Ahmad Ali Saifi and Jihad Hammadeh, who 
represent a Muslim fundamentalist view, were less 
enthusiastic about the speech.  Hammadeh responded with an 
editorial published in Sao Paulo daily Folha that welcomed 
President Obama's conciliatory tone but warned that the 
"euphoria" the speech had provoked in the Middle East had to 
be balanced with a "dose of doubt."  Hammadeh asked what 
actions would follow the President's encouraging words and he 
accused the U.S. Government of aiding entities that promote 
Islamophobia in the wake of the September 11 attacks. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Sheik Ali Saifi responded with a detailed 
three-page fax to the CG that praised President Obama for his 
learned references to Islam, his ability to cite the Koran, 
the choice of venue (Egypt), its attempt to isolate Al Qaeda, 
and the President's refusal to use the word "terrorism."  At 
the same time, Ali Saifi questioned President Obama's 
description of the U.S.-Israel alliance as "unbreakable" and 
asserted that the President had omitted key points, including 
" the suffering of the Palestinians, the massacre of 
innocents, Israel's use of prohibited American munitions, 
and...new Israel settlements."  Saifi also criticized 
President Obama for not apologizing for "the massacre of 
innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan." 
 
New Openings and Areas for Engagement 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Although Poloff had sought a meeting with Sheik 
Hammadeh for months, the Cairo Speech broke the ice, with 
Hammadeh agreeing to get together on 6/30.  This coincided 
with the visits of Jared Cohen (SP) and Katie Dowd (R), whom 
the Sheik also received.  (Note: Cohen had previously met 
with Hammadeh, Ref D.  End Note.)  The Sheik welcomed the 
meeting, but echoed Saleh's concerns that the President's 
speech had to be followed by decisive actions.  Cohen argued 
convincingly that both the Department and Brazil's Muslims 
needed to focus on micro-projects that could build our 
relations even as other, larger actors worked on the big 
questions in the Middle East, like a Palestinian state. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Participants discussed three possible projects: a 
Consular Section "Open House" for Muslim contacts to 
understand the visa process; an Obama biographical 
presentation to Islamic youth (Ref C); and cyber-forums to 
enhance contact between Brazil's Muslims and U.S. Muslims. 
Hammadeh responded favorably all three initiatives, though he 
clearly sought to channel all possible contacts through 
established leaders in his Muslim community (the Obama 
presentation would be for Sheiks not youth and Sheiks would 
use the cyber-fora to establish links with U.S. Muslims). 
Post will elaborate these ideas in greater detail septel. 
 
Non-Muslim Academic and Editorial Opinion 
 
¶9.  (U) Brazil prides itself on its tolerance and promotes 
mixing, both racial and cultural, as a national virtue.  As 
such, academics and editorialists welcomed the President's 
speech as a genuinely new opening.  Former U.S. Ambassador 
Rubens Barbosa called the Cairo Address "brilliant," stating 
how pleasant and surprising it was to see a U.S. President 
quote the Koran.  Cairo-based Brazilian journalist Gustavo 
Chacra characterized the speech as a "Martin Luther King 
moment" for U.S.-Muslim relations.  Major daily "O Estado" 
editoralist Demetrio Magnoli praised the President for 
abandoning the "Manichean" approaches of the past.  He 
predicted that President Obama's address would win back 
much-needed credibility for the U.S. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Comment: Many of the contacts who most praised the 
speech are those who have historically sought contact with 
the U.S.  Frequently, their standing in the Muslim community 
is in inverse proportion to their pro-U.S. leanings.  Sheik 
Saleh, for example, told Poloff that more extreme Muslims 
 
SAO PAULO 00000421  003 OF 003 
 
 
shun him for his work with the GOB and his contacts with the 
U.S.  Sheik Boustani works hard on symbolic activities 
dedicated to reconciliation.  He teaches an interfaith course 
at a local high end bookstore with a Rabbi and a Catholic 
priest and is an enthusiastic participant in The Abraham Path 
project.  Regrettably, despite his good works, Boustani's 
influence in the Muslim community reportedly could be 
stronger.  Moderates also sometimes criticized Consulate 
engagement with more extreme elements, like Sheik Hammadeh 
(below), saying that our meeting them gives the hard-liners 
greater legitimacy.  End Comment. 
 
Comment: Coordinating the Currents 
 
¶11.  (SBU) The President's speech opens up opportunities for 
engagement.  The challenge will be to try to bolster the 
moderates while not remaining limited to them in our 
contacts.  One key to the good responses we received was our 
sending out the President's speech to contacts under a cover 
from the CG in both Portuguese and Arabic.  This gesture went 
a long way toward producing the lengthy, albeit somewhat 
critical, responses we received.  The proposal for a 
Consulate Open House also shows promise, since visas are a 
key area of anxiety for the Muslim community.  Finally, the 
overwhelmingly positive response of non-Muslim Brazilians 
suggest that our engagement cannot just be bilateral (U.S. 
and local Muslims), but should be, at least in part, 
three-way, including non-Muslim Brazilians, whose welcoming 
attitude toward the President's new approach could help 
create a positive context for outreach.  Post will discuss 
its contact-developing strategies in further detail septel. 
POPP