Some are sceptical and uneasy, but a lot of expectations are placed on this Cairo speech to the Muslim world on Thuraday.
Obama seeks new start with Muslim world
Obama seeks new start with Muslim world
3 hrs ago WASHINGTON (AFP) — President Barack Obama will journey to the center of Arab-Muslim civilization this week, to begin the daunting task of draining deep mistrust of the United States felt across the Islamic world.
In Egypt on Thursday, Obama will make a personal address to the world's Muslims, harnessing his own ancestral ties to Islam and globalizing his message of change in an speech rich in trademark political ambition. ...
Obama targeted reconciliation with Islam and rigorous Middle East diplomacy from his first moments in office.
"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," Obama said in his inaugural address in January. ...
..the highlight will be the speech at the University of Cairo, co-hosted by Al-Azhar University, an ancient hub of Islamic scholarship.
Obama may try to use the charismatic rhetoric which helped make him president as a balm for region-wide mistrust of the United States.
"I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," Obama said last week.
The speech will also be a promise kept -- way back in the presidential campaign Obama pledged to speak before a major Islamic forum.
In major speeches, Obama embroiders his exotic personal biography into a a political narrative -- as in his frank 2008 speech about race.
In Egypt Obama will reference the Islamic faith of some of his paternal family in Kenya, time spent in Indonesia as a young boy and contacts with Muslim communities in Illinois.
"The President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world," said foreign policy advisor Denis McDonough. ....
In Egypt on Thursday, Obama will make a personal address to the world's Muslims, harnessing his own ancestral ties to Islam and globalizing his message of change in an speech rich in trademark political ambition. ...
Obama targeted reconciliation with Islam and rigorous Middle East diplomacy from his first moments in office.
"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," Obama said in his inaugural address in January. ...
..the highlight will be the speech at the University of Cairo, co-hosted by Al-Azhar University, an ancient hub of Islamic scholarship.
Obama may try to use the charismatic rhetoric which helped make him president as a balm for region-wide mistrust of the United States.
"I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," Obama said last week.
The speech will also be a promise kept -- way back in the presidential campaign Obama pledged to speak before a major Islamic forum.
In major speeches, Obama embroiders his exotic personal biography into a a political narrative -- as in his frank 2008 speech about race.
In Egypt Obama will reference the Islamic faith of some of his paternal family in Kenya, time spent in Indonesia as a young boy and contacts with Muslim communities in Illinois.
"The President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world," said foreign policy advisor Denis McDonough. ....
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