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  • Obama's Cairo Speech to the Muslim World

    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
    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. ....

  • #2
    This open message appears in Arab News.

    A message to President Barack Obama
    1 June [ArabNews] President Barack Obama will set out on a tour to Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Wednesday. According to political sources President Obama will make a speech at the Cairo University aiming at strengthening the US ties to the Muslim word.

    It is hoped that the president would spell out the US policy toward Islam and Muslims with a sincere wish to bridge the widening gap between the Muslim world and the American people particularly exacerbated by his predecessor at the White House. ....

    On the eve of his journey with this mission I would like to tell him that all Muslim nations without exception have extremely been pained by the foreign policy of the previous US administration toward the Muslim world. ....

    I only demand that the new president should repair some of the damages done to the Muslim world by the previous administration including the disintegration of Somalia, efforts to divide Sudan and the occupation of Iraq and indiscriminate killing of its population and destruction of its resources besides sowing seeds of dissention amidst its various ethnic and religious groups. The US should also take a stand toward Iran that would keep down tensions in the Gulf region and it should not refuse to settle the issues peacefully. ...

    .. The president should make a special study why the situation in the Arab region is worsening.

    The issues are, apparently, tough but could be solved only if US abandons its practice of adopting double standards in its approach to issues in the Middle East. The US practice has, undoubtedly, engendered a lot of hatred not only in the Muslim and Arab world but also in the whole world. ...

    Comment


    • #3
      Saudi Arabia, eh...?

      I wonder if he will bow to the king again.

      Maybe he will trip and accidentally fall on his knees.
      "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

      Comment


      • #4
        Even before Obama delivers this speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, the news media, both western, and arab/muslim, are already full of comments about what to expect and to advice concerning the contents of the speech, and the implications. Here is another one, from Reuters.

        Obama to address tough issues in speech to Muslims
        2 Jun WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will try to repair U.S. ties to the Islamic world this week in a speech from the Middle East that aides say will reach out to Muslims but deal with tough issues like the peace process and violent extremism.

        Obama, who departs for the region on Tuesday, will use his address to try to repair some of the damage to America's image caused by the Iraq war, U.S. treatment of military detainees and the lack of progress in Mideast peace talks.

        Asked on Monday if the continuing U.S. conflict in Afghanistan would undermine his effort to engage the Islamic world, Obama said the United States had no territorial ambitions in Afghanistan and only wanted to prevent al Qaeda from launching another Sept. 11-style attack.

        "What we want is simply that people aren't hanging out in Afghanistan who are plotting to bomb the United States," Obama told National Public Radio. "That's a fairly modest goal that other Muslim countries should be able to understand."

        The success of the U.S. leader's diplomatic initiatives in the region -- like advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and halting Iran's nuclear program -- may depend on how well Obama, whose father was a Muslim and who lived in Indonesia as a boy, is able to improve U.S.-Islamic ties. ...

        Comment


        • #5
          Obama speech in Cairo

          What important in every politic's speech?or what message for more one billion of muslims through the world?. First of all,the speech must be important when the action or realisation for least 30% of speech.And,for this exemple,Obama,must said "state of Palestine" and give a few points how realise this state in a few time ;for exemple embassy,...or to set some juridicals points .Ok,the politic is the first,but here,the jew people is not able to have the leaders politics as General DE Gaulle in France with Algeria in 1962. Then ,Obama must force in his speech ,in Cairo,the application for an establishment within his borders , a State of Palestine. And second ,Obama must delimit a state of jews and,third dismantlement nuclear weapon jew and ...nothing make demands on arabs regimes and finally ,don't link or tie this application for a palestinian state and nuclear iranian. After,the message for the muslim world keep attention and have echo on the behaviors and give other glance from the wworld muslim about united states administration.RE08H17GMT

          Comment


          • #6
            This news is noteworthy. Both Osama bin Ladan and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top two leaders of al Qaeda, are reacting before this Cairo speech by releasing their tapes one day apart.

            Double blast against Obama shows strain on Qaeda
            LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - A double blast from al Qaeda against Barack Obama shows the group is as worried as ever by the persuasive skills of the U.S. president, who makes a speech to Muslims on Thursday.

            Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in an audio recording aired on Wednesday by Al Jazeera television, said Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" towards the United States in the Muslim world and he warned Americans to prepare for the consequences.

            A day earlier, the militant network's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Egyptians not to be seduced by Obama's 'polished words' when he makes a major address in Cairo seeking to repair ties with the Muslim world.

            For some, al Qaeda's concerted attempt to upstage Obama is a propaganda own goal that shows its normally media-savvy operatives in disarray following the departure of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush. They found Bush easy to stereotype as a belligerent, Muslim-hating cowboy.

            "Zawahri is right to be worried," said Edwin Bakker, a senior research fellow at the Dutch Clingendael Institute in the Hague.

            "Al Qaeda partly lives on anti-Americanism and the 'war on terror'. Now Bush has gone and been replaced by a guy who's second name is Hussein. And they fear his speech really is going to have a positive effect." ....

            Comment


            • #7
              Osama bin Laden.
              Ayman al-Zawahri.

              Can you imagine a bigger disgrace to the muslim religion.:P

              Keep hiding cowards, time heals all wounds including ours but its not going to heal the ones your going to recieve once you step out in the open.:))
              Last edited by Dreadnought; 03 Jun 09,, 17:31.
              Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

              Comment


              • #8
                It is good to make use of the Web. How about translation?

                Obama aides have Web plan for speech in Cairo
                3 Jun [Bloomberg] WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to distribute the president's Thursday speech across the Internet to make sure it has the widest distribution possible, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

                To reach a worldwide audience, President Obama's aides are looking beyond television and newspaper coverage.

                "The Internet team here is working with a host of others to get this information to as many platforms as humanly possible so that people will get a chance all over the world to see what the president has to say," Gibbs said.

                Still, he said, the president doesn't expect the speech will be a breakthrough moment for the U.S. relationship with Muslims.

                "We don't expect that everything will change after one speech," Gibbs said. "It will take a sustained effort, and that's what the president's in for." ....
                Last edited by Merlin; 03 Jun 09,, 23:56.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Future presidents should take note of how the Obama team utilizes the web, both during the campaign and in office. Bush was a horrible communicator and his aides didn't help much.
                  "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Obama's speech to the Muslim world has now been delivered in Cairo. Let's see the reaction from the press in Muslim countries. First, from Indonesia, the country with the world's largest population Muslim population.

                    Indonesia Muslims laud Obama's speech
                    4 Jun [JakartaPost] JAKARTA Indonesian Muslims lauded President Barack Obama’s speech delivered to Islamic world in Cairo as "impressive" and "high quality". But they said the substance of the one-hour speech was "hardly new".

                    "People are waiting for him to bring a new perspective on the issue of Palestine," Muslim scholar Abdillah Toha told a seminar held by the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations.

                    He said Obama failed in his speech to bring forth a "breakthrough" approach to settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, deemed by many as the mother of all conflicts and one of the main issues undermining US-Muslim relations for decades.

                    Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsudin praised Obama's eloquence even when he quoted verses from the Koran. "Now we'd like to see the realization of his speech," he said.

                    Muhammadiyah is the second largest Muslim orghanization in Indonesia.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      This online news report on the speech is from rich Dubai AlArabiya.net. This is just reporting the speech with nearly no comments.

                      Obama cites Quran to reach Muslims from Egypt
                      4 Jun American President Barack Hussein Obama addressed the Muslim world from a tightly secured Egyptian capital where he quoted from Islam's Holy Book and stressed the United States was not in competition with Islam in a bid to heal the rift that has developed between the two.

                      Obama was in Cairo following a brief stop in Saudi Arabia, where he held talks with King Abdullah, and arrived at Cairo University to give a landmark speech that was a fulfillment of his inaugural speech to reach out to Muslims. ...

                      "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition," Obama told the packed university hall.

                      Before continuing Obama bid the room "assalaamu alaykum," or peace be upon you, to the delight of the crowd, which cheered and applauded.

                      Obama addressed several issues from women's rights to economic development but not before he talked about his personal links with Islam and the role of Islam in American history and stressed that America was not at war with Islam.

                      "Islam is a part of America," he said as he called on Muslims to help the United States fight extremism because "we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan" but we need to be confident that there were no more violent extremists determined to kill Americans.

                      The president said that he would felt it his duty to negate the negative stereotype of Islam in the West and said just as "Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire." ...
                      Last edited by Merlin; 04 Jun 09,, 16:48.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        what next step for Obama ,about World Muslims

                        Obama speech ,today,in Cairo,is a push in good direction ,we hope the realization of settlement in due time,palestinian state . Because ,in an other hand, more 80% arabs problems,or musulmans problems comes ,justly,of this issue. Then ,palestinian state is important for moment and Obama in his right to express this idea in high voice. But now ,where are the acts, because it is important in diplomacy the acts follow up the speech,for exemple, give to muslim world at least one of concret acts ,delimit israeli state ,one step down from nucleare weapon jew...then jew people in Israel,must understand that, them endeavor ,if really to seek one foyer ,near arabs and muslims countries, must be realist. And as Obama said ,in his speech today, «*it is in interst of jew state*».But,exist one dark point ,whether exist a condition for this project,for exemple ,nuclear weapon of Iran ,destruction or accept the real . Now ,it is important to beguin the world «*denuclearisation*».RE15H26GMT

                        Open to:*All, detailed results viewable to:*All
                        settlement palestinian state ,today after Obama speech in Cairo,is it possible ?
                        *Yes at 100%
                        *Yes between 80% and 100%
                        *Yes between 60% and 80%
                        *No at 100%
                        No between 80% and 100%
                        *No between 60% and 80%
                        *at 50%
                        *neutral
                        *don't express

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          This is more significant, comments by the Arab League chief.

                          Obama Speech Balanced, Good For Relations - Arab League Chief
                          4 Jun [Nasdag] CAIRO (AFP)--Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Thursday that a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama reaching out to Muslims was "balanced" and paved the way for good relations.

                          "I feel that the speech was balanced and offered a new vision of rapprochement regarding relations with Islamic states," Moussa told reporters.

                          Obama earlier had delivered a keynote speech at Cairo University in which he reiterated his support for a sovereign Palestinian state, and called for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to stop.

                          The speech showed that the U.S. "will deal with the region's issues with a sense of balance, this includes the Palestinian question, the end to Israeli settlements, Palestinian rights which must be respected," Moussa said.

                          He said Obama had "reflected the reality on the ground" when mentioning both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as part of the Palestinian people.

                          In the speech Obama vowed that the U.S. would not turn its back on the " legitimate" Palestinian aspiration for a state, saying two states are the "only resolution." ...
                          This below is excerpted from Wikipedia's entry on Arab League.
                          The Arab League ... is a regional organization of Arab states in Southwest Asia, and North and Northeast Africa. ... The Arab League currently has 22 members. ... It has served as a forum for the member states to coordinate their policy positions, to deliberate on matters of common concern, to settle some Arab disputes, and to limit conflicts such as the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

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                          • #14
                            So far it seems like this is one big ho-hum.

                            Conservatives at home already knew his routine.

                            His target audience doesn't seem to be that impressed, with the same complaint of "lots of words but no substance" as the conservatives at home have.

                            The only people who seem to be impressed are the liberal socialist Obamanation at home.

                            Who knows, maybe this entire trip is a show for his constituents here at home instead of the advertised audience.
                            "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              rachidelaidi, I have merged your threads with the existing one
                              In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                              Leibniz

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