Speculations over what US President
Barack Hussein Obama has in store for the Muslim World is rife, in
the media as well as among the Muslim masses, as he prepares to
deliver his address to the Muslim World tomorrow on Thursday from
Cairo University in Egypt.
“Your
statements since the inauguration have raised the level of hope for
real change in our nation’s foreign and domestic policies,” Cairo
based website IslamOnline.net has quoted Nihad Awad, Executive
Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
America's largest Muslim advocacy group, as saying in a letter sent
to the US President ahead of his Thursday's speech.
“It is
imperative that your positive statements now be backed up with
concrete policy initiatives that will help move us all toward a more
peaceful and prosperous future", Awad told Obama in the letter.
Obama
is
scheduled to arrive in Egypt, home to Al-Azhar University on June 4
to address the US-Muslim relations, in his latest effort to repair
the strained US relations with the Muslim world. Before visiting Al-Azhar,
Barack Obama would deliver his long-promised speech to the Muslim
world from the prestigious Cairo University. Before that Obama would
be meeting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in Riyadh.
"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," US President
Barack Hussein Obama
had himself said last week after
meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington while
referring to his Thursday's speech.
On the
expected lines, the Palestinian issue, the main source of
anti-American feeling in the Muslim world, is on top in the list
that the Muslim World is eagerly waiting to see if the US President
has anything else than the previous regimes.
Lamenting
that for too long US has claimed to be champions of freedom and
democracy, while turning a blind eye to repression, occupation and
authoritarian rule the CAIR letter has said, “Now is the time to
tell Israeli leaders that we will no longer support the denial of
the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and that we will
take concrete actions to back up that declaration."
Interestingly amid the speculations, the White House has already
dismissed speculation he will unveil a new Middle East peace
initiative.
Obama spent
last week working with aides to craft the speech, which he has said
will address the Palestinian-Israeli question, but possibly not in
the detail that many Muslims would like.
His
administration has embraced a proposal by Saudi Arabia that offers
Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full
withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war,
creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" to the
Palestinian refugee problem. It will
likely feature in Obama's talks with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh
on Wednesday on his way to Egypt.
At the same
time, there are others who are skeptical and feel the much-hyped
Obama's address to the Muslim World would be a customary effort.
"He will
speak only in general terms to give the impression that America is
not the enemy of the Arab and Muslim world. He will not be
specific," Reuters has quoted Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at Cairo's
Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies as saying.
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