Obama seeks new start with Muslim world

USA: 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’s trip next week to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and World War II commemorations in France and Germany, comes as some observers scent a moment of opportunity amid the perpetual Middle East crisis.

But others see only peril, with a showdown gathering pace between Washington and Israel over Jewish settlements and no end in sight to Iran’s nuclear drive. Obama targeted reconcilation 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. He quickly called Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and spoke to the Al-Arabiya satellite network.

Obama made an unprecedented video address to Iranians and reassured Muslims the United States was not at war with them from the Turkish parliament.

This trip’s first stop, on Wednesday, will be Saudi Arabia, for talks with King Abdullah, seeking Arab support for US peace efforts. But 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.

Washington, Sunday, AFP