# Obama speech to offer personal commitment to Muslims



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

President Barack Obama will offer a "personal commitment" to bridge US differences with Muslims in his long-awaited speech to the Islamic world next week in Egypt, aides said. 
But White House advisors said Friday that Obama would not shy away from addressing "tough issues" in the speech on Thursday at the University of Cairo which will be co-hosted by Al-Azhar University, an ancient center of Islam and learning.

"The speech will outline his personal commitment to engagement, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. 
"He will discuss how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them. 
"He will review particular issues of concern, such as violent extremism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and he will discuss new areas for partnership going forward that serve the mutual interests of our people." 
Obama foreign policy advisor Mark Lippert added that the address, which makes good on an Obama campaign promise, would emulate some other speeches by the president which have touched on difficult issues. 
"He doesn't hesitate to take on the tough issues in his speech, just harkening back to his Senate career when he delivered a very, very powerful message on corruption in Kenya," Lippert said. 
"He continually raises these issues here with leaders when they come through both in private and through public statements, as well. You have a President who's not afraid to engage on very tough, tough issues." 
Asked whether Obama would meet with Egyptian political dissidents during his visit, aides said that people from across the political spectrum would be invited to the speech. 
Obama, who lived for several years as a child in mainly Muslim Indonesia and traces part of his ancestry to a Muslim family in Kenya, will open his trip next Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, holding talks on Middle East peace, Iran, terrorism and other issues with King Abdullah. 
The next day, his visit to Cairo will include the speech and talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who cancelled a visit to Washington this week because of the death of a grandson. 
Obama then heads to Germany, where he will stay in the former East German city of Dresden, hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and visit the former Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. 
He will also visit US troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq and the US medical center at Landstuhl. 
Obama's last stop will be in France on Saturday, where he will take part in 65th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day allied landings in Normandy, alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Obama speech to offer personal commitment to Muslims


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## Guest (May 31, 2009)

WTF! More BS. I either have to stop listen to the news & talk radio or up my omezaprole prescription. When is Texas Republic starting up, so I can move there?


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## justanotherparatrooper (Aug 27, 2006)

The only speech I want to hear from that bastard is his resignation speech


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## 7costanza (Aug 29, 2006)

*To open a Muslim dialogue, Obama visits Saudi king*

RIYDAH, Saudi Arabia - President Barack Obama is in Saudi Arabia after an overnight flight from Washington.
Obama is planning to meet with Saudi King Abdullah to discuss a host of thorny problems, from Arab-Israeli peace efforts to Iran's nuclear program. The surge in oil prices also was on the agenda.
The president was to stay overnight at the king's horse farm in the desert outside Riyadh before heading to Egypt.
The talks with the monarch come a day before the president is to deliver a highly anticipated speech in Cairo on the U.S. relationship with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is beginning his latest bid to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by paying a call on Saudi King Abdullah, guardian of Islam's sacred sites in Mecca and Medina.
The monarch of Saudi Arabia plans to greet Obama at Riyadh's main airport with coffee and ceremony when he arrives Wednesday after an overnight flight from Washington.
Saudi Arabia is a stopover en route to Cairo, where Obama is to set deliver a speech that he's been promising since last year's election campaign - aiming to set a new tone in America's often-strained dealings with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.
Many of those Muslims still smolder over Iraq, Guantanamo and unflinching U.S. support of Israel, but they are hoping the son of a Kenyan Muslim who lived part of his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, can help chart a new course.
"You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of the Muslim world," Obama said in a pretrip interview with the BBC. "And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."
Aides cautioned that Obama was not out to break new policy ground in his Cairo speech, which follows visits to Turkey and Iraq in April and a series of outreach efforts including a Persian New Year video and a student town hall in Istanbul. And they said the president is not expecting quick results, even though the speech will be distributed as widely as possible.
"We don't expect that everything will change after one speech," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. "I think it will take a sustained effort and that's what the president is in for."
Officials said Obama also wouldn't flinch from difficult topics, whether it's the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the goal of a Palestinian state or democracy and human rights. Obama has been criticized for setting the address in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak has jailed dissidents and clung to power for nearly three decades.
In Riyadh, the president was talking to Abdullah about a host of thorny problems, from Arab-Israeli peace efforts to Iran's nuclear program. The Saudis have voiced growing concern in private that an Iranian bomb could unleash a nuclear arms race in the region.
The surge in oil prices also was on the agenda. Crude topped $68 a barrel this week, sparking fears that a fresh jump in energy costs could snuff out early sparks of a recovery from a deep global slump.
Obama likely will be looking for help from Saudi Arabia on what to do with some 100 Yemeni detainees locked up in the Guantanamo Bay prison. Discussions over where to send the Yemeni detainees have complicated Obama's plan to close the prison. The U.S. has been hesitant to send them home because of Yemen's history of either releasing extremists or allowing them to escape from prison.
Instead, the Obama administration has been negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for months to send them to Saudi terrorist rehabilitation centers.

The president was to stay overnight at the king's horse farm in the desert outside Riyadh. Abdullah, who hosted then-President George W. Bush at the ranch in January of last year, keeps some 260 Arabian horses on its sprawling grounds in air-conditioned comfort. 
In any effort to court Muslims, the Saudis will be key - not just for their oil wealth, but by virtue of the authority they wield at the center of Arab history and culture. 
Obama's meeting with the 84-year-old Abdullah will be his second in three months. The two saw each other at the G-20 summit in London, a meeting both sides called friendly and productive. Perhaps a bit too friendly: Critics accused Obama of bowing to the Saudi monarch during a photo-op. The White House maintained he was merely bending to shake hands with a shorter man. "This in many ways will be one of the pivotal relationships President Obama can develop," said Robin Wright, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. "Saudi Arabia is important not just in terms of the Gulf and oil prices. It sets the tenor. It's one of the most conservative regimes. It's also important because King Abdullah is, among the various royals, more open-minded than others. These are two men who might actually deal well with each other."


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Romney raps Obama's speechmaking style overseas

WASHINGTON-Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday accused President Barack Obama of failing to sufficiently highlight America's strengths in his travels and speeches around the world.

Discuss*COMMENTS (0)*

In an interview as Obama was flying to Saudi Arabia at the start of a Mideast trip, Romney said there's nothing wrong with "showing our respect for the people in the world of Islam." But he also said he believes Obama was too apologetic about this country's mistakes during a speech in France earlier this year.

Interviewed from Boston on NBC's "Today" show as Obama set out on a tour that will include a speech in Egypt on U.S. relations with the Islamic world, Romney said that "of course, America makes mistakes." But he also said considers it inappropriate to "go around the world apologizing."

Romney, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination last year, said Obama should talk more about the sacrifices the United States has made on other nations' behalf, such as during World War II, "what we have done in blood and sacrifice."

"I think it's appropriate for him to describe the greatness of America," Romney said of Obama.

On another matter, he said moving General Motors Corp. into a bankruptcy and restructuring was "the right course," but said it should have been done sooner.

He called the federal investment in GM "really money down the drain. .... The government should get out right now."

"Look, I don't want the Sierra Club telling General Motors what kind of cars they should build," Romney said.

Asked if he was already, in effect, running for the GOP presidential nod in 2012, Romney replied, "No, I'm looking right now at trying to get some Republicans getting elected in 2009 and 2010."

"And what happens later, ... that's a very distant horizon."

Romney raps Obama's speechmaking style overseas - Boston.com


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## 263FPD (Oct 29, 2004)

How about this for a personal commitment? Crack down on the radicals, or we will level your countries

Oh right, Obama is a "feel good" guy.


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## 8MORE (Nov 25, 2008)

263FPD said:


> How about this for a personal commitment? Crack down on the radicals, or we will level your countries
> 
> Oh right, Obama is a "feel good" guy.


Hearing that from the activist in chief would make me feel better.(If he meant what he said.)


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## 263FPD (Oct 29, 2004)

8MORE said:


> Hearing that from the activist in chief would make me feel better.(If he meant what he said.)


Yet, we all know that its not going to happen


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Obama calls for new beginning between US, Muslims

 

Play Video Reuters - Obama in Cairo: "New beginning"



Slideshow:President Barack Obama



Play Video Video:Obama calls for new start between US, Muslims *AP*



Play Video Video:Obama: Committed to working in Middle East *AP*

 

AP - U.S. President Barack Obama smiles while speaking at Cairo University in Cairo, Thursday, June 4, 2009. &#8230;

By MARK S. SMITH, Associated Press Writer Mark S. Smith, Associated Press Writer - 44 mins ago

CAIRO - Quoting from the Quran for emphasis, President Barack Obama called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims" Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East.
"This cycle of suspicion and discord must end," Obama said in a widely anticipated speech in one of the world's largest Muslim countries, an address designed to reframe relations after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The White House said Obama's speech contained no new policy proposals on the Middle East. He said American ties with Israel are unbreakable, yet issued a firm, evenhanded call to the Jewish state and Palestinians alike to live up to their international obligations.
In a gesture to the Islamic world, Obama conceded at the beginning of his remarks that tension "has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations."
"And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear," said the president, who recalled hearing prayer calls of "azaan" at dawn and dusk while living in Indonesia as a boy.
At the same time, he said the same principle must apply in reverse. "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire."
Obama spoke at Cairo University after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the second stop of a four-nation trip to the Middle East and Europe.
The speech was the centerpiece of his journey, and while its tone was striking, the president also covered the Middle East peace process, Iran, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the violent struggle waged by al-Qaida.
Obama arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday, greeted by a new and threatening message from al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden. In an audio recording, the terrorist leader said the president inflamed the Muslim world by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in the Swat Valley and block Islamic law there.
But Obama said the actions of violent extremist Muslims are "irreconcilable with the rights of human beings," and quoted the Quran to make his point: "be conscious of God and always speak the truth ..."
"Islam is not part of the problem in combatting violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace," he said.
"Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist," he said of the organization the United States deems as terrorists.
"The Palestinian Authority must develop its capacity to govern, with institutions that serve the needs of its people," Obama said.
"At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" on the West Bank and outskirts of Jerusalem, he said. "It is time for these settlements to stop."
As for Jerusalem itself, he said it should be a "secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims ..."
Obama also said the Arab nations should no longer use the conflict with Israel to distract its own people from other problems.
He treaded lightly on one issue that President George W. Bush had made a centerpiece of his second term - the spread of democracy.

Obama said he has a commitment to governments "that reflect the will of the people." And yet, he said, "No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other." 
At times, there was an echo of Obama's campaign mantra of change in his remarks, and he said many are afraid it cannot occur. 
"There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward," he said. 
The president's brief stay in Cairo included a visit to the Sultan Hassan mosque, a 600-year-old center of Islamic worship and study. A tour of the Great Pyramids of Giza was also on his itinerary. 
The build-up to the speech was enormous, stoked by the White House although Obama seemed at pains to minimize hopes for immediate consequences. 
"One speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East," he told a French interviewer. "Expectations should be somewhat modest." 
Eager to spread the president's message as widely as possible, the tech-savvy White House orchestrated a live Webcast of the speech on the White House site; remarks translated into 13 languages; a special State Department site where users could sign up for speech highlights; and distribution of excerpts to social networking giants MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. 
Though the speech was co-sponsored by al-Azhar University, which has taught science and Quranic scripture here for nearly a millennium, the actual venue was the more modern and secular Cairo University. The lectern was set up in the domed main auditorium on a stage dominated by a picture of Mubarak. 
Human rights advocates found that symbolism troubling: an American president watched over by an aging autocrat who's ruled Egypt since 1981. 
"Egypt's democrats cannot help being concerned," wrote Dina Guirguis, executive director of Voices for a Democratic Egypt. 
The university's alumni are among the Arab world's most famous - and notorious. They include the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfuz. Saddam Hussein studied law in the '60s but did not graduate. And al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri earned a medical degree. 
___ 
On the Net: 
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov State Department's speech text-messaging site: http://www.america.gov/sms.html

Obama calls for new beginning between US, Muslims - Yahoo! News


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## 263FPD (Oct 29, 2004)

The speech should have went something like this;

"you have my *personal* *commitment*, that I will bomb the ever loving shit out of you and all of your kind"

But we all know that was not going to happen


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## SgtAndySipowicz (Mar 17, 2008)

*Presidential Oath (Obama)*

*New Obama Oath of Office!*

"And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." -- Barack Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009
So here's the new and improved Presidential Oath of Office:
"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. So help me Allah."

From Jihad Watch


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