President Obama making crucial visit to Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt

[ag337]

President Obama making crucial visit to Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt
BY Kenneth R. Bazinet
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Sunday, May 31st 2009, 4:00 AM

WASHINGTON - President Obama hopes to begin winning over hearts and minds of the Muslim world with strategic visits this week to pro-Western allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Obama will dine with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh Wednesday, but the crowning moment of the trip comes a day later when he uses a speech at Cairo University to lay out his vision for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians - and reiterate U.S. respect for mainstream Islamic culture.

"Abdullah will press for immediate U.S. action, not just words, to relaunch talks on an independent Palestinian state," said David Ottaway, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

"Obama will be pressed to explain his opening of a dialogue with Iran, while the king will have to explain why he feels a 'fair price' for oil is $75 a barrel in the midst of a worldwide economic depression," Ottaway added.

Obama's trip is also loaded with symbolism, with stops Friday at Dresden, Germany, and the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. He'll then attend a Saturday ceremony on the beaches of Normandy marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Like all Presidents before him, Obama will use the stops in Germany and France as a reminder of the commitment the U.S. has made to European allies for nearly a century.

But those ceremonial stops aside, Obama first and foremost hopes to turn the page with the globe's moderate Muslim majority.

In the eyes of the Islamic world, the U.S. has yet to get out from under the cloud of contempt left over from the Bush-era torture episodes at the prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, as well as the cooked-up intelligence used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq, experts say.

"Justice is one of the most prominent themes in Islam," said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Americans have been unwilling to talk about justice in the Middle East because we haven't wanted to tip the balance away from our friends," he added. "By seemingly skirting the issue of justice, though, we've suggested to Muslim audiences that U.S. policy in the Middle East is both immoral and illegitimate and those fighting against it have right on their side."

Obama's Mideast foray comes ahead of parliamentary elections in Lebanon on June7 and the Iranian presidential vote five days later. While Obama's visit is not expected to tilt votes in favor of pro-Western candidates, the hope is that moderates throughout the region will look to Cairo for leadership and reject Iran's hardline influence in the Middle East.

Read more: "President Obama making crucial visit to Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt" - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/05/31/2009-05-31_president_obama_making_crucial_visit_to_muslim_leaders.html#ixzz0H6q7IPNr&A

[Ultra Requete]

America just capitulated to muslims in WW III. Obama is apeasing the traditional "alies" of America like Germans, Iranians and Arabs while neglegting real freinds like Israelis, Brits and Polish. Shame on USA, shame. 

[Zelhar]

i cant wait for osama's coming out speach in Cairo

[Abben]

Watch how our media will cut and edit his speech and will not air the whole thing.

[arksis]

America just capitulated to muslims in WW III. Obama is apeasing the traditional "alies" of America like Germans, Iranians and Arabs while neglegting real freinds like Israelis, Brits and Polish. Shame on USA, shame. 

I could not agree more! Shame on the USA for letting this happen and letting this PIG do the things he does.

[GoIsraelGo!]

This is the most Jew hating administration I have ever seen! Oh, and where is the outcry from the JDL and other Jewish organizations?

Why do some Jews bother to get a higher education and at the same time refuse to utilize their common sense?
Some of our own people voted for this fraud knowing he was muslim.
I am so horrifyied about this ...I don't know what else to say.

[eb22]

Dox,  this is yet another example of Chaim being correct about the vast majority of the mainstream Jewish organizations working against the best interest of Israel and the Jewish people in general.      And why it's so important for the U.S.,  Israel,   and Western Civilization for JTF to grow.     The ADL and most of the other mainstream Jewish organizations are part of the problem,   not the solution.     

Regarding the article,  in addition to this being yet another illustration of Barack Hussein Obama's evil agenda that will lead to epic disaster for the United States if he succeeds,     it's a total farce that Cairo ( Egypt ) and moderate are in the same sentence.     Cairo is in essence the takiyya capital of the planet.