by Muhammad Yamany
CAIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- In Dar Es-Salaam, one of
the most populous districts in Cairo, Ahmed sat with his friends in a smallcafe
talking about the upcoming visit of U.S. President Barack Obama.
"Cairo is really lucky to welcome Obama as I think he
is capable of changing the tarnished image of his predecessor," said Ahmed, 27,
who works as a teacher in a primary school.
"In fact, Egypt is the strongest country in the
Islamic and Arab world, so it is normal to choose Egypt to deliver a speech
tothe Islamic world," he said.
Obama is scheduled to visit Egypt on Thursday, where
he will deliver a speech to the Muslim world, a move which many Egyptians think
shows that the United States regards Egypt as a country thatin many ways
represents the heart of the Arab world.
Ahmed said, "If I were to send a message to Obama, I
would liketo ask him to help the Palestinians to set up their state, to pullout
from Iraq as soon as possible, to help the poor Afghans and tosupport all
moderate Muslims in the world."
"Barack Hussein Obama is the first African-American
to be the President of the United States. His second name is Hussein, which
refers to his Muslim background. He promised to close the ill-reputed prison of
Guantanamo. I think all this must make us believe that he is going to achieve
change," Ahmed added.
Obama, who took office on Jan. 20, has called for
peace and dialogue with Islam. He promised during the presidential campaign to
improve U.S.-Arab relations damaged by his predecessor George W.Bush's
administration in the past eight years.
"I hope that Obama's speech could change the U.S.
image in the eyes of the Arabs and Muslims, which has been badly affected during
the era of former U.S. President George W. Bush," said Mustafa, a 29-year-old
driver in a private company.
"Obama is going to beautify the U.S.' badly stained
image by Bush, but this is not the most important point for the Islamic andArab
world, maybe it is more important for the United States itself," stressed
Mustafa.
"In fact, the Islamic and Arab world needs acts not
words, we want Obama to press on Israel to stop building settlements and to
accept the two-state solution," said Mustafa.
"Unless the U.S. shows real changes in its policies
towards Arab and Islamic countries, Obama's visit will be useless," added
Mustafa.
Many Arab countries have been angered by the U.S.
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects
atGuantanamo, abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Bush's reluctance to pursue
Israeli-Palestinian peace.
However, Obama, whose father was a Muslim from Kenya,
said in Turkey in April that the United States "is not and will never be at war
with Islam."
"Obama's visit to Egypt fulfills his promise to give
a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during the first few months in
office," said Adel, 23, a postgraduate student in the prestigious Cairo
University, where Obama is supposed to deliver his speech.
"We need to be more optimistic as Obama gives us a
glimmer of hope in a real change in the U.S. policies towards the Arab and
Islamic world, so I think we should wait and see," Adel added.
More than 50 percent of the Egyptian students think
that Obama should help change attitudes in the West about Islam, according toa
recent survey carried out by Video Cairo Sat (VCS), a local media company.
The VCS survey also said the United States and its
government can create a new image of Islam in the public and media perceptionby
learning to differentiate between Islam as a religion and culture, and the
violence associated with terrorism and extremism.
However, Adel said, "Arab and Muslim countries need
more and more acts form the U.S. new administration to forget about the past
eight years and open a new chapter in the relations with the West, especially
with the United States, but we have to wait and see what would happen."
"Obama promised to make a change in his country and I
think that this change would happen in a way or another to our Muslim and Arab
world and even to our poor and shanty district," he added.
Obama boosts U.S. overlapping role in
Muslim, Arab world: Egypt's former ambassador
CAIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President
Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Cairo is very important as the United States,
the biggest country in the world in terms of the economic, military, political
powers, has an overlapping strategic role in the Muslim and Arab world, said
Egypt's former ambassador to the United States.
Such an overlapping role has been strengthened
by Obama who adopted new policies based on dialogue with the Muslim world and
Iran, Abdel Raouf El-Reedy, who is now chairman of Egyptian Council for Foreign
Affairs (ECFA), said in a recent interview with Xinhua. Full story
