By Arsalan Iftikhar
Opening the Muslim-world leg of the Audacity of Hope world tour with the universal Islamic greeting Assalamu alaikum (May peace be with you) to thunderous applause President Obama began his long-awaited major address by going straight to many of our pressing geopolitical issues.
He spoke from the hallowed halls of Cairo University in the heart of one of the largest Islamic capitals in the world.
From beginning to end President Obamas speech was a concert of enlightenment compared to President George W. Bushs famous farewell news conference in the Muslim world (which resulted in two Iraqi size-10 shoes being boomeranged toward his head).
From the issues of violent Muslim extremism to the growth of the neo-racism known worldwide as Islamophobia; from Israel-Palestine to his overall Iraq and Af-Pak (Afghanistan-Pakistan) strategy President Obama successfully used his Cairo speech to lay out his framework for several key foreign policy issues.
Additionally with major sections of his address covering womens rights democratic reforms and nuclear weapons President Obama devoted much of his 40-plus-minute speech to offering concrete and tangible policy initiatives that he plans to implement in the near future.
He talked about his plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals roads and businesses to help the countless number of internally displaced persons caught in the fighting in Pakistan. Similarly for Afghanistan he outlined that we will be providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend upon.
Aside from his concrete foreign policy proposals and tangible development initiatives President Obama spent much of his Cairo address highlighting the common aspirations of the United States and the Muslim world.
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By Arsalan Iftikhar
Opening the Muslim-world leg of the Audacity of Hope world tour with the universal Islamic greeting Assalamu alaikum (May peace be with you) to thunderous applause President Obama began his long-awaited major address by going straight to many of our pressing geopolitical issues.
He spoke from the hallowed halls of Cairo University in the heart of one of the largest Islamic capitals in the world.
From beginning to end President Obamas speech was a concert of enlightenment compared to President George W. Bushs famous farewell news conference in the Muslim world (which resulted in two Iraqi size-10 shoes being boomeranged toward his head).
From the issues of violent Muslim extremism to the growth of the neo-racism known worldwide as Islamophobia; from Israel-Palestine to his overall Iraq and Af-Pak (Afghanistan-Pakistan) strategy President Obama successfully used his Cairo speech to lay out his framework for several key foreign policy issues.
