Arabs look for action from Obama
Posted: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 11:24 AM
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Cairo, Egypt
By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent
CAIRO – Egyptians are immensely proud that President Barack Obama has chosen Cairo University as the site for his speech addressing the world's 1.5 billion Muslims on Thursday. They see it as a gesture of respect, and an acknowledgement that their capital is the seat of Islamic-Arab culture.
Workmen cleaned the university's gates this week as students hurried across the manicured campus. Final exams are only days away, yet the talk was all about the American president's visit.
VIDEO: Raised Expectations in Cairo
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| Amr Nabil / AP |
| A veiled Egyptian vendor sells newspapers and magazines about President Barack Obama in Cairo on Wednesday, a day before his arrival to address the Muslim world in a speech. |
Ingy Attallah, a 20-year-old business major, is one of about 300 students chosen to attend the speech along with politicians, business leaders and notables from all over the country.
"When they told me I could attend, I was very excited. I was one of Obama's biggest fans during his election campaign, and when he won I was very excited," she said.
And what would she like to hear in the speech?
"A specific plan of action on how he will deal with the conflicts in the Middle East, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And when he will get American troops out of Iraq," she said.
Mohammed Abu Shakka, a 19-year-old engineering student, also plans to attend the speech.
"We have high hopes for Barack Obama," he said. "But if he doesn't do anything – just talk – it will get people really disappointed."
Actions, not just words – that was the strongest common sentiment we encountered this week when asking people in Cairo what they would be listening for in Obama's speech.
Israel-Palestinian crisis the ‘main’ issue
At Al Azhar, for more than 1,000 years a seat of Islamic learning, foreign students studying to become imams were seated in rows chanting Koranic prayers the day our team visited.
Mohammed Noor, a 24-year-old Malaysian who has been studying here for four years, hopes Barack Obama will preach non-violence in his speech.
"I hope that he will make a good relationship with the Islamic world and not use force anymore," he said. "We will not see America as our enemy anymore if he does what he says he will do," he added.
Mohammed Fouad, a 22-year-old Egyptian student, wants the American president to address the Palestinian-Israeli issue. "It is the main and first issue of this region," he said.
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| David Silverman / Getty Images |
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Islamic students leave the al Azhar mosque in Cairo after midday Muslim prayers on Tuesday as they head to exams at the the chief center of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world. |
‘We want to forget the past …We need America’
In Cairo's bustling streets there is a sense of anticipation that Obama's visit may also benefit the economy.
Hisham Al-Mugrabi runs a small restaurant serving the local version of fast food. Pausing between slicing strips of meat sizzling on a vertical grill in front of a gas-fed flame, he said he hopes the American president will somehow raise living standards in Egypt.
"We are expecting great changes and hope. God willing, he can do something to help our situation," he said.
In the city's coffee shops, where men gather most afternoons to sit and smoke water pipes, play cards and read newspapers, this week the talk was all about the visit of the American president.
Almost all of the people we spoke with agreed that he has to say something dramatic, something positive about the Islamic world and the role of Muslims.
"I would like to hear all the right things from Mr. Obama," said Ahmad Taha. "We want to forget the past, including Bush. We need America, the right America."
Media spin will matter
Many Egyptians will not hear Obama’s speech live, even though it will be broadcast on television and radio direct from Cairo University. They will depend on the media to interpret it for them later on evening television talk shows and in the morning newspapers.
Amr Adeeb hosts a three-hour TV show on the Orbit network, which is broadcast around the Middle East five nights a week. He said he'll be looking for answers to the most important questions his viewers ask.
"I need to see Iraq without American troops, I need to see Afghanistan without American troops, I need a final solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said.
But Adeeb, like many others in the largely conservative Egyptian media, said he will be giving Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt until he hears what the American president says and sees what he does in the future.
"He has a big responsibility in this speech," Adeeb said. "But it's not just words, but what do you have behind the words? What's being cooked in the back kitchen?"
"Why should I tell my audience that the United States is a good friend and a good ally and that they are helping us? They are cutting aid every day. They are not giving us the right weapons, they are not giving us the right tools to survive – although they are giving Israel everything," he said.
That perceived U.S. bias toward Israel is universally shared in the Islamic world. But many Muslims understand that America's relationship with the Jewish state has bonds that will not be strained or broken in one speech, so they are not expecting any major policy shift to be announced when Obama speaks to them from Cairo University.
They do, however, expect him to respect their point of view. And they hope he will at least offer a prescription for Palestinian statehood and a timetable for a rapid withdrawal of American troops from the region.
Related links: In Riyadh, Obama to open Muslim dialogue
Newsweek: Obama's goals in Cairo speech
Muslims want change on Mideast from Obama
Inside the Obama White House
