Thumbs up on speech in one Cairo cafe
Posted: Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:43 AM
Filed Under:
Cairo, Egypt
By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent
CAIRO – At the Wadi Nile cafe in Tahrir Square, 40 men sat watching President Barack Obama's widely anticipated speech to the Muslim world on a television mounted high in one corner.
The café was unusually quiet. Security concerns for the president's one-day visit to the Egyptian capital had prompted police to restrict traffic in the area, so the familiar cacophony of snarling engines and blaring horns on the streets outside was absent. The entire speech, translated simultaneously into Arabic, could easily be heard.
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| David Silverman / Getty Images |
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Egyptian men watch President Barack Obama's speech on TV in a Cairo coffee shop on Thursday. |
Wissam Charaf, a 30-year-old Lebanese visiting from Beirut, shared a table with Hisham Deeb, who lives immediately above the cafe. Deeb dropped by on his way home from shopping to drink a glass of tea and stayed to watch the speech.
When Obama began by addressing American-Muslim relations everyone listened intently. There were nods of approval when the president said, "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition."
For nearly an hour, pausing for occasional applause from his audience at Cairo University, Obama spoke to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He touched on America's historic relationship with Islam, the necessity for cooperation against terrorism, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was easy to imagine many of the world’s Muslims, like the 40 men sitting in the Wadi Nile cafe, listening to his words as a captive audience.
When the speech ended there was no applause or overt celebration. The cafe's ambiance returned to normal. Fresh water pipes were carried to the smokers and the waiter brought a new round of tea.
Deeb paused in the cafe doorway on his way home.
"It was a very good speech," he said. "He spoke about the issues I wanted to hear about – the Palestinians, Iraq and Islam. I think he was very good."
Charaf, clutching a suitcase and looking for a taxi to Cairo’s airport for an afternoon flight to Beirut, was more effusive.
"I think it was a speech up there with the best of those by any American president," he said. "It was equal to Kennedy saying he was a Berliner to the Germans all those years ago. He spoke to moderate Muslims, and he spoke to extremists by quoting the Koran to them. It was excellent."
Another customer, Mohammed Mahrous, was only slightly less complimentary.
"His speech was very balanced," he said. "One feels hope in the new American administration. The speech will have a very good impact on Egyptians and on Muslims in other countries."
The television behind them switched to a picture of three Egyptian commentators sitting in a studio beginning to discuss Obama’s speech.
The cafe's owner, a thin dark man named Issam, reached for a remote control and lowered the volume. Customers began leaving. For those who heard the speech live there was no need to listen to somebody else's interpretation of it. The show was over.
Related links:
Full text of Obama's speech in Cairo
How did Obama do? Vote, discuss
