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Obama Will Address Muslim World From Egypt June 4

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday's Haaretz reports that President Obama will deliver an important speech on U.S. relations with the Muslim world in Egypt on June 4. During the presidential campaign, Obama promised that early in his presidency, he would deliver a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital. The speech was announced at Friday's White House press briefing (full text), and led to this exchange between a reporter and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

Q: ... there are a lot of Muslims who look at the leadership of Egypt warily and consider it to be exactly the problem with leaders in the Muslim world.... Is it not possible that this is a bad selection?

MR. GIBBS: No. I think, as I mentioned earlier, ... in many ways, this is the heart of Arab world. And ... this isn't a speech to leaders. This is a speech to many, many people and a continuing effort by this President and this White House to demonstrate how we can work together to ensure the safety and security and the future well-being, through hope and opportunity, of the children of this country and of the Muslim world....

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 10, 2009 (boomark / email).