Obama's speech at Cairo this morning..

[Lurker]

What a brilliant speech! I managed to catch it this morning almost accidentally on my way to gym but ended up watching it almost in entirety. This speech could very well have elevated him from a popular USA President to one of its best modern Statemen. A few points that I particularly liked.

1. Direct and honest speech. He prepared the ground with a direct quote from Quran about honesty, it obviously brought him cheers right away but more importantly the audience got all attentive.
2. History of Islamic nations. A word of mention should go to how Morroco was the first country in entire world to recognize USA as a nation.
3. Debunking stereotypes of Muslims, and also America.
4. Criticism of Muslims who rely on criticism of other religion to show their own worth.
5. Female rights in Muslim nations, or the lack thereof.

This speech is most likely going to be run all over the media. I would certainly recommend checking it out. xxx

[Gambit]

He's being criticised for his 'US has one of the largest muslim population in the world' statement.

[kumble_rocks]

^ His teleprompter must have gone bad at that time.

[riya]

I am sure republicans would love to have some one who can talk that impressively with ''teleprompter '',the last we saw some one with teleprompter doing his talk like a first grader .My father told me ''boby or was that baaaby.

[varun]

Courageous speech. Was about to sleep at about 4 in the morning but ended up staying awake for another hour. The openness was refreshing.

[Ram]

The right-wingers must be seething. This is probably the most pro-Muslim (or should I say, all-inclusive. Obama is exactly being pro-Muslim here. He just wants all of us to be equal), anti-Israel (again, want to qualify my statement here. Obama isnt exactly anti-Isael here. But he's asking Israel to do things that few other Presidents have done before) speech ever made by a US president. Contrast this to George W, who routinely used terms like 'killers', 'terrorists', 'axis of evil' etc to brand certain fellow human on earth as some sort of devil incarnate. If Obama lives up to his words, his tenure could be the foundation of some tremendous healing of this world.

[kumble_rocks]

I fail to understand why Obama has to suck up to Saudi Prince and have an inter faith dialogue with the kingdom. After all , this has got to be the most repressive regime when it comes to religious freedom and interfaith tolerance. And talking about democratic values from the pulpit of a despotic state sponsored university in Cairo is hardly the right choice imho. I would rather that he engage democratic countries like India , Malaysia , Indonesia etc first, then appease despotic Islamic regimes. After all , democrats are the torch bearers of human rights. Having said that , his opposition to new settlements in Gaza is welcome change from the stance taken by the previous administration. Also, it is encouraging to see him try to correct the world image of USA by engaging rather than demanding....

[ViruRulez]

I also heard it only today morning on youtube and the speech was good in the sense that he was making an unbiased speech. He was saying something which makes sense and can be understood by any literate and sensible person. But the only thing I thought was that there was not much reference to their actions on Pakistan.. he was saying that he would leave Pakistan but he did not mention about removing all the terrorists from Pakistan Obama has been doing all the right things but his foreign policy towards India is not that good... US seems to be more sided towards Pakistan than India .. they are not pressurizing Pakistan for the 26/11 attack probe.. they are silent on Lakhvi, Sayeed and other Mumbai attack terrorists ... on the other hand, Obama is saying that dialogue must resume between India and Pakistan.. but why the feck will India resume dialogue if Pakistan does not punish the 26/11 attackers and then end terrorist camps in their country