That is probably linked to Obama's push to share science and technology with muslim countries.
According to the Nation of Islam (NOI), Yakub (also spelled Yacub or Yakob), was a scientist alive "6,600 years ago", responsible for creating the white race, a "race of devils". The doctrine of Yakub was first proclaimed by Wallace Fard Muhammad and was later developed by his successor Elijah Muhammad. Yakub created white people by a process of grafting the "black " to a "white" from the original black population of the world. According to the Autobiography of Malcolm X, all the races except the black race were by-products of Yakub's work. However the "black race" included Asians. "Whites" were defined as Europeans and Jews. It took 600 years for Yakub and his successors to fully whiten his creations. This was achieved under a despotic regime on the island of Patmos.