Why Obama chose NASA as the vehicle in which to reach out to Muslims and make them feel good about their historic contributions to science is bizarre to say the least. First of all, NASA is not so much a governmental agency based in science as it is in the exploration, exploitation of space, space technology. Since when is it some 'good feel' PR firm dedicated to raising the self-image of people to whom science and all of its technological corralaries they have no desire or affinity for? According to the last four years of the annual UN Report on the State of the Arab/Muslim World they have a 2% literacy rate.
So you want them to be proud of their decidedly non-Muslim, kafir-related subject matter when they all can't even read about it in the first place. I have to assume that the 98% illiteracy goes refers to reading, writing of the Arab language, forget even modern languages like English.
So, if they can't read or write what is NASA supposed to do to make them feel proud about a heritage that was anyway mostly usurped from the societies they conquered??
I believe it was a distraction. The real reason for the neglect from Obama is simply a racial issue. When NASA was going to the moon, civil rights activists started a campaign to discredit the agency, saying the money should be spent on poor (black) people. Ever since, the civil rights organizations have not been supporters of NASA. So it is not a surprise that the first black president, who wants to expand everything else, cut NASA.