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Obama Says U.S. Could Be Seen as a Muslim Country, Too
HAHN, Germany As President Obama prepared to leave Washington to fly to the Middle East, he conducted several television and radio interviews at the White House to frame the goals for a five-day trip, including the highly-anticipated speech Thursday at Cairo University in Egypt.
In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. He sought to downplay the expectations of the speech, but he said he hoped the address would raise awareness about Muslims.
Now, I think its very important to understand that one speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East, Mr. Obama said. And so I think expectations should be somewhat modest.
He previewed several themes and objectives for the speech, which aides said the president intended to tinker with and rewrite aboard Air Force One during his 12-hour flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
What I want to do is to create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States, but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for whats happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Mr. Obama said.
The president said the United States and other parts of the Western world have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/obama-signals-themes-of-mideast-speech/?hp
What does this mean? He's nuts... We can't even put a creche on the lawn anymore and now we are one of the largest muslim countries in the world? This guy is delusional...