What can, and what will, Obama deliver in the Middle East?

With Obama off to visit Saudi Arabia and then Cairo in the next days, where he is slated to give a major speech - whatever that means! - thestar.com in Toronto has an interesting op-ed piece "Muslims wait for Obama to deliver" which analyses and pulls together a number of major considerations which impact on the visit.

"There was the American overreach under George W. Bush. Now there's Barack Obama's outreach to the Muslim world.

On Wednesday, he will be in Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah. On Thursday, he will be in Egypt to deliver his much-anticipated address to Muslims.

He has already taken four mini-jabs at the subject – in his inaugural address; his Jan. 27 interview with Al-Arabiya TV; his March 19 video address to Iran; and his April 6 speech to the Turkish parliament.

This has drawn mixed reviews:

He wouldn't be addressing the Christian world, or the Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist worlds. Why the exception for Muslims?

By framing terrorism in religious terms, he's treading the same turf as militant Islamists, on the one hand, and Bush, on the other.

He has no choice but to fix the shattered relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world."

The writer has "consulted" 4 experts - whose views can be read here.

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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