Posted by
Tom L. on Monday, June 08, 2009 6:00:00 AM
By most accounts, President Obama’s Cairo speech was grand. It was a break from the Bush rhetoric. Mr. Obama quoted the Koran; he spoke of past mistakes and of a common future.
So what has been the reaction from the so-called Muslim world?
For days I have searched the internet (in English) in hopes of finding some leader of a Muslim nation who was willing to grasp the olive branch held out by Mr. Obama.
The media was full of “person in the street” comments, especially from Muslims in western nations, but as near as I can tell the leaders of the Muslim world were all but silent.
The state-backed papers in the two Arab countries on Mr Obama’s tour, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, were positive; and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader was negative (none of that a surprise).
But, not to worry, the Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on June 17th to come up with a common Arab stance on U.S. President Barack Obama's speech.