Quoting from the Quran for emphasis, President Barack Obama called for a “new beginning between the United States and the Muslims” on Thursday and said together, they could confront violent extremism across the globe and advance the timeless search for peace in the Middle East.
“This cycle of suspicion and discord must end,” Mr Obama said at Cairo University after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the second-stop of a four nation trip to the Middle East and Europe. In a gesture to the Islamic world, Mr Obama conceded at the beginning of his remarks that tension “has been fed by the colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a cold war in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.”
“And i consider it part of my responsibility as a part of as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear,” said Mr Obama, who recalled hearing prayer calls of “azaan” at dawn and dusk while living in Indonesia as a boy.