President Obama’s Speech Touches the Hearts of Millions of Muslims – Dr Ghazi

Chicago: In a statement issued from the headquarters of IQRA’ International Educational Foundation, its executive director and president of World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations USA, Dr. Abidullah Ghazi said that President Obama’s speech touched the hearts of millions of Muslims in the US and around the world.
The mention of Muslim communities in the US in the very first minute of his speech shows President Obama’s commitment of having good relationships with all the ethnic minorities in the US, said Dr. Ghazi. It also shows his commitment to his mission of “change” in the American social and political horizon. Dr. Abidullah Ghazi commended the President for addressing crucial issues like violent extremism; the Israeli-Arab conflict; Iran and nuclear weapons; democracy in the Muslim world; religious freedom in the Muslim world; women’s rights and the economic development and opportunities of bridging the gap between America and the Muslim/Arab world.
He said that Mr. Obama will be remembered in history as the first US president to speak to the largest global audience. His choice of words, body language and selection of issues were well-formulated. He further reiterated that the president has kept a calculated balance when mentioning conflicts between Israel and Palestine. He said he avoided words that had hurt Muslim communities in the past such as fundamentalists and terrorists. This shows how delicately he envisions the conflicts in the world.
Dr. Ghazi said that the choice of Cairo as a venue itself shows the intelligence of this administration. A historical venue was chosen for a historical event. President Obama’s honest and bold stance reflects what Naguib Mahfouz, the great Egyptian novelist, said while accepting the Nobel Prize in 2006. “I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the Islamic one. Gone now is that (first) civilization — a mere story of the past. One day the great Pyramid will disappear too. But truth and justice will remain for as long as Mankind has a ruminative mind and a living conscience.”
President Obama kept that truth and justice as a major part of his speech in Cairo.
Lastly, Dr. Abidullah Ghazi said by incorporating verses from The Holy Qur’an and mentioning the great night of Isra’ and the prayer lead by Prophet Muhammad with Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them) and mentioning that the Holy Land is the center of peace and harmony for Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, President Obama has proven his broad-mindedness, open-heartedness and compassion towards the cause of world interfaith and global peace.
He said he has no doubt in his mind that the words of President Obama will soon be transformed into action that will give us a better world and a better America.

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