Obama wins praise in Muslim world

By LEE KEATH – 1 hour ago

CAIRO (AP) — President Barack Obama won praise from many Muslims on Wednesday as a "fresh breeze" bringing hope for improved relations with the United States. But mixed with the optimism was uncertainty and skepticism the new U.S. president will change policies deeply disliked by many.

Obama reached out to Arabs and Muslims in a speech in Turkey earlier this week, saying the United States "is not and never will be at war with Islam."

He then traveled Tuesday to Iraq — where the U.S. military presence has long been a sore point for Muslims — and told cheering U.S. soldiers it was time to phase out America's combat role there.

Many across the Mideast and broader Muslim world seemed struck by Obama's demeanor, praising him for sincerity or what they called a lack of arrogance.

"Everyone is optimistic about this man," said Nasser Abu Kwait, 32, a barber in Ramallah in the West Bank. "He is different and he could be a friend to the Muslim world."

Added Ikana Mardiastuti, who works at a research institute in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is the mother of a young boy: "For the Islamic world, these words are like a fresh breeze. I believe him."

Jamal Dahan, a 50-year-old taxi driver in Beirut's Muslim sector, called Obama "a modest person with a humanitarian view on world issues."

That contrasts sharply for Dahan with former President George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, whom Dahan called "an arrogant man who only knew military power."

Bush was widely disliked across the Arab and Muslim worlds, mostly for his administration's policies on Iraq, the detentions of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

But the strong antipathy went well beyond policy disputes: Many Muslims felt Bush often lectured them rather than trying to understand their positions on difficult issues like the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.

Not all see Obama as a true change.

"I will believe him only when I see his troops leave Iraq and when I see him telling the Israelis that it's time for you to leave the Palestinian territories," said Tariq Hussein, 25, who sells shoes at a shop in Ramallah. "Other than that it's all a political maneuver."

Ahmad Mulyadi, a university student in Jakarta, said: "He has to prove that it's not only lip service."

Even those who think Obama is sincere said they wonder if he can untie what Riad Kahwaji, director of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, called the Mideast's many problems.

A new hardline government in Israel could actually worsen tensions between Muslims and the United States, Kahwaji said.

"It's nice to see and hear (Obama's words). But this region is a mess, and there are a lot of hardline adversaries still out there," Kahwaji said. "The Middle East is like a long rope, with lots of knots to untie."

Erdal Tozluyurt, a shopkeeper in Ankara, Turkey, also worried that Obama's tone — "so different from Bush" — might not be enough.

"No one can bring peace to the Middle East," Tozluyurt said. "Ethnic strife there is not likely to end."

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Turkey; Mohammed Daraghmeh in the West Bank; Barbara Surk in the United Arab Emirates; Hussein Dakroub in Lebanon; and Niniek Karmini in Indonesia contributed to this report.