From Ed Henry, Candy Crowley and Ed Hornick
President Obama travels to the Middle East on Tuesday in an effort to repair a damaged U.S. image -- and seemingly reset relations with the Muslim world.
It's a process that has been in the works since his first week in office.
"My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect," Obama said in a January interview with Al-Arabiya television network. "I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries."
In a speech to the Turkish Parliament, Obama tried to make a clean break from the rhetoric of the Bush era.
"So let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam," he said.
According to estimates, there are more than 1 billion Muslims in the world, the vast majority of them moderates who want to hear that they are part of the solution to world security.
Obama says the goal of the speech that he'll deliver in Cairo on Thursday -- and of recent efforts to reach out to Muslims -- is to "open a dialogue."
"There are misapprehensions about the West on the part of the Muslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West," Obama said in a recent interview with the BBC. "And it is my firm belief that no one speech is going to solve every problem. There are no silver bullets. There are very real policy issues that have to be worked through that are difficult."
Continues:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/02/obama.trip/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
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