Why Muslims abandoned Obama

Despite outreach by the president, his approval rating in the Muslim world has plummeted. Are positive U.S.-Muslim relations a lost cause?

The Muslim attitude towards Obama has shifted since the president visited Cairo in June 2009.
(Image credit: Getty)

President Barack Obama's unprecedented effort to reach out to the Muslim world seems to have failed. A year after his landmark speech in Cairo, Egypt, favorability ratings of the U.S. and confidence in Obama to "do the right thing" have slipped significantly among Muslims, according to a recent Pew Research study of nearly 25,000 people in 22 countries. (Watch an excerpt from Obama's Cairo speech.) Why are Muslims giving up on Obama?

U.S. foreign policy is to blame: "Clearly, most Muslims aren’t happy with what the US is doing," says Francine Kiefer in The Christian Science Monitor. "Large majorities strongly object to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq," and nearly nobody supports Obama's handling of Iran. But "the clincher" is America's handling of "the Israeli-Palestinian problem." Without changing our approach to that issue, we won't make much headway with the Muslim world.

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