Obama in Cairo

Will the president talk tough in his address to Muslims?

President Obama is walking into one of the "trickiest" moments of his young presidency, said USA Today in an editorial. On Thursday, Obama will make a speech in Cairo aiming to "reboot soured U.S. relations with the Islamic world." To pull it off, he'll have to "condemn human-rights abuses without grievously offending his host, repressive Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, or the Saudi royal family."

Obama has "avoided forceful talk about the failures of contemporary Islam" for too long, said Joseph Loconte in The Weekly Standard. "No honest conversation with Muslim leaders" can ignore the "cancerous growth of radical Islam." And no address in Cairo can sidestep the "bald truth" that "Egypt, the recipient of $2 billion in U.S. aid each year, offers a case study in the repressive consequences of an Islamic state."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us