Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, left, welcomes U.S. President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama delivered a 54 minute speech from Cairo, Egypt to the Muslim world.  One analyst described it as being more powerful than his speech delivered in Philadelphia regarding race in America after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright incident. Due to his diverse heritage, no combination of US presidents could, in my opinion, do what this speech did so quickly. 

He is an African-American man with a Muslim father, who lived in a Muslim country with the largest Muslim population in the world.  During the long grueling campaign he made a commitment that within the first 100 days he would deliver a speech from a major Muslim capital to reach out to the Muslim populations of the world.  It may have taken him a little longer, but he kept his commitment. These are the characteristics that produce a level of respect from the Muslim world towards the new American president and the direction his administration is forging. 

The selection of the words in this speech struck a chord in the Muslim world as he received congratulations and thanks from Muslims throughout the world. He struck a chord into their suffering and implied that he understood the past eight years produced indemnity between our nations.  Not only have they suffered from the Islamophobia, religious and racial profiling, they have also suffered torture, and false imprisonment. 

The speech was translated into 13 languages and immediately put on Web sites youtube, facebook, myspace and twitter.  The words that the president spoke when he said that Americans cannot always presume what is best for the rest of the world has proven to take the sting of how the Islamic world and other non-Muslims view America after the tragic eight years of the Bush/Cheney madness.  Most Muslims were in awe and never thought that in their lifetime, they would hear a president of the United States quoting the Holy Quran.  He quoted it three times in his speech.
He closed his speech with something that is an ultimate concern for the world, economic growth and development.  He announced that he would partner with the Organization of Islamic Conference.