It’s True

From Matt Armstrong at Mountain_Runner:
To let the American public get updates to the President’s  [Ghana] speech via SMS is dangerous and, presumably, equivalent to Al Qaeda and Taleban propaganda. No wait, those messages come through just fine so it must be worse than that and even Iranian, Russian, and Chinese Government propaganda. If you’re an [...]

Give Al-Hurra some credit

A recent  Zogby poll  suggests that ratings for Al-Hurra, the US-government sponsored Arabic TV station, are dropping.  Inevitably, we are going to start hearing people criticizing the station as a waste of resources but I say give it some credit. 
I suspect that the Zogby polls  are probably inflate overstating  the station’s lack of influence reach.  The methodology [...]

Egyptians and “the Speech”

“Hey Rob, what do Egyptians think about Obama coming to Cairo?” 
I’ve been asked this alot recently, so I guess I owe some people a quick post.   There are two broad reactions:  one small group is excited; the larger group doesn’t care or is hostile.  And yes, before anyone gets mad,  there may be some exceptions to each rule….
1) The [...]

Thoughts on engaging Islamists/the Cairo speech

It’s good  to see a new willingness in US foreign policy circles to reevaluate the broad hostility to all things Islamist that emerged in Washington in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.  Obviously, this was the right approach towards al-Qaeda.  It wasn’t clear that it was a smart idea to refuse any contact with groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah [...]

What is he talking about?

I still am confused after reading Egyptian author Alaa Aswany’s Sunday editorial in The New York Times:
PRESIDENT OBAMA is clearly trying to reach out to the Muslim world. I watched his Inaugural Address on television, and was most struck by the line: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.” [...]

Obama’s Public diplomacy

Editor’s Note:  mregypt is an Egyptian  who lives in Cairo. 
I cannot find any other reason for the fuss that’s made for Obama’s speech except one:  that he came after Bush. I hardly noticed any attention to the interview in the Arab street, as for the Arab media I only noticed a passing reference here.   If anyone [...]