Thoughts on Obama's speech in Cairo

Obama's speech to the "Muslim world" in Cairo this past week was nothing less than exhilarating, at least for those in the U.S. who have been waiting restlessly for more honest dialogue about main concerns that Muslim countries have with the U.S. Obviously criticisms have been raised in the media that Obama was (predictably) a bit too vague, a bit too ideological, a bit too contradictory. Perhaps, but Obama also spoke more directly about Israel-Palestine, misconceptions from both the U.S. and Muslim countries, and threat of U.S. imperialism than any other government leader.

Still, I am a bit curious about the decision to make a speech in Cairo. Does where a speech is given matter as much as what is said? It does in diplomatic circles - it presents a certain context, it sets a particular but unspoken background. And at times not so unspoken. Today, Obama spoke at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, to make a particular statement. Obama spoke in Turkey earlier this year for precisely a particular reason as well - as he said, because Turkey precariously teeters between Europe and the Middle East. And now, Egypt, which has been a center for Islamic progress for centuries.

And yet curiously enough, Obama has chosen to speak to the Muslim world in countries that are essentially in the periphery of the region the government, and I suspect the larger U.S., considers to be threatening and unstable. I bring this up because Obama not only dealt with issues concerning Islam, religion and humanity. He spoke of problems concerning political development, democracy, women's rights, and Israel-Palestine. Thus he was not speaking to the Muslim world, but to an unstable region.

To distinguish a Middle East identity - geographically or ideologically - is simplistic and exclusive. And yet, to state that Egypt and Turkey are in the periphery of this amalgmation of a region requires some sort of explanation of what this core is - for which I admit I have none (we might as well mix Afghanistan and Pakistan into the mix, further blurring geographic boundaries). But it is no secret that Turkey has actively tried to remove itself from a largely Middle Eastern identity; and Egypt is shunned by many states in the region precisely because of its close ties to the U.S. and Israel.

So what precisely has been the impact of Obama's speech in the Muslim world? What would the impact have been if he had delivered the speech in Palestine, or Pakistan, or Iraq? What are we dealing with here - states or religion? I'm afraid the solution is getting as murky as the problem.