THE GUARDIAN: US president urges all sides to look beyond 'suspicion and mistrust' to forge common ground against terrorism
In the Muslim nation that was his boyhood home, President Barack Obama acknowledged today that US relations are still frayed with the Islamic world despite his best efforts at repair. He urged all sides to look beyond "suspicion and mistrust" to forge common ground against terrorism.
Forcefully returning to a theme he sounded last year in visits to Turkey and Egypt, Obama said: "I have made it clear that America is not and never will be at war with Islam ... Those who want to build must not cede ground to terrorists who seek to destroy."
Beaming with pride, Obama delivered perhaps the most intensely personal speech of his presidency, speaking phrases in Indonesian to a cheering crowd of more than 6,000 mostly young people who claimed him as their own. "Let me begin with a simple statement: Indonesia is part of me," he said in Indonesian at the University of Indonesia.
He praised the world's most populous Muslim nation for standing its ground against "violent extremism" and said: "All of us must defeat al-Qaida and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion. This is not a task for America alone." >>> Associated Press in Jakarta | Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Guardian Photo Gallery: Barack Obama visits Indonesia: US president returns to Jakarta, where he lived for four years as a child, to meet the president and visit the country's largest mosque >>> | Tuesday, November 09, 2010
[Obama] said both sides have a choice: either "be defined by our differences and give in to a future of suspicion and mistrust" or "do the hard work of forging common ground and commit ourselves to the steady pursuit of progress." [Source: The Guardian]
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has acknowledged that US relations are still frayed with the Islamic world despite his best efforts and urged all sides to look beyond "suspicion and mistrust" to forge common ground against terrorism.
Speaking in Indonesia, where he lived from the ages of six to ten, he declared that "Indonesia is a part of me".
And he forcefully returned to a theme that he sounded last year in visits to Turkey and Egypt.
He said: "I have made it clear that America is not and never will be at war with Islam. ... Those who want to build must not cede ground to terrorists who seek to destroy."
Beaming with pride, Mr Obama delivered perhaps the most intensely personal speech of his presidency, speaking phrases in Indonesian to a cheering crowd of more than 6,000 mostly young people who claimed him as their own. It felt oddly like one of the campaign speeches Mr Obama had been giving in the US, with music blaring over speakers inside the auditorium.
For Mr Obama's standing abroad, the speech was closely watched and consequential, an update on America's "new beginning" with Muslims that he promised last year in Cairo.
"Let me begin with a simple statement: Indonesia is part of me," he said in Indonesian at the University of Indonesia. Read on and comment >>> | Wednesday, November 10, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Muslim minister defends shaking Michelle Obama's hand: A conservative Muslim government minister admits he shook hands with Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, in welcoming her to Indonesia but says it was not his choice. >>> | Tuesday, November 09, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Barack Obama returns to Jakarta and confesses 'I barely recognise it': Vist to capital of Indonesia – home to US president in 1960s – stripped to diplomatic essentials >>> Toni O'Loughlin in Jakarta | Tuesday, November 09, 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Obama im Land seiner Kindheit: Wirtschaftliche Beziehungen im Vordergrund des Staatsbesuchs >>> afp | Dienstag, 09. November 2010
LE TEMPS: Barack Obama, grand admirateur de l’Indonésie: Le président américain a érigé ce mercredi en modèle de tolérance et de démocratisation ce grand pays méconnu sur la scène internationale qu’il voit «jouer un rôle important au XXIe siècle» >>> AFP | Mercredi 10 Novembre 2010
