- JAKARTA: President Barack Obama held up his boyhood home of Indonesia as an example to the Muslim world in a speech on Wednesday in which he said America was not at war with Islam but acknowledged it was hard to eradicate "years of mistrust."
"Relations between the United States and Muslim communities have frayed over many years ... I have made it a priority to begin to repair these relations," he told a crowd of thousands in Jakarta.
"I have made it clear that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. Instead, all of us must defeat Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion — certainly not a great, world religion like Islam."
His speech was an update to an address he gave 17 months ago in Cairo where he declared a "new beginning" in US-Muslim relations after the tensions over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Washington's response.
But since his Cairo address, much of the good will Obama generated in the Muslim world has been lost. US troops remain in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his promise to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center has not been fulfilled. Muslim countries also say he has not done enough to rein in Israeli settlement building.
Indonesian religious leaders and analysts welcomed Obama's words, but said the problem was that he has yet to match his rhetoric with concrete action to address Muslim concerns.
In Cairo, many Egyptians were similarly skeptical. "It's all speeches — in the end the same American politics, and Jewish politics, continues," said Cairo retiree Mohamed Abdel.
