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Muslims in London Have Great Expectations for Obama Speech


As President Obama prepares to make an address from Cairo to Muslims around the world, some Muslims in London have great expectations and hopes for what the American president will say.

London: the site of President Obama's first overseas trip as U.S. leader, and the people here thronged to see him.

Two months later, on the eve of his speech to the Arab world, Muslims in the heart of London' s Arab community acknowledge that the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world has been on shaky ground.

MEHERUN MISRA: "I don't think the relationship was that good [with] the Muslim world, because people are always blaming America for bringing war in Iraq, Palestinian [Territories] and Lebanon."

There is a lot of hope that President Obama will change that.

SALAH AL MAJID: "We hope, we pray to God for him to be good, and we want him to be good because he's a nice guy as a person we like him. We have nothing against him."

HAIDAR ALI: "We want him to be nice with all the people, not only Muslim, Christian, Muslim, all religion[s] actually. That's what I think."

AHMED ABDUL FATTAH SHISHA: "He's a good President I think, I think he will change a lot in the world."

But not everyone here agrees.

EDWARD AL RAWA: "What I like to hear him say? But he can't do anything, whatever he say it doesn't change anything, it's blah, blah."

At a local travel agency, manager Abir Barhan knows what he would like to hear in Cairo.

ABIR BARHAN: "We're here to help you, we're all one, this is one world, we're not here to fight you, we're not here to go into your country, we're here to heal wounds and to make things better for everybody. That's what I would like him to say."

RAWIA TAWFIK: "What we need are some practical policies about what's happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, the middle East Peace process, what the United States can do."

What the United States can do for the Muslim World is not clear cut.

While most here are optimistic, some are not.

MAN: "This is a game to make new relation with Islamic world, that people think, oh - Obama is very good and that America try to make a new relation, but is fake, is not real."

Mother of two Fatah Abedali says she is looking for something very real from President Obama.

FATEN ABEDALI: "I want him to say that the Muslims have every right to practice everything that they believe in as long as it's in a safe way without any violence or anything like that."

Muslims in London are looking for change from President Obama, but they wonder if it will be the change they want.

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