Though it was billed as a speech by US President Barack Hussain Obama to the Muslim world it was, in fact, aimed more at the Arabs. In fact if there was a secondary audience then that was Muslim America. However, the most daring thing for a US politician was his placing of Palestinian sufferings on the same plane as Jewish suffering.
His reiteration of the US rejection of Jewish settlements on occupied Arab land, in the face of Israeli intransigence, was quite politically risky. Bush Sr. failed to get reelected for a much lesser transgression, in Israeli eyes, than Obama's bold move.
The fact that he was going to call upon Arabs and Israelis to say in public what they acknowledge in private had already been widely publicised and he duly did so.
He, however, failed to say anything about the suffering of the Palestinian diaspora or their right of return, in the face of Israeli opposition, to Israel proper. He acknowledged those, when speaking about women's rights, Muslim majority countries like Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia by name who have elected women to lead them.
He announced that the US was going to partner with the OIC to fight Polio and offered to partner with any Muslim country that wanted to do so for the promotion of women's education.
He quoted extensively from the Holy Qura'an to emphasise the validity of his several profound arguments that he was trying to advance. He also, towards the end, quoted from what he called the "story" of Isra when the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Muhammad joined in prayer. After taking their names he also added at the end in Muslim style the phrase 'peace be upon them'.
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