More Than A Speech

Africans, Iranians, Pakistanis all stop in for lunch -- and they don't all agree. "The Muslim world for one is not homogeneous. Not united," says Pakistani student Mariam Sabri.

Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine says the President has the Arab world's attention. On the streets of Cairo, merchants hawk t-shirts hailing him as a new Pharaoh. "This guy is building on a slowly burgeoning wave of good will," says Ibish. "He could increase that if he says the right things. And I think he will."

But many Muslims remain angry about the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, America's close ties with Israel, and it's treatment of terrorism suspects.

"We need to hear something a little more substantive this time about how he sees America's relationship withe the Arab and Muslim world changing," says Yousef Munayyer of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

It's a tough balance. On the eve of the speech, the President demanded Israel suspend settlement activity. And touched off a wave of recriminations in Jerusalem.

"The Arab Israeli conflict is the prism of pain through which all international relations are judged," says Ibish.

But in some ways, the concerns of people in the MidEast may not be so different from the concerns of the lunch crowd at Moby Dick. "People in the Mideast don't have a lot of opportunity," says Muslim American Lindsey Stephenson, who has spent many years living in the Middle East. "He needs to talk about education, and how they're going to create jobs."

The speech is slated for tomorrow night at 6:10 our time.

American embassies will plaster translations all over Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter in hopes of giving more people in the Muslim world a chance to see it.