Obama’s address seemed to have been constructed around the belief that the Muslims constitute a monolithic community and that their actions are motivated by certain issues of common concern to all the Muslims of the world. This is a wrong belief. The Muslims are not a monolithic community and there is no common thread uniting the anger motivating the Muslims in different countries and different regions. There are Muslims and Muslims and issues and issues. If Obama wanted to address the Muslims of the world, Cairo was the wrong place from which to seek to do so. There was a time when Egypt was seen as the beacon of the Arab world. It is no longer so. Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda organizations project Egypt and its leaders as apostate. President Hosni Mubarak is a very unpopular Arab leader .Obama going to Cairo to deliver the address is seen by large sections of pro-Al Qaeda and pro-Taliban leaders as a leader of the American infidels travelling to the country of apostates to deliver an address to the Muslims from a platform provided by the apostates.

B. Raman (via azspot)

Yet, if Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are not in the Islamic mainstream, then Cairo was a perfect spot for Obama to give his speech. Who cares if our attempts to reconcile with the broad swathe of (supposedly) moderate and non-violent Muslims piss off the hard-line ideological radicals who are unwavering in their mission to kill infidels?