Global Voices Online

The date is all set. US President Barack Hussain Obama will deliver his much anticipated speech on relations with the Muslim world in Egypt on June 4 and the Egyptian blogosphere is as divided as ever, with some questioning whether Obama will turn a blind eye to the country's human rights record.

And although the speech and its content and impact on relations with the region are taking a backseat for the moment, the pressing question on many bloggers' minds is: “Why Egypt?”

Rantings of a Sandmonkey doesn't hide his excitement, taunting other countries which have not been selected for the ‘honour' in the process. He writes:

So, the one has chosen the land of the Nile to make his appeal to the muslim world, choosing it over options like Saudi (the birthplace of Islam), Jordan (Hey America, we will do anything for you to like us), Turkey (The Secular Muslim people, and part ally who likes to put its nose in everything) and Indonesia (They housed Obama when he was still an innocent muslim baby, before the evil Cross worshipers got to him..Boo on them).For practical reasons, the choice is brilliant, because in order to appeal to the muslim world, you have to do it from an arab country, otherwise the arab muslims won't respond. It's a chauvinism thing. The first muslims and all. So, yeah, Turkey would've been a bad choice for that reason, if not also due to its safety (yeah go to the muslim country that actually shows sex on TV). Ditto for Indonesia and any southasian countries, who, regrettebly, all of the arab countries regard as subhumansand thus an insulting choice. Saudi would've been too on the nose, especially after “the bow”, and Jordan, well, they are too small and too eager to please really. So, yeah, Egypt, as a choice makes sense (biggest arab islamic country, women can drive here, we are secular but not really, and no bowing has occured between Obama and Mubarak…yet). And for Personal reasons, I like it, because it's like the ugly girl getting picked to go to the prom by the school's top hunk.

On the lack of support the visit is getting from some circles in Cairo, Sandmonkey notes:

Lots of democracy activists are not happy, especially leftists ones. They are considering the visit as cowering to a dictator and giving him undeserved prominence. This is incredibly funny to me personally, because I always thought their position on America's push for democracy and rights in Egypt as “unwanted imperialistic interference in Egyptian affairs, and anyone who wants it is a tratorous stupid ignorant zionist jew spy dog”. At least this was the case the Bush years. How time changes things.

Moh@lyics poses several questions on the upcoming visit, among them:

What does it mean that Obama after more than 100 days of thinking choose Egypt to address and reconnect the Muslim world?

Does this mean that the US see a potential in Egypt to rise and take its abdicated role again?

Does this mean that the US will ignore the authoritarian ruling issues that were the main point of conflict with the Bush admin.?

For more of Mohaly's questions and responses from his readers, click on the link above.

And Zeinobia, who writes at Egyptian Chronicles, is also excited with the choice and says:

Cairo is the true choice as the heart of the Arab world indeed with its weight and history in the region ,it would be the prefect place to address the Arab Muslim world despite the fact that its regime is considered Pro-American but on the other hand Obama can’t say that speech in other countries in the region whether for security measures or for political measures “French influence zone” or for influence measures.

Moving on the practical matters, Zeinobia starts thinking out aloud about the venue of the speech:

But I wonder how the security will be in Cairo then and where he will say that speech taken in consideration it will not be like his speech in Germany. Will it be from the parliament or from Al-Azhar or from the Presidential palace or even Abdeen Palace which only is opened from VIPs guests when Mubarak wants to impress them.

Zeinobia also shares more of her thoughts on the visit in other post here.

Meanwhile, writing at Foreign Policy Passport, Marc Lynch casts doubt on Cairo as a venue and then notes:

I imagine that the choice of Cairo came about by process of elimination. They probably wanted it to be a core Arab country, since he already spoke in Turkey and presumably will go on a homecoming trip to Indonesia down the road. Saudi Arabia is a non-starter, the other Gulf states are too small to carry the weight, and no North African states really fit the bill. Lebanon has an election coming up and a host of its own issues. Tehran… wouldn't that be a corker, but no. I had been hoping for Jerusalem — talk about high impact — but that would have been a security nightmare, a political football, and at any rate would have turned it into an “Israeli-Palestinian” event instead of a Muslim world event. Ditto for Baghdad — security, plus it would become an “Iraq” event. Jordan would have been good, I think, but Egypt is a weightier and richer location in Arab political and cultural terms. So there you go.

For more on Lynch's insight, click on the link above.

Writing in Arabic, Wa7da Masrya, says:

Despite all this, the Alexandria-based blogger remains hopeful:

Muslim Brotherhood blogger Abdulmonem Mahmood, who writes at Ana Ikhwan, wonders whether Obama would interact with the brotherhood during his visit. He writes [Ar]: