Expectations High as Muslim World Awaits Obama

CAIRO, Egypt, June 3, 2009 — -- The excitement surrounding President Obama's speech is almost palpable in the Egyptian capital.

At Cairo University, where Obama will deliver his address to the Muslim world Thursday, they are sprucing up the campus. At nearby shopping malls, they're selling Obama T-shirts, including one calling him "a new King Tut for the world."

Even on Arabic news channels, the president is getting unusually favorable coverage.

"You don't feel that people are angry at watching the American administration on screen," said Najwa Kassem, an anchor with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya. "They are ready to listen to him. They are waiting [to hear] what he's going to say."

But judging from the words of Muslims across the region this week, Obama faces a long list of demands.

Ingy Ah-tallah, a business major at the American University of Cairo, told us she would be listening for specific policy changes when she attends the speech Thursday.

"We don't want to hear promises, promises, promises," she said. "We want to hear an action plan or steps forward to solve problems that the Muslim world is continuously facing with the U.S."

In the West Bank, action means a Palestinian state.

"I want to hear him to say, we want two states for the two people, Palestinian and Israelis," said Ribhi Asfour, a shopkeeper.

In Pakistan, it's an end to American air strikes.

"They may talk in our favor, but inside their mission is to harm us and make us fight," one person said.

Obama is admired for reversing some of the most despised U.S. policies -- withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and working to close Guantanamo Bay.

A poll by Ipsos found Muslims rate Obama more favorably than America itself, though still only a minority do so in half the countries surveyed.