At the very core of President Obama’s speech on June 4^th in Cairo was the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. President Obama spoke of many things in his nearly one hour speech, but throughout what he was really talking about was mutual respect among all peoples. That no matter what religion or country we come from, no matter what color our skin is or what language we speak that we are all created by God and that we all need to treat each other as fellow human beings, deserving of dignity and respect.

As a Muslim American I was also very touched by the fact that he mentioned the many important contributions of Muslims to world history, knowledge, culture and the arts and that he also recognized the particular and unfair discrimination that American Muslims have suffered, especially since 9-11. He also paid special attention to the conflict in Palestine/Israel, laying out both the rights and responsibilities of the people on each side of the conflict. This brings much needed attention to an important aspect of this difficult problem that has been missing with previous administrations.

Some would say that our 44^th president has laid out an overly ambitious plan. Yes, it is an ambitious plan which amounts to nothing less than a dream for world peace. Every great accomplishment begins with a dream and President Obama has articulated his dream and the dream of many of us so that we can begin to put it into action. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream…” but he didn’t stop there. He and many others worked hard for years to make the dream a reality. That work continues and it is my hope that Americans and Muslims and all people around the world will work together to help accomplish this age-old dream.

See link to full text of speech here.