USAToday: Obama to Muslim world: A ‘new beginning’ has started

President Obama said tonight that the U.S. will set up exchange programs with business people throughout the Muslim world as part of the overall outreach program he outlined last year.

“The new beginning we seek is not only possible, it has already begun,” Obama told the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C.

The exchange programs will include business opportunities in Silicon Valley, technology, telecommunications, health care, education and infrastructure, Obama told the summit that included delegates from the U.S. and Muslim countries.

The summit was one of the ideas Obama pitched during his June speech in Cairo outlining “a new beginning between the United States and Muslim communities.”

“Over the past year the United States has been reaching out and listening,” he said.

That includes winding down the war in Iraq, working with Afghanistan and Pakistan to “isolate violent extremists,” and seeking a peaceful two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, Obama said.

There has also been cultural outreach, Obama said — including a comic book series in which Superman and Batman work with their Muslim counterparts.

“And I hear they’re making progress,” Obama said.

(Posted by David Jackson)

Source: USAToday