being with us. have a good weekend. we want to malcowelcome abderram foukara. i want to begin with this treat that gives us an account. it says "we will never solve their problems. the u.s. should get out of other people's business. there are enough problems at home to worry about." how do you respond to that?

guest: at least a philosophy of the speech yesterday was extraordinary in so many different ways. one of goes -- one of them goes to the heart of the issue you just raised. you have the president of the united states who travels to the muslim world to deliver a speech. almost as if that part of the muslim world was part of the american constituency. this is something that he talked about during his election period. it was almost as if he was trying to live up to a promise that he had given arabs and muslims to address their concerns in the middle east. it is just a measure of how interconnected the world has become. it was obvious that he was talking to three different constituencies. although the speech was primarily for muslims, he was clearly talking to israelis as well. you could also see eyes in the back of his head looking at the home base of the united states.

when he was delivering that speech. host: he also addressed the issue of human rights. let's share part of that. >> i do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for a certain thing. the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed, confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice, a government that is transparent and does not steal from the people, the freedom to live as you choose. these are not just american ideas. they are human rights. that is why we will support them everywhere. [applause] host: his audience? guest: it was obviously destined primarily to the muslim world, but it was also does tend to the american audience.

he was clearly thinking that people back in the united states would be saying -- why is he doing this? why is he doing this on behalf of the united states? he is explaining to people back at home that democracy is in the best interest of the united states. he is also addressing the issue of democracy in that part of the world. obviously, what he said in that particular regard is nothing new. the previous administration, despite all its failings in the region, had talked about democracy a great deal. condoleezza rice said more less the same thing. the thing for the president is that he goes to the region at a time when there is actually -- there is great interest as far

as the democratic debate. there is also a great deal of skepticism about the democracy project in the wake of all the chaos that followed the 2003 invasion of iraq. they want democracy. they are a little bit skeptical about it. the overriding concern was the overriding concern that people had in the arab and muslim world. that is the israel/palestine issue. host: we're getting reaction to the president's speech. the numbers are on the bottom of the screen. you can also send us an e-mail or a tweet. "and the moderate element of the muslims effectively address the extreme element to bring about change on the ground?" guest: the issue of extremism is a real issue. having said that, sitting in the

united states or in europe or anywhere else outside of the muslim world, when you hear about -- what you hear about constantly is extremism. the reality of the situation is that the vast majority of people in the muslim world from morocco to indonesia, where president barack obama spent part of his childhood, their overriding concern is that it just want to lead a decent, normal life, just like people in the united states or europe or anywhere else. there is that fringe that is basically directly tied to these entrenched political problems that we keep talking about, whether they are home grown like the issue of lack of human rights and democratic practice, or they are connected to outside forces.

take the invasion of iraq in 2003 as an example or afghanistan, which basically produced 9/11. we know that afghanistan, and during the soviet occupation, the americans played a very important role in working with the afghans to actually defeat the soviet occupation. once the soviet occupation was defeated, the americans cut loose and left. host: good morning. welcome to the program. caller: good morning. i was glad to see president obama speak, but i'm concerned that the message did not heard back here in the united states. one of the earlier caller was saying that she did not like barack obama because she thought he had a muslim part. it seems to me like we still do not get it over here that these are people like our fellow

christians that have extremists as well. i got to know a muslim working for the audit department and he was a wonderful gentleman. he just had a different faith in may. i think we need to bridge the gap between understanding what muslims are about. guest: the caller is absolutely correct. the issue of terrorism exists in every faith. it has existed in every phase, including christianity in various phases of history. in fact, even more recently, if you look at what happened in the issue of northern ireland in recent decades, one thing that always raises my concern -- that is how the issue of israel /palestine has fed into a

discourse that basically goes to say that you have jews and you have christians on the one hand and then you have muslims on the other hand. president obama did talk about this in his speech yesterday. there are a lot of christian minorities. throughout islamic history, the jews played a very important part in muslim culture and civilization that tends to be discarded. especially when we talk about israel and palestine. all we hear within that discourse is that muslims hate jews and judeo-christian heritage forces muslim heritage. the reality of it is much more complex than that. the reality is that is long, at various point in history, was a lot more accommodating to jews than christianity was, certainly

in the 19th and the 20th century in europe, given the holocaust that actually took place there. host: our guest is the washington bureau chief for al jazeera arabic, abderrahim foukara. he also worked for wgbh in boston. thought want to share with you one of the many editorials. this one is from "the wall street journal. a one of the points is that hanging over all of this, the question of iran and how to deal with it. then this point that if mr. obama is serious about stopping to iran, he has to do a couple of steps that i outlined. guest: the issue of iran is interesting. the way that the president handled it in his speech yesterday -- obviously, it

caused some waves in the arab and muslim world. there are basically two trends, if you will, in the middle east about the issue of iran there are people who see iran's attempts to acquire a nuclear capability as potentially leading to iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. they're very nervous about that. a nuclear iran, they feel, will definitely destabilize the middle east. that school of thought exists more in the official circles in the middle east, in egypt and saudi arabia, some of the gulf countries. among the populace, it is different feeling. among the populace, they s