As promised during his campaign, the president delivered an hour-long address in Cairo, Egypt, covering issues from the war on terror to democracy and religious freedom, in an attempt to reach out to the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims.

"I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world -- one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition," Obama said.

The president sought to bring attention to Muslim contributions to the modern world and stress common ground between the United States and Muslim states. He heavily focused on his early life in Muslim Indonesia as well as his Muslim family members.

Obama quoted the Koran, resulting in thunderous applause and even one person shouting out “We love you.”

He said that is experience of Islam on three continents has shaped an attitude of tolerance toward the religion and its culture.

"That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear," Obama said to applause. He said neither Muslims nor Americans, though, can fit the "crude stereotype" they are sometimes assigned.

Obama’s recent desire to bring attention to his Muslim roots has some concerned.

In an interview yesterday, Obama stated that America is one of the world’s largest Muslim countries. A statement that is factually incorrect.

"Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples."

The Weekly Standard pointed out that Obama's claim of America’s Muslim population making it one of the largest Islamic countries is not demographically true. The most generous estimates put America's Muslim population at about 8 million, which would barely place the U.S. in the top 42 Muslim countries.

The Standard's Michael Goldfarb comments, "Obama is undertaking a very significant reorientation of American foreign policy, and one hopes that he isn't doing so on the very mistaken belief that the U.S. is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.

"Actually, if you look at the number of Jewish Americans, we'd be the largest Jewish country in the world after Israel. And America is the largest Christian country in the world. This context might be useful to the president as he tries to help the Muslim world better understand the United States," Goldfarb writes.

 What exactly Obama “experienced” on those three continents is also troubling.

During his presidential campaign, his website contained the statement, "Senator Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ."

However, public records in Indonesia, as well as testimonies from childhood friends would seem to indicate the opposite.

Widely distributed reports have noted that in January 1968 Obama was registered as a Muslim at Jakarta's Roman Catholic Franciscus Assisi Primary School under the name Barry Soetoro. (Catholic schools in Indonesia routinely accept non-Catholic students but exempt them from studying religion) He was listed as an Indonesian citizen whose stepfather, listed on school documents as "L Soetoro Ma," worked for the topography department of the Indonesian Army.

After attending the Assisi Primary School, Obama was enrolled "also as a Muslim, according to documents" in the Besuki Primary School, a public school in Jakarta.

Laotze blog, run by an American expatriate in Southeast Asia who visited the Besuki school, noted, "All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school, and a young 'Barry Soetoro,' being a Muslim, would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam."

As a matter of fact, Obama confirmed this in his autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," when he acknowledged studying the Quran and described the public school as "a Muslim school."

Also, Loatze pointed out that in an interview with the Indonesian daily Banjarmasin Post, an Obama classmate and Muslim described Obama as "previously quite religious in Islam."

After sending a reporter to Jakarta, The Los Angeles Times quoted Zulfin Adi, who identified himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends, stating the presidential candidate prayed in a mosque, something Obama's campaign claimed he never did.

"We prayed, but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque," said Adi. "But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played."

In an interview with the New York Times, Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset."

The Times' Nicholos Kristof wrote Obama recited, "with a first-class [Arabic] accent," the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer.

The first few lines of the call to prayer state:

Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet ...

In his speech Thursday, Obama went on to express regret for the war in Iraq, which he opposed when he was a state legislator, and called it a reminder of the need to use diplomacy over force when possible. He then went on to try to convince Muslims that the current fight against extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a worthy one, though he said the U.S. does not seek a permanent presence in the region.

"In Ankara, I made clear that America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam," he said, referencing his speech to the Turkish parliament on his last overseas tour. "We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject -- the killing of innocent men, women and children. And it is my first duty as president to protect the American people."

He continued: "Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism -- it is an important part of promoting peace."

When he addressed the most controversial of topics, Obama only added to the controversy.

The speech included a message to the terrorist organization Hamas, calling on the network to join the mainstream Palestinian coalition, hence legitimizing their regime.

"Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have to recognize they have responsibilities, to play a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations, to unify the Palestinian people, Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist," Obama said.

Obama also waded deeper into the debate over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

On one hand, the president called the United States bond with Israel “unbreakable" and called those who denied the Holocaust “ignorant” and “hateful,” on the other he insisted that Israel stop constructing “settlements” and declared Palestinian statehood is the only resolution to the conflict in the region.    

"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace," he said. "It is time for these settlements to stop."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused and insisted on Israel's right to "natural growth" in the “settlements,” a politically motivated term coined to de-legitimize what are essentially just neighborhoods.

In an unusual rebuke, fellow Democrats have expressed concern that the president might be crossing the line with Israel.

"I think the president went beyond where I think it was appropriate for us to go in dealing with another democracy," said Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner.

"Any conversations about settlements, which are perfectly reasonable, have to be coupled with a sincere effort on the part of the Palestinians."

Weiner told a news conference he agreed with Netanyahu's stance.

"To say that a family that introduces a new child to their house can't build a wing onto their home, I think goes beyond what I think should be US policy," Weiner said.

"We have to be careful not to cross the line where it sounds like we are exerting the overwhelming pressure that we have at our disposal on our rather isolated ally ... The concern that we have is that that line has been approached by President Obama."

Weiner is not alone in his concerns. Other Democrats, who enjoy a sweeping majority in both House and Senate, have made similar statements.

The administration's stance "was a decisive change of American policy and prior American-Israeli agreements" of the past 20 years, said Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat.

"We are very, very concerned that the statements were made so publicly to such a close and strong ally as the state of Israel."

New York Congressman Joseph Crowley said he was "very careful in questioning another democracy and the decisions that they make that would impose on their sovereignty."

Israel, he added, "has demonstrated over and over again her willingness to work towards a lasting peace within the Middle East."

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