High hopes

World peace is what students expect Obama to promise in his landmark speech at Cairo University, finds Dena Rashed

---

It is exam time at Cairo University, and the atmosphere is tense. However, days before US President Barack Obama's visit to the university to deliver his first speech in Egypt, the atmosphere is different from usual at this time of year for students and those living and working around the university.

In front of the gates, students are waiting by photocopying machines to make copies of their revision notes. Others are taking a break after exams. Meanwhile, workers are putting the final touches to the gardens in the middle of the street, planting flowers under the trees to make the streets look their best for this important visit.

While the specifics of Obama's speech seem vague for many students, most have a belief more in the man than in his policies. "He can bring change and help with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He can bring peace," says Mohamed Essam, a law student taking a rest in the shade with two of his friends after their exams. Essam believes that Obama is coming to Egypt because he wants people to know that he is different from previous US presidents and that he wants to foster unity rather than division.

Some students also believe that Obama's Muslim family connections will make him feel more connected to the Islamic world and help him to understand the true nature of Islam, rather than the distorted image of the religion current in the West.

"He has a Muslim family, and that will help him to understand us. Besides, he is young and that means that he is more open to others," Essam adds. "We should do our share, too, and give more as Arabs and Muslims since we are asking the other party to understand us."

While Bilal Mohamed, a freshman at the Faculty of Arts, also finds Obama charismatic and inspirational, he believes that the US president's visit means that more will be expected of Muslims and Arabs. "We will never match America's expectations of us, and we should not count on America to solve our regional problems," Mohamed says.

The Arabs should unite and find a way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for themselves, he adds.

As debate continues among the students, others join in, with Hossam Mohamed, another freshman, hoping that Obama will not get easily frustrated. "I hope he can manage to help bring peace to the region, and that he will keep on trying despite all the challenges he will face," Mohamed says.

Resting on a car in front of the gates, four girls from the Faculty of Arts are also taking a break after finishing their exam. The four admit that they would not necessarily have known about Obama's visit to Egypt if he had chosen to give his speech somewhere other than Cairo University. "They postponed our English exam on Thursday to another day because of the visit, which is how I knew about it," says Doaa, a freshman. Explaining her lack of knowledge, Doaa says that "I go to college, study, take the exams, and that's what I focus on."

The four say that they had followed the US elections and had expected Obama to win. While they did not know much about Obama's policies, each had good impressions of him.

For Kholoud, also an Arts freshman, Obama's greatest asset is his positive outlook. "He wants to tell the Islamic world and the Arabs about his policies and his point of view," she commented in the face of her friend Doaa's scepticism. "He means well, but nothing is going to change in the region," the latter young woman said. "He will probably introduce change to his country but not to us."

Other students are simply happy to see Obama coming to Egypt and to Cairo University in particular.

"Having him at the university is amazing. He is well loved all over the world, and when he won the elections, people of all nationalities celebrated," says Mohamed Mustafa, a freshman at the Faculty of Arts.

Mustafa says that Obama's presidency is good news for everyone who loves peace, unlike that of his predecessor George W Bush. "Obama has promised to pull US troops out of Iraq, and he has shown that he is not a man who advocates war," Mustafa says. Though US forces are set to increase in Afghanistan, Mustafa argues that the situation there is different from that in Iraq, because in Afghanistan the Americans are "after Bin Laden and members of terrorist cells."

His colleague Hussein Lotfi also has a high opinion of Obama and believes that he has a lot to offer the Middle East. "He is showing good will. But we have to wait and see what will happen to his proposals," Lotfi says.

Meanwhile, at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, freshmen also see the positive side to Obama's visit to the university. "He is a man who refuses war, and I believe he will bring more democracy to the foreign policy of the US," says one student. Another argues that Obama's origins would make him more sympathetic to the views of the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Despite the variety of the opinions expressed, all the students wished they could attend Obama's speech. This, however, they thought could not happen for security reasons. Shop owners around the university also say that they had never seen such important security preparations for any other visit.

Abeer, the owner of a small kiosk in a side street leading to the university, says that all the shops in the main street would be closed on the day of the visit, though she did not know whether she would be asked to close her kiosk as well.

Mohamed Borey, owner of a bakery in front of the university, has been living and working in the area for the last 30 years and has never seen preparations of the sort now underway for anyone else.

"It's the first time they've checked everyone's ID cards in the area," Borey says. Yet, despite all the hassle and the security, Borey is glad Obama is coming.

"He looks like a decent man, and hopefully he will bring peace with him."

photo: Khaled El-Fiqi