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'Building bridges': Obama courts Muslims

President Barack Obama said that Washington's effort to reach out to the Muslim world would help improve U.S. security, although he acknowledged that there was still more work to do.
Image: U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive in Jakarta
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday.Jason Reed / Reuters
/ Source: msnbc.com news services

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Washington's effort to reach out to the Muslim world would help improve U.S. security, although he acknowledged that there was still more work to do.

Obama arrived on Tuesday on a twice-postponed trip to Indonesia, the world's most populous majority-Muslim state. Before leaving on Wednesday, he plans a major speech reaching out to the Muslim world that would tout Indonesia as an example of an emerging democracy and tolerant society.

Indonesia was Obama's home for four years as a child.

"With respect to outreach to the Muslim world, I think that our efforts have been earnest and sustained," he said at a joint news conference with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.  "We don't expect that we are going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings and mistrust that have developed over a long period of time, but we do think that we're on the right path."

Obama still enjoys strong support in Indonesia, even as confidence in him has dropped in other Muslim states since he made a first major speech in Cairo in June 2009 reaching out to the Muslim world.

The long U.S. wars in Muslim nations Afghanistan and Iraq have cost him support. A hardline Islamic group in the mostly moderate Muslim Indonesia has protested against his visit.

The president said he wants to make sure America is "building bridges and expanding our interactions with Muslim countries."

Obama described a range of efforts the United States is making to reach out to Muslims, including education and business initiatives, such as a meeting Obama hosted this year that brought Muslim entrepreneurs from around the world to Washington.

"By broadening the relationship, that strengthens it, it builds trust, creates more people-to-people contact," Obama said.  "That will be good for our security but it will also be good for the larger cause of understanding between the United States and the Muslim world. I think it's an incomplete project we've got a lot more work to do. It's not going to eliminate or replace some tough dialogue around concrete policy issues."

'Extra effort'
Around 15,000 police and military personnel have massed to maintain security, in a city that saw bomb attacks on hotels last year but that has made progress in tackling Islamic militancy.

At his news conference, Obama also expressed deep concern that Israelis and Palestinians aren't making the "extra effort" to secure a breakthrough for achieving Middle East peace.

Obama said he hasn't seen the kind of progress in negotiations that "could finally create a framework for a secure Israel living side by side in peace with a sovereign Palestine."

Asked about Israeli settlement construction in East Jerusalem, Obama said, "Each of these incremental steps can end up breaking that trust between these parties."

Obama also marveled over "sights and sounds" that evoked memories of the past and said that Indonesia's landscape of today barely resembles the land where he went to live at age 6 in 1967 after his mother married an Indonesian man.

The U.S. sees Indonesia as a counterweight to China's growing strength, though Obama said Tuesday he's not seeking to stop China's growth.

"We think China being prosperous and secure is a positive," Obama said. "We're not interested in containing that process."

Earlier, the White House said the president's 20-hour trip could be cut short because of atmospheric ash belched by eruptions from Mount Merapi volcano, 375 miles away.

'So glad to return'
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrived on a gray, humid day in Indonesia's capital, and were greeted by dozens of dignitaries at Istana Merdeka, a white-columned presidential palace reminiscent of the White House. Obama greeted some of the officials in Indonesian as he shook their hands.

"I am so glad to return to Indonesia and hope the bonds between our two countries continue to grow stronger," Obama wrote in an official welcome book in the state palace complex, NBC News reported.

Obama's abbreviated schedule doesn't allow time for him to visit childhood haunts, but he intends to speak to his personal biography at an address to a large crowd at the University of Indonesia scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Obama's stepfather was Muslim, and during his time in Indonesia Obama occasionally studied the Quran and visited a local mosque. Although Obama is Christian, that background helped foster enduring rumors in the U.S. about the president's religion.

Indonesia's importance as a U.S. ally is on the rise, even if the joy over Obama's election has faded since he became president almost two years ago.

Indonesians all over this country of more than 17,000 islands gathered around television sets in their houses, coffee shops and office buildings as Obama's plane touched down.

As Southeast Asia's biggest economy and a G20 member, Indonesia has proved resilient to the financial crisis and has become a hot destination for emerging market investors looking to tap strong consumer demand, abundant resources and political stability.

"We see in Indonesia the intersection of a lot of key American interests, and we see this as a partnership that is very important to the future of American interests in Asia and the world," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, ahead of the visit.

Obama's trip comes after two previously scheduled trips were put off — in March as he fought to pass his healthcare overhaul law and in June as he faced the cleanup of the massive BP oil spill. The delays disappointed and angered some Indonesians.

Obama tours Asia

Slideshow  42 photos

Obama tours Asia

Barack and Michelle Obama are on a 10-day tour of Asia. In addition to India, the President and first lady will visit Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

Jakarta is the second stop on Obama's 10-day four-nation Asian tour. He spent three days in India, where his emphasis was on developing business links that could lead to U.S. jobs, and will later will visit South Korea, where he attends a G20 summit and Yokohama, Japan, for an Asia-Pacific economic meeting.

Obama and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are expected to sign a "Comprehensive Partnership" they agreed to a year ago.

The pact covers security, economic and people-to-people issues, said Jeffrey Bader, Obama's top Asian adviser. Obama could announce millions in funding to fight climate change by protecting Indonesia's forests, sources say, although large corporate deals have not been flagged.

The United States exports only about $6 billion worth of goods to Indonesia each year, making it America's 37th largest market, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Two-way trade is likely to pick up slightly to around $20 billion this year.

Abuses Since emerging from decades of dictatorship under Gen. Suharto in 1998, the nation of 237 million people has made tremendous strides toward democracy, scrapping repressive laws, freeing the media and allowing citizens to directly pick their own leaders.

But while its military has made tentative steps toward reforms, it continues to be accused of abusing citizenry in the sprawling nation's separatist-torn regions, like Papua.

Activists are regularly given lengthy prison terms for peacefully expressing their views, organizing rallies or for simply raising pro-independence flags.

Foreign journalists, human rights workers and academics are denied access to the region, making allegations of abuse almost impossible to verify.

But increasingly videos showing political dissidents being tortured by men who were allegedly soldiers are surfacing online.

'Freedom!' In August, footage emerged of a prisoner, Yawen Wayeni, lying in a jungle clearing moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet, sending intestines tumbling from his stomach.

Using the little life he has left in him, he lifts his arm into the air, and says weakly, "Freedom! Papua ... Freedom!"

In both cases, the government promised to investigate.

The United States agreed under the George W. Bush administration to lift a trade embargo imposed over concerns about military human rights violations under Suharto — partially to reward the country's efforts to fight terrorism.

And in July, Obama decided to lift a decade-long ban on military assistance to a notoriously violent commando unit, known as Kopassus, as the administration sought to shore up influence in the region amid increasing challenges from China.

U.S.-trained forces at the core of Indonesia's anti-terror fight, Detachment 88, have also been accused of torturing pro-independence activists from the Moluccan islands in 2007 after they unfurled their flag at a ceremony attended by the president.

The were beaten, forced to crawl on their stomachs over hot asphalt, whipped with an electric cable and hit on the head with rifle butts until their ears bled, according to Amnesty International.