CAIRO: While only a mere 3,000 attendees watched President Barack Obama’s June 4 address from inside Cairo University’s grant hall, outside the heavily-policed university gates, over 20,000 others received highlights of the speech via mobile phone.
As part of its effort to reach out to the Muslim world, the White House offered a new service allowing callers worldwide to receive free text messages of President Obama’s speech in English, Arabic, Persian, or Urdu.
The service was available only to those living outside of the US, since using taxpayer dollars for “domestic propaganda violates US law, according to an article published by the Associated Press. Participants also had the option of replying to these text messages, with comments being displayed on the website America.gov.
In his interview with regional reporters immediately after the Cairo speech, President Obama said that he had wanted to “start a conversation, not just between me and the Muslim world, but within the Muslim world and within America and the West about how do we finally start being honest about some of these problems.
The messaging program was created with the aim of continuing this conversation and was accompanied by similar conversation initiatives on other social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.
But unlike the social networking sites, the free messaging program was directed toward those without readily available internet access. In an interview on June 4, President Obama said that his speech was directed to “the 20-year-old young man in Cairo in maybe one of the poorer sections of Cairo or in Gaza or in Damascus or in Tripoli who is still searching, is still looking for a way.
The text message responses to the speech posted on the America.gov website were varied, ranging from expressions of support to angry criticism.
One comment from the UK addressed the president’s stand on Palestine, proclaiming “for all the hype, it was a disappointment. Another comment, coming from Egypt, said “I trust him, because he is a free man. Free men say their minds, and stand for it [sic].
Other comments were more neutral. A response from Indonesia noted, “Well… hard work is needed!! And start now!!
