Mideast trip next step in Obama's Muslim outreach

By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama began on Day One of his presidency to "reboot" America's damaged relationship with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. With this week's Mideast trip and long-promised speech in Cairo, he takes a perilous leap into the effort.

Tensions fueled 30 years ago when Iranians overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran were stoked white-hot by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the creation of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Perceptions of President George W. Bush, as intent on imposing his views on the world and indifferent to the suffering of Muslims in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere, only widened the gap.

To Obama, who leaves Tuesday, the success of the struggle against Islamic extremists is at stake. This fight stretches throughout the Muslim world, from the Palestinian territories and Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where largely ungoverned border areas are a haven for al-Qaida, and beyond.

Mideast trip next step in Obama's Muslim outreach....