CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - About 50,000 Muslims are expected to attend a day of prayer Friday on Capitol Hill, organizers said.

"Islam on Capitol Hill" is intended to "express and illustrate the wonderful diversity of Islam," organizers said on their Web site.

We intend to manifest Islam's majestic spiritual principals as revealed by Allah to our beloved prophet," it said.

"Likewise, we intend to inspire a new generation of Muslims to work for the greater good of all people. We shall serve all people, regardless of race, religion or national origin."

The Washington Post reported that Hassen Abdellah, the president of the Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is the the lead organizer of the event.

Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama's speech to the Muslim world on Thursday faced mixed reaction abroad - and a very clear directive at home from Republicans and conservatives: The United States cannot ruin its relationship with Israel.

Speaking in Cairo, Egypt, the president took on the heated and controversial Palestinian-Israeli conflict by endorsing a two-state solution and urging compromise between "two peoples with legitimate aspirations."

The United States, he said, "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."

Those Jewish settlements are spread throughout the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. Israel maintains the settlements are needed, while Palestinians say they are an obstacle to the peace process.

Calling America's "strong bond" with Israel "unbreakable," he said, "It is based upon cultural and historical ties and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied."

House Minority Leader John Boehner on Thursday blasted Obama's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian question.

"He seemed to ... place equal blame on the Israelis and the Palestinians. I have concerns about this," the Ohio Republican said. "The Israelis have the right to defend themselves."

Boehner's Republican colleague, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, added that "there was a sense in here of a moral equivalency between those who are driving for a Palestinian state and the state of Israel."

Full Story

President Obama hopes to start a 'new chapter of engagement' with the Muslim world, a spokesman says.

(CNN) – Winning the hearts and minds of a majority of people is a nearly impossible feat, especially when you're a politician.

And it's even harder when religion is involved, namely Islam, which some estimates put at 1 billion followers.

But President Obama looks to do just that Thursday as he delivers what the White House is billing as a major speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt.

Obama hopes to start "a new chapter of engagement" between the United States and the Muslim world, speechwriter Ben Rhodes said Wednesday.

This engagement would be based on mutual respect and mutual interest, and Obama plans to speak "openly and candidly" about issues that have caused "tensions in the Muslim world," Rhodes said. "This can't be just [about] what we're against, but what we're for."

Obama asked staff members to "cast a wide net" to gather a range of viewpoints, including those of Muslim-Americans, as he was preparing his Cairo comments, Rhodes disclosed.

But just as the White House lays out its vision, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden purportedly issued another statement Wednesday, saying U.S. policy in Pakistan has generated "new seeds of hatred and revenge against America."

Full Story