What do we really expect from Obama's Cairo University visit?

A few months back, people in Cairo congratulated one another for the election of Barack Obama. And the American president, while perhaps failing our wild expectations regarding the Middle East’s main dossiers, has so far committed no faux-pas that would make him lose credibility or his stellar reputation in the Egyptian street.

And tomorrow, Obama will be addressing a message to the Muslim world. He has chosen to do so from Cairo, and has selected my alma mater, Cairo University, as his pulpit to do so. Flattered, I must say.

The speech will be a remarkable and unique ‘extended hand’ to the Muslim world, where the President will emphasize 'broader engagement, based on mutual interests and respect'.

It is therefore amazing to observe the level of scepticism taking over the Egyptian independent press and blogosphere. A search for the hash tag #CairoSpeech on Twitter gives a dynamic view of those discussions. Global Voices translates some of the opposing voices’ arguments.

A justifiable first criticism regards the financial and logistic costs of the visit, in terms of renovations of the University, cosmetic embellishment of the streets, and the bringing to a complete halt the city for an entire half-day. But the choice of such a significant venue rather than the conference hall of a Sharm-el-Sheikh hotel, is undoubtedly worth it.

We can summarize most serious arguments against the Cairo speech as follows: what the US president has done so far, and what he will offer during this speech is not enough, and as such this event does not deserve to be held, nor does it warrant the sustained interest.

And, indeed, it is not enough. When the US president can only bring himself to offer a "we are not at war with Islam" as he did from Turkey two months ago, while the world is rapidly moving towards increased cooperation, trade liberalisation and synergetic partnerships, then it is indeed not enough.

And rightfully needs to be criticised.

But we need to realise that the context is not propitious for that. Yet.

For an American president to invest of his own credibility in building bridges with the Muslim world, which, for a decade or longer has only been seen through a security lens, for him to invite Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians to the speech, for him to push forward a somewhat more balanced - still unequivocally pro-Israeli but notably less so than his predecessors - Middle East policy, for him to talk to the Egyptian people and beyond from a decidedly local forum in the absence of the head of the regime, is a belated but no less important investment.

One for which he needs rapid returns on.

Too many pressure groups in the US - from the Republican party to pro-Israeli groups - view the Muslim world, and particularly the Arab world, through the visor of a shotgun, waiting for an excuse to shoot (un-)diplomatic missives at the region or at the US president, to point at the failure of his détente attempts and break into a childish ‘I told you so’, and to push for a return to a violent, suspicious, inimical US foreign policy in the Muslim World and in the Arab world.

For all that, he must be vocally supported, and his actions rewarded. The American voter needs to realise that the President is making the right choices, and that we appreciate, agree, and respond favourably to this opening of foreign policy.

Even though it isn't deserved yet.

We imperatively must shed the "I want it all and I want it now" attitude.

The counterfactual to Obama's gesture is not a bigger gesture, but a rapid reversal to the security-first approach to the Muslim world.

As the recipients of this overture, limited as it may be, we need to realise that the US, president and people, are unaccustomed to the idea of friendly relations with populations they have only learned to view with hostility. Barack Obama is feeling his way around the Middle Eastern mess, testing the limitations of his own power at home and abroad.

And if, tomorrow, we dislike his speech, we need, almost pedagogically, to suggest improvements, rather than burn the first draft of what could turn into a unique chapter of American-Muslim world relationships.