US-Islamic Body Supports Obama

February 19, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Bahrain Tribune

Wire Service: AFP

http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp?CategoryId=0&ArticleId=191343

I would like to see Barak to be president as he champions ‘hope and change’

Delegates at a US-Islamic forum voiced support yesterday for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, although some warned against expecting any radical policy change. Obama, won overwhelming support in a mock election by more than 200 American and Muslim delegates at the US-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital. His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Republican candidates won only a handful of votes. Around 280 public figures and academics from 32 countries, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, attended the fifth edition of the forum. Many Muslim delegates said they hoped to see Obama win the Democratic nomination and go on to be elected next November to succeed US President George W. Bush. "I would like to see Obama become president of America because he champions ’change and hope’, which we Muslims need as much as the Americans do," Islamic television preacher Amr Khaled said. "The Indonesian people would love to see a (US) president who has studied at an elementary school in Jakarta," Din Syamsuddin, chairman of one of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organisations, said in a reference to Obama.