Which is weird because (a) he's not a Muslim and (b) to the extent that he does have Islamic family roots it would cause Muslims to shun him as an apostate. But whatever:

"Arabs are very excited," said Mustafa, editor of Democracy Review, an Egyptian quarterly. "People are imagining that he is a Muslim like them and that he is going to bring a new America that is friendly." Obama's race, Islamic family roots and promise of change give him an opening to blunt militancy rooted in decades of white colonial rule and sharpened by the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq... Al-Qaeda has noted Obama's potential to make progress in repairing America's reputation among Muslims, damaged under President George W. Bush, said Rohan Gunaratna, director of a terrorism study center at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. "Obama will be able to change the perception among Muslims, even moderates, that the United States under President Bush was attacking not terrorism, but the Islamic world," he said. Militants were "discussing on jihadist Web sites that if Obama comes to power, it will risk a very significant defeat for them."

Any successful public diplomacy toward the Muslim world basically requires embracing their pathological anti-Semitism in a way that even a sophistication-enamored Democratic Congress has been unwilling to do. But still, I don't think these experts entirely wrong. If Iran is any example the Muslim world is pretty eager to be appeased. That's the same as "changing their perception," right?

And just because I have nowhere else to put these and this post is kind of about diplomacy: John "let's send Baker and Carter to coerce Israeli concessions" Kerry is currently a front runner for Secretary of State. Another front runner? Susan Rice, the woman who gave him that idea in 2004.

References:
* Obama Complains About Smears From Jewish Groups... And He's Not Totally Wrong (Plus: He's Still Kind Of Wrong) [MR]
* Was Barack Obama a Muslim? [Daniel Pipes]
* Obama Appeal in Muslim World May Tone Down Militants (Update2) [Bloomberg]
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians" [MR]
* Speaker Of Iranian Parliament: Of Course We Want Obama To Win [MR]
* That Settles That [MR]
* Who will Obama pick? The latest scuttlebutt [FP Passport]
* Barack Obama and Israel [American Thinker]

Previously:
* US Ambassador's Highly, Highly Dubious Declaration: Israel Is About To Give Away Jerusalem
* US Public Diplomacy - Winning Arab Hearts And Minds By Promising To Sell Out Israel
* State Dept. More Enthusiastic Than Ever About Coercing Israeli Concessions, Arming Palestinian Soldiers (Plus: Editor-in-Chief Of Int'l Arabic Daily: Gaza Is Another Afghanistan)