A significant percentage of Muslims responded favorably to U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo, but are cautious about whether he will deliver on his promises, John Esposito, founding director of the The Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, said

"From my contacts with people overseas and my time in the gulf, my sense is people are very favorably disposed to Obama’s speech," Esposito, who is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, said in a phone interview. “How much will he walk the way he talks? That’s the question. How will he politically be able to do what he wants to do?”

Obama spoke at Cairo University in Egypt. In his speech, Obama called for a “new beginning” between the United States and Muslims. He started the speech with the traditional Muslim greeting “assalaamu alaykum,” or “peace be upon you,” and at several points, quoted the Koran.

“We have the power to make the world we seek but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written,” Obama said in his speech. “The Holy Koran tells us: ‘O mankind! We have created you male and female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’”

Esposito, co-author of the book “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think,” noted that a recent poll by the Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre said 77 percent of Egyptian respondents said they felt favorably about Obama’s speech, as opposed to 5 percent who said they did not.

Esposito said that the Bush administration damaged relations with the Muslim world but he felt Obama’s speech was a step in the right direction.

“The clear message to the Muslim world and to America, to governments and peoples in the Muslim world is that Obama is committed to a restoration of U.S.-Muslim relations,” Esposito said. He added that former Secretary of State Colin Powell “used to say ‘if you break it, you have to fix it.’ The U.S. and Europe, to certain extent, have to fix that part of the world.”

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, questioned whether the speech will make any difference long-term.

“Although the speech was clearly welcomed by audience in Cairo. I doubt whether it will make any real difference in terms of U.S. relations in Muslim world,” Gardiner said in a phone interview.

Gardiner said Obama’s “contrition” in the speech projected “weakness rather than strength” and said it would do little strengthen America’s status in the Middle East.

“The speech will deepen the impression that Barack Obama doesn’t have the stomach for a long war against Islamic terrorists,” Gardner said. “I think that this was a feel-good speech which will do little strengthen America’s position in the Middle East.”

“It’s a speech that projects weakness rather than strong American leadership. It was an apologetic speech that failed to recognize the huge role the U.S. has played in freeing tens of millions of Muslims from tyranny.”

However, Tamara Cofman, in a statement released by the Brookings Institute, disagreed. She noted that while Obama stood up for “tolerance and pluralism,” he also was “unapologetic in his statement of American interests.”

“President Obama today resoundingly rejected those who argue that President Bush’s mistakes fatally tainted the cause of democracy promotion,” said Cofman, senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute. “He stood up firmly for democracy and for America’s efforts to advance it around the world.”

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