President Obama and host President Hosni Mubarak deserve credit for making Egypt the venue for Obama’s address to the Muslim world today. It is a fitting choice, considering Egypt’s pivotal geographical and cultural position and the close relationship the two countries have enjoyed since the Camp David peace accords in 1978.
Speaking as a long-time American resident of Egypt, here are my Top Ten tips so Obama gets the most out of his visit:
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5. While you’re in the neighborhood, take a stroll through al-Azhar Park, a beautiful green space with magnificent views of Cairo that was created from a reclaimed 500-year-old garbage dump in 2005 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
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http://mideast.blogs.time.com/2009/06/04/cairo-without-a-map/
Ismailimail 
Since this wasn’t a tourism trip but one to win the H&Ms of the Muslim world, the author’s list is quite aberrant and in any case he was there just for 8 hours. He said enough in his speech to show respect to the Muslim world – the greeting, the citations from the Koran, the recital of Muslim contributions to science, architecture and civilization. He delighted Ismaili hearts by making a reference to the timeless city with its glorious al-Azhar university. I did write to him about all that (can be FWd). So it was too much to expect that he’d actually go to al-Azhar or the nearby al-Hussein mosque where our 2nd Imam is buried (3rd according to Bohras and 12ers, because they regard al-Hassan as the 2nd) and where on any given day you can expect to see a whole bunch of Bohras doing ziarat at the catafalque. There’s the al-Hakim mosque and for Fatimid followers there should be a visit to the Islamic Museum to view our contributions to civilization from our empire of >1000 years ago. It’s a sad building and perhaps could be rehabilitated by the present Fatimid Imam! The neglect is in keeping with the regime’s wish to downplay its Shia heritage.
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