U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University in Cairo, Thursday, June 4, 2009. In his speech,President Obama called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims", declaring that "this cycle of suspicion and discord must end." (AP)

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Candidate Barack Obama promised that if elected he would speak to the Muslim world from a major Islamic capitol, to try to mend the breach between the United States and many Muslims.

Today in Cairo, President Obama delivered on that promise. He spoke at length to the Muslim world. He greeted the crowd in Cairo with the goodwill of the American people, he said, and a greeting of peace in Arabic — assalaamu alaykum.

In the hall in Egypt, he got a standing ovation. What about outside?

This hour, On Point: President Obama’s Cairo speech, and reaction from the Muslim world.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Cairo is Margaret Talev, White House correspondent for McClatchy newspapers.

Also with us from Cairo is Ibrahim El-Houdaiby, an Islamic activist and advisor for the English-language website of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Joining us from Baghdad is Anthony Shadid, Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The Washington Post and author of “Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War” (2005). He wrote this week about how much President Obama has to overcome as he addresses Muslims in his Cairo speech.

From Dubai, we’re joined by Dawood Al-Shirian, editor-in-chief of alarabiya.net, the website for the Arabic-language global satellite channel Al Arabiya, and columnist for Al-Hayat, a major international Arabic paper.

And from Washington, we’re joined by Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief for the Dubai-based Al Arabiya News Channel. He conducted the first formal interview with President Obama, on January 26, 2009, a week after his inauguration.

More links:

NPR.org offers the complete transcript and audio of President Obama’s speech. The BBC has the complete video.

The King Herself (Photo: Kenneth Garrett/National Geographic. Click for full image on nationalgeographic.com).

3,500 years ago in the heart of ancient Egypt, in the heyday of the pharaohs, a woman took the throne.

A great king had died. A step-son and heir was too young to rule. The pharaoh, queen, Hatshepsut, stepped into power – and stayed there.

She built. She commanded armies. She wore the ceremonial fake beard of a pharaoh’s regalia. And when she had died, her stepson chiseled her name off every monument he could reach. Her mummy vanished to history. Now it’s back, and a new story is emerging.

This hour, On Point: Hatshepsut, the great “she-king” of Egypt.

You can join the conversation. How far do you think we can really understand what went on in one grand life in ancient Egypt, 3,500 years ago?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York is Chip Brown, author of “The She-King of Egypt,” the cover story in the current issue of National Geographic. 

See the stunning gallery of photos by Kenneth Garrett, accompanying Chip Brown’s article, at nationalgeographic.com.

And joining us from Cairo, Egypt, is Zahi Hawass, world-renowned archaeologist and Egyptologist who led the effort that positively identified the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut in 2007. (Click here for an image of the Hatshepsut CT scan.)  He is Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and leader of the Egyptian Mummy Project, which uses modern science — including CT scanning and DNA analysis — to learn more about ancient Egyptian mummies. Among other projects, Dr. Hawass is currently leading the search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Antony.