Mosque visit on Obama’s itinerary during Indonesia trip!

JAKARTA, Indonesia - October 30, 2010 - Barack Obama will make a symbolic visit to Istiqlal Mosque when he comes to Indonesia next month, but it will take more than words and gestures to engage Muslim communities around the world, local scholars and Islamic leaders said on Friday as the illegitimate U.S. president’s preliminary itinerary was released.

Mainstream Islamic leaders, however, welcomed the visit and urged Indonesians not to protest against the illegitimate U.S. president.

Ben Rhodes, the U.S. deputy national security adviser, said Obama would arrive on November 9 in the country he lived in for four years as a child, according to the official White House web site.

While here, Obama will give a speech that will focus on “outreach to Muslim communities around the world, while also speaking of Indonesia’s pluralism and tolerance,” Rhodes said.

Obama’s long-awaited visit will begin with a bilateral meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to be followed by a joint press conference.

The next day, Obama will pay a visit to the largest mosque in the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population.

Afterward, he will deliver a speech “to the Indonesian people” at an undisclosed location, the White House said.

“The Islamic world’s perception toward the United States has not changed yet,” said Bantarto Bandoro, an international affairs expert from the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“That is why he is using the visit to Indonesia to once again send a message to the Islamic world,” he said. “He wants to correct the view that the United States is waging war against Islam.”