When photos of Barack Obama wearing the traditional tribal clothing of the Wajir region of northwestern Kenya began circulating last February, long simmering "Obama is a Muslim" rumors were already a cottage industry.

The Drudge Report and other right-wing media simplistically described the clothing he wore as "Muslim garb." To the ignorant, it looked as if the one-term Illinois senator had just emerged from one of Osama bin Laden's training camps.

For wearing clothes given to him during an August 2006 trip to his father's ancestral homeland, Mr. Obama was widely mocked as an Islamic Manchurian candidate two years later. Given the stupidity and xenophobia of the times, Barack Hussein Obama downplayed his blood ties and sympathies for the Islamic world.

That was 16 months ago. What a difference an election makes.

Yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama greeted the Muslim world from a podium at Cairo University with a heartfelt "Assalamu Aleikum" -- the common Arabic greeting for "peace be with you." He didn't soft-pedal his family's connections on his paternal side to more than a billion of the world's believers.

"As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and at the fall of dusk," Mr. Obama said, tying his experience with those in the audience. The president recited civilization's debt to Islam and reminded his audience that Morocco was the first nation to recognize the young republic that would elect him president two centuries later.

Yesterday, Barack Obama traveled the length and breadth of America's -- and the West's -- complicated relationship with Islam. Without apologizing, Mr. Obama put the sad narrative of America's conflicts with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan into a historical context rarely acknowledged on 24-hour cable news.

"In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government," Mr. Obama said, using a passive construction to admit American complicity. Still, it was an unprecedented acknowledgment of the historical record.

He clearly indicted al-Qaida for being the major killer of Muslims. But he also made clear that George W. Bush was not in the White House:

"Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world," Mr. Obama said. "Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible."

President Obama also said what needed to be said about Israel and Palestine and the prospects of lasting peace in the Holy Land.

He was blunt about the necessity of Hamas rejecting terrorism and violence. He called upon all Arabs to reject their casual anti-Semitism and stereotypes about Jews along with their threats to push Israel into the sea.

But instead of stopping at that point like other American presidents have in the past, Mr. Obama reminded Israel of its responsibilities. He announced that the building of settlements in the occupied territories was unacceptable and chastised the Jewish state for the daily humiliations inflicted upon Palestinians. His criticism of both Israelis and Palestinians was made in the context of his profound understanding of the suffering of both people.

On top of all of this, he quoted from the religious traditions of all three Abrahamic faiths with the facility of a religious scholar.

It is shocking to have elected a president who deals with nuance so competently that he can go to the heart of the Arab world and get a standing ovation for telling the truth. Barack Obama is our first ecumenical president.

The Syed Farooq Hussaini Islamic Interfaith Network will host its first annual event Sunday at 1:30 p.m. -- "Interfaith Relationships: From Dialogue to Engagement" -- at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium at the University of Pittsburgh. Speakers include Rabbi James Gibson from Temple Sinai, the Rev. Cynthia Bronson Sweigert from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer and Professor Inamul Haq from Loyola University and Elmhurst College.

Farooq died last year, so it is a tragedy he missed the president's speech. He could have written it. For more information, call 412-341-8465 or e-mail info@sfhislamicinterfaith.org.