President Barack Obama told French television viewers on Tuesday

President Barack Obama told French television viewers on Tuesday
that the West should renew its dialogue with Islam, calling the United States “one of the largest Muslim countries of the world.”

Speaking to Canal+ television in Washington before setting off on a tour of the Middle East and Europe, Obama said he would use a planned speech in Cairo to set out a new framework for American relations in the region.

“I think what we need is to create a better dialogue,” he said, in order for the Muslim world better understands how the U.S. and the West in general think about terrorism, democracy and other challenging issues.

While admitting that “expectations need to be somehow modest,” Obama said he will work with allies on the crisis in Afghanistan, the standoff with Iran and “the prospects of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

“The flip side of this is the U.S. and the West; we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam,” he argued, according to a transcript of the interview provided by Canal+ and its sister news channel I-Tele.
“And one of the points I want to make is – if you take the number of Muslim Americans – we would be one of the largest Muslim countries of the world. There has got to be a better dialogue and understanding.”

Estimates of the number of Muslims in the United States, where there is no question about religion on census forms, vary widely. A 2007 study by the respected Pew Research Center estimated that Muslims make up 0.6% of the U.S. adult population, or approximately 1.4 million Muslims 18 years old or older.