ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An Arabic middle name and a compelling biography will go only so far. If President-elect Barack Hussein Obama really wants to improve America's standing in the Muslim world, he'll need to do more to win over skeptics such as Muhammad Zia Ullah. Sorting polo shirts at his brother's clothing stall in a working-class bazaar here, Ullah says he was impressed with Obama during the long U.S. presidential campaign. "He's articulate, and he wants to bring changes," says Ullah, 19. "But I'm not expecting any change in policy." Specifically, Ullah doubts that Obama will rethink the United States' support for Israel. Israel's three-week war against Palestinian militants in Gaza stopped Sunday with a cease-fire, but the rage it generated among many Muslims threatens to overshadow any optimism they feel about Obama's inauguration. A harder line against Israel "is the immediate demand of the Muslim people," Ullah says. From Jakarta to Jeddah, many of the world's roughly 1.5 billion Muslims will watch as the United States swears in a president today who spent part of his childhood in the world's biggest Islamic country but has vowed to maintain some of the anti-terrorism policies that made President Bush so widely reviled here. "This is such a historic moment for people around the world and especially for Muslims," says Nida Khan, editor in chief of Elan, a New York-based magazine on Islamic culture. Last month, Obama told the Chicago Tribune that he hoped to "reboot" U.S.-Muslim relations. Tensions have risen over the Bush administration's invasions of Muslim countries Afghanistan and Iraq, by its hard line toward Iran and by its support for Israel. As part of his outreach to Muslims, Obama plans a major speech in an unspecified Islamic capital. And he has pledged to begin pulling troops from Iraq. 'High expectations' Obama's biography resonates in the Islamic world: His Kenyan father was a (lapsed) Muslim, and his stepfather was a moderate Indonesian Muslim. Obama, who is a Christian, spent four years as a child in Indonesia. In part because of his background and Muslim disenchantment with Bush, Obama won at least two-thirds of the U.S. Muslim vote on Election Day, the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies said. "He looks like a good man," says Pakistani civil servant Qazi Hammad, 28. "People have high expectations." Even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed Obama: "We will not judge in advance. We are waiting patiently." Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network seems to view Obama as a threat in the battle for Muslim hearts and minds. In a recording released after the U.S. election, al-Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri compared Obama unfavorably to the late U.S. nationalist Muslim leader Malcolm X and referred to the president-elect, outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former secretary of State Colin Powell as "house Negroes." "America has put on a new face," Zawahri said, "but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same." Some observers detected a whiff of desperation in his words. "The racist abuse of Obama … was a desperate attempt to try and continue to cast the U.S. as crusaders and aggressors," says Sajjan Gohel, director of international security for the London-based counterterrorism think tank the Asia-Pacific Foundation. "What al-Qaeda fears is that Obama's victory negates its whole ideological platform against the West." Deferred to Bush on Gaza Even Muslims not easily swayed by al-Qaeda rhetoric have their doubts about Obama. The misgivings have been rising after he remained mostly silent during Israel's offensive in Gaza. Obama expressed concern about civilian casualties, but otherwise deferred to Bush — a decision some observers interpreted as a sign of support for Israel. "Despite all the idealism and multiculturalism at his disposal, Barack Obama will not change the world," the Pakistani newspaper Dawn editorialized Sunday. "The liberals who voted for him include millions of American Jews, and as such Obama can't be expected to open America's eyes to the reality of Palestine." "The Israeli attack in Gaza was meant to destroy Hamas and tie Obama up like Gulliver," says Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit and an outspoken critic of the U.S.'s pro-Israel policies. "Israel sought to destroy a democratically elected government, and America supported the action — Bush via words, Obama via his silence. I happen to think the Israelis had the right to defend themselves," he said, adding that they ruined any chance of Obama starting out on "a new foot vis-(à-vis) the Muslim world." Even so, it would be hard for Obama to be less popular than Bush in the Muslim world. During his farewell trip to Iraq last month, Bush was nearly beaned in the face by a shoe flung by an irate local journalist. "Obama should change U.S. policies," says Mian Muhammad Asif, who owns an Islamabad business selling water purifiers. "America must learn some lessons from the past. There should be no more shoe-throwing." Source: USA Today