As President Obama prepares to make his June 4 address to the Muslim world, journalists, politicians, and academics have clamored to offer advice and opinions on the subject matter of his speech, the presentation of the United States in the Middle East, and the global ramifications of this moment.

On the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, Xiao Qiang argues that people must talk openly about that day's events if China is to rebuild its moral foundation.

At City of Brass, Aziz Poonawalla writes about his worry that "the high rate of conversion to Islam by violent criminals in prison is going to lead to an increase in the share of criminal acts by muslims [sic] by definition." He discusses this in light of the recent murder of Pvt. William Long in an attack on a Little Rock military recruiting center, allegedly committed by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, formerly know as Carlos Bledsoe.

Stephen Mansfield believes that President Obama's diverse spiritual journey puts him in step with the rest of the country.

In the New Republic, Amitai Etzioni argues that consumerism has become the organizing principle of American life and now is the time to supplant it with a new vision of the good life, potentially based on communitarian and transcendental pursuits.

President Obama delivered a momentous speech at Cairo University this past Thursday, in which he discussed the future of American relations with the Middle East. As a follow-up to the round up of thoughts and hopes for Obama's address, we have gathered a number of noteworthy responses to and opinions about the actual text. Read more under the video clip of the speech, below:

At the Daily Kos, Inspector Dim defends Wikipedia's decision to block users with internet addresses "owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted" from editing Wikipedia entries related to Scientology.

Elaine Howard Ecklund and Jerry Z. Park report in the June 2009 issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Michael Schwirtz reports on Russia's knotty policies toward Islam, as mirrored in the trial of 11 members of Hizbut Tahrir, a group banned as a terrorist organization in the country.