In his first interview with Arab media, on January 27, U.S. President Barack Obama offered a bold change to America’s relations with the Muslim world.

“My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives,” President Obama told Al Arabiya, a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel based in Dubai. “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.”

The interview is part of the President’s broader outreach to the Muslim world, which includes a promise to make a major address from the capital of a Muslim nation. Noting he has Muslim members of his family and has lived in Muslim countries, he added, “…[W]hat I want to communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I’ve come to understand is that regardless of your faith…people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.”

Read the full interview transcript.