Arab Astronauts?

In an interview with the Arab news network al-Jazeera, Charles Bolden, the current head of NASA states:

"When I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things. One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."


Okay ... I can definitely support the first directive.  I get a little twitchy with the second.  The third made me spit up a little in the back of my throat.  How any leader can redirect an organization charged with leading the world in space exploration to go make nicey nice with the religious followers who want to kill us?  What is Obama's real intention here?