Felice Gaer, the chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), nonetheless commended Obama for voicing strong support for protecting religious minorities.

"All I'm saying is he could have sprinkled [his speech] with a few more examples of problems and what the U.S. is doing to solve them," Gaer said of Obama's speech. "This is not America versus the Muslim world; these are universal values that we are trying to uphold at home and abroad."

The independent, bipartisan panel, which advises the administration and Congress on religious freedom issues, had urged the president to stress the U.S. commitment to curb religious abuses -- an idea that panelists said is not always understood in the Muslim world.