President Obama’s trip to Turkey this week underscored two ideas: a desire to improve the West’s relationship with the Muslim world and the United States wholehearted support of Turkey’s bid to join the EU. But is he hurting the Turkish cause?

Obama may have hindered progress on both fronts by implying that the United States should have a say in whether Turkey joins the union, and by highlighting the nation’s Muslim base.

France and Germany are two of the EU’s biggest powers and concurrently two nations with the biggest opposition to Turkey’s long-standing attempt to become a member country. While outspoken European leaders, like French President Nicolas Sarkozy, insist their reluctance is based in Turkey’s economic problems and democratic shortcomings, the nation’s strong ties to Islam is a crucial barrier.

In France, where Islam is the second most practiced religion, tensions have run high over the ban on headscarves in schools. And while Turkey has prided itself on maintaining a secular government, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner explained this week that he was worried by “Turkey’s evolution in, let’s say, a more religious direction, towards a less robust secularism."

So if Obama wants to lobby for Turkey to join the EU by emphasizing the nation’s Islamic foundation — its fundamental difference from the rest of the union — he might inadvertantly make Western leaders more reluctant to take the proposal seriously.

It seems, rather, improving public opinion is most important, according to Jose-Ignacio Torreblanca, an EU expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “At this stage the biggest problem has to do with public opinion in the European Union. Because there is, in fact, opposition to Turkey being a member of the European Union, especially in two of the largest countries, in France and in Germany. And without public opinion in France and Germany accepting Turkish membership, it is very difficult that this succession ever happens,” he said.

With a Eurobarometer poll revealing that 59 percent of Europeans are against Turkish membership, how can Turkey better their image in the eyes of the Europeans? For Obama, it could be best to quit treating Turkey as if they were the last hope for saving relationships between Islam and the West.