They need to take historic steps to bring Islam into the 21st century, returning it to an honored place among the world’s great religions.Excuse me, just when was that the case?
Naive sentimentalists want to believe Islam was, once, a religion of peace. It never was. It has always relied on the subjugation and extermination of Christians and Jews to perpetuate itself.
Islam is explicitly NOT a religion. It is a political system based on clan and oligarchy. It is xenophobic in the extreme. There is no motivation in Islam for harmonious relations with non Muslim nations. At it root Islam is a totalitarian cabal bent on the destruction of itself and all else.
I was going to make that very point myself. I think the statement is just more pandering.