Please note that his outreach to “the Muslim world” immediately followed his remark, “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers.”
I submit that this is a contradiction. If Muslims are, on the one hand, part of a “patchwork heritage”, how can they, on the other hand, constitute an apparently separate and autonomous “world” ? The very notion of a “Muslim world” is frightening in itself, is it not? Aren’t we in the era of “One World” ? One for all and all for one ? What is this “Muslim World” ? ... the elephant in the living room.
Patchwork heritage?
Whatever happened to melting pot?