Posted on 02/19/2015 4:10:00 PM PST by Jim Robinson
President Obama does not have an easy line to walk when it comes to discussing Islamist extremism.
On the one hand, the US is at war with ISIS, an Islamist extremist group, which has murdered American citizens; it has been fighting al-Qaeda ever since it murdered thousands on September 11. Americans are understandably concerned and want to hear that their commander in chief understands the threat of Islamist extremism and takes it seriously.
On the other, Obama is clearly wary of worsening the wave of Islamophobia that ISIS has inspired in the US. Unduly emphasizing the role of religion could inspire more backlash against Muslims, of whom there are 2.6 million in the US. It could also indulge ISIS's view (also endorsed by some Americans, unfortunately) that the US is at war with Islam. Obama also surely wants to push against dangerous arguments, made by both ISIS and some prominent American voices, that ISIS represents true Islam.
Balancing these goals would be extraordinarily difficult for any president. George W. Bush struggled with it throughout his administration. But Obama is faltering. He has veered so far into downplaying Islamist extremism that he appears at times to refuse to acknowledge its existence at all, or has referred to it as violent extremism. While he has correctly identified economic and political factors that give rise to extremism, he has appeared to downplay or outright deny an awkward but important fact: religion plays an important role as well.
This is backfiring. Obama's conspicuous and often awkward attempts to sidestep the role of religion in Islamist extremism end up only drawing more attention to it. By refusing difficult questions about the role of religion in violent extremism, Obama is ceding those conversations to people like Bill O'Reilly...
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Not the worst of his problems!! At least others can take up the actual problems.
He was raised a Muslim (read his book) and he still defends his faith. He may proclaim to be a Christian, but his actions are telling. He does seem to be a real Muslim, don’t care what he proclaims, he is a Muslim at heart and was raised as one.
There are 2.6 million muslims in the U.S. If we have to choose between deporting them or Mexicans, I vote muslims.
There’s no reason whatsoever for any of them to be here. Every politician since Reagan has been letting them in by the hundreds of thousands. Everyday I see Middle Eastern airplanes landing at Bush Airport in Houston. More and more are coming every day.
I actually look for Obama to admit he’s a muslim before too long.
Honestly I’m a little surprised that Hillary hasn’t taken advantage of this yet. Obama’s setting the ball up for her to spike it with a cred-building statement acknowledging the obvious about Islamist extremism. Where the hell is that old communist bag these days anyway?
It certainly recruits from Islam, not from any other milieu.
I know! You don’t suppose Obama had ISIS kidnap her?
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