I think that is completely wishful thinking. Islamists (as opposed to plain old Muslims who may or may not want to act on the Jihad teaching) don't care what we say about them, their position against us is fixed, as long as we are not willing to convert to Islam.
Islamists (as opposed to plain old Muslims who may or may not want to act on the Jihad teaching) don't care what we say about them, their position against us is fixed, as long as we are not willing to convert to Islam.
We still have to deal with Islamic nations with religious leaders in political power and as long as we do, we need to make the distinction from our political discourse and the religious discourse or they won't even engage us in the political one. There are many nations where Islam is the dominant religion, which are secular (non-religious) in their political leadership. For those that aren't, the president must tread very lightly and be careful to make the distinction between political and religious statements, thus his action to distance himself as our political leader from what the religious leaders on the Christian right are saying was warranted. Any activity he engages in from a religious perspective is purely public relations which is one of his roles as our political leader. He never comments on the merits of the Islam religion; only his observations of the people. He is a devout Christian and knows that Islam is false. He's just performing his PR role.