"Let’s be clear about ISIL. They have rampaged across cities and villages -- killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children, and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Muslims -- both Sunni and Shia -- by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can for no other reason than they practice a different religion. They declared their ambition to commit genocide against an ancient people." -Obama
Talk is cheap.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...sm-summit-islam-muslim-faith-column/23632171/
Obama's religious blindness aids Islamic State
At this week's White House summit on combating violent extremism on social media, all topics are fair game except Islamist extremism. From the administration's point of view, it may as well not even exist, despite the fact that the first I in ISIS and ISIL stands for "Islamic", as in Islamic State.
The White House has consistently downplayed, if not outright ignored, the religious dimension of the war on terrorism. This has much to do with President Obama's apparent belief that any mention of Islam in the context of terrorism will reinforce negative views of the United States abroad, and supposed American prejudices against Muslims.
Attempts to avoid touching on religious dimension of the struggle has led to several recent high-profile administration gaffes. President Obama strangely tried to deflect the issue at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5 by mentioning the Crusades as an example of Christian excess. Unfortunately, that example is also a key jihadist talking point.
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In an interview published days later, Obama downplayed the religious aspect of a terrorist attack on a kosher deli in Paris that specifically targeted French Jews, saying the perpetrator "randomly (shot) a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris."
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The White House made a similar blunder in a statement condemning last week's ISIL beaheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, referring to them only as "Egyptian citizens" and stressing that ISIL attacks are "unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity."
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Yet the Obama administration consistently sends the message that it either does not comprehend or refuses to accept the nature of the struggle. Any strategy not based on the facts is a recipe for failure.