During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama assured voters that his personal biography gave him a unique capacity to engage the Islamic community and challenge Muslim states to address their social and political troubles. "I have lived in the most populous Muslim country in the world, had relatives who practiced Islam," he told the New York Times. "I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do."
President Obama not only has avoided forceful talk about the failures of contemporary Islam: He has declined to mention them at all. His inaugural address, an interview on Al Arabiya television, a speech to the Turkish parliament--in none of these venues has he suggested that Islamic societies are struggling with vast injustices and pathologies. In a speech in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday Obama will have another opportunity to do so: to draw distinctions between America's commitment to liberal democracy and the violent political theology that marches under the banner of Islam.
Read Full Article »