Obama’s Jihad Denial Summit: ‘We Are Not At War with Islam’

The one big takeaway from Obama’s speech on the Muslim world’s “legitimate” grievances with the West is simply this. He is on their side.

Obama has made us weak, vulnerable and ripe for attack. The next two years will be brutal.

Obama’s closing remarks at his absurdly titled “Countering Violent Extremism” summit put his denial and obfuscation of the truth once again on display. It’s jihad — just say it. His speech wasn’t about countering Islamic terror, it was about countering “Islamophobia” (a thought crushing device designed to silence criticism of Islam – sharia enforcement). 

Obama can insist that these jihadists are not Islamic all he likes. But they believe they are. They believe they are righteous and devout Muslims, and that’s all that matters, not what Obama wants us to believe they are.

Obama readily criticized Christianity recently – having to go all the way back to the Crusades to do so. But for him, Islam is off limits. For both Islamic supremacists and Obama, Islam is above criticism – at a time when killers motivated by its teachings are wreaking havoc around the globe.

His big idea for fighting against violent extremism? “As part of this summit, we’re announcing that we’re going to increase our outreach to communities, including Muslim Americans. We’re going to step up our efforts to engage with partners and raise awareness so more communities understand how to protect their loved ones from becoming radicalized. We’ve got to devote more resources to these efforts.”

He has created a Counter-Terrorism Messaging center headed up by Rashad Hussain, a hafiz (a devout Muslim who has memorized the Quran). Obama is going to out-tweet the enemy with a Muslim Brotherhood supporter at the helm.

And “outreach” is not going to end the jihad. It is just a device, a distraction – the appearance of doing something without actually doing anything. Police and FBI agents go to a mosque and have a chat with the imam. They don’t investigate. Then they go away, and all that comes of it is that the imam knows he is dealing with weak people who are more interested in making sure he likes them than in stopping jihad.

And Obama talks about a shooting in North Carolina as if it were a war on Muslims, when the ongoing investigation seems to point to a mere parking dispute.

Obama vows to “confront squarely and honestly the twisted ideologies that these terrorist groups use to incite people to violence,” but Islam is off limits, so how can he confront it squarely and honestly? More lies.

Obama goes on to say that we shouldn’t “grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders — they’re terrorists. And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.” Who is talking to? Why is he schooling us and proselytizing to us? If the Islamic State is not Islamic, what is it? They are Muslims and they are fighting for Islam, and no amount of tongue twisting and mental gymnastics is going to change that. Why won’t Obama take them at their word and deed?

Because he is a sympathizer. Because he makes Islam supreme and beyond reproach, just as Muslim supremacists do. Clearly he cares more about the glory of Islam then he does about the gore.

Obama gets twisted up in his own illogical logic. He goes on to say: “Al Qaeda and ISIL and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders — holy warriors in defense of Islam. That’s why ISIL presumes to declare itself the ‘Islamic State.’ And they propagate the notion that America — and the West, generally — is at war with Islam. That’s how they recruit.” But Mr. President, how could they recruit if they get Islam so wrong? How can previously “moderate Muslims” be moved to slaughter, rape, and conquer in the cause of Islam if ISIS, ISIL, al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, and other mujahadeen have it so wrong?

If anyone is perverted, it is Obama. He is perverting the truth.

Obama said, “They no more represent Islam than any madman who kills innocents in the name of God represents Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism.” Only Muslims claim to kill in the glory of Allah. Christian, Jews, Buddhists or Hindus do not; nor do they conquer nations in the cause of their G-d, as Muslims do.

Obama said, “These religious leaders and scholars preach that Islam calls for peace and for justice, and tolerance toward others; that terrorism is prohibited; that the Koran says whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind.” More deception. Obama quotes a Jewish Talmudic quote that Muslims appropriated in the Koran. And it is the Jews that the Koran is referring to.

“Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” — Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 37a.

Obama is parsing the quote taken from verse 5:32 of the “Holy Koran.” But he is ripping it out of context and perverting its meaning. The full passage in the Koran applies to the “Children of Israel,” not to Muslims. And it’s followed in the Koran by 5:33, which calls for “execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land” for those who “wage war against Allah and his messenger, or spread mischief in the land.”

Obama studied the Quran as a child. Obama just named a hafiz (a devout Muslim who has memorized the whole Quran), Rahad Hussain, to head up his newly created Counter-Terrorism Center.

He knows. They know. He then goes on to explain that Muslims have real grievances: “There’s a strain of thought that doesn’t embrace ISIL’s tactics, doesn’t embrace violence, but does buy into the notion that the Muslim world has suffered historical grievances — sometimes that’s accurate.”

He doesn’t even pretend to support America.

He won’t call it jihad, but he insists that, “We have to tackle them [the ideologies] head on. And we can’t shy away from these discussions.”

Is he for real? That’s the one thing he won’t do.

He claims that Muslims join the jihad because they’re poor: “When millions of people — especially youth — are impoverished and have no hope for the future, when corruption inflicts daily humiliations on people, when there are no outlets by which people can express their concerns, resentments fester. The risk of instability and extremism grow. Where young people have no education, they are more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and radical ideas, because it’s not tested against anything else, they’ve got nothing to weigh. And we’ve seen this across the Middle East and North Africa.”

Here again, Obama attributes jihad to poverty, illiteracy, culture — anything but its true origins. State Department Spokesteenager Marie Harf said yesterday that the Islamic State jihadists just need jobs. She was rightly ridiculed for it. But Obama has now said the same thing.

He added: “Terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIL deliberately target their propaganda in the hopes of reaching and brainwashing young Muslims, especially those who may be disillusioned or wrestling with their identity. That’s the truth. The high-quality videos, the online magazines, the use of social media, terrorist Twitter accounts — it’s all designed to target today’s young people online, in cyberspace.”

How does that turn someone into a savage? I am sorry, Mr. President. No amount of slick video and online magazines would move me to betray my country, leave my home and slaughter, maim, rape in the cause of my religion. Mr. President, how did this misunderstanding of Islam become so widespread if it weren’t Islamic? Why are so many more American, British, European, Canadian Muslims joining the Islamic State?

And while Muslims in the US condemn the Islamic State, where are they teaching against the ideology that gave rise to it?

Right now, nothing is being done to stop jihad recruiting in US mosques, even as several hundred young Muslims from the US have gone to wage jihad for the Islamic State.

And his marshmallow summit of “Islamophobia” myths and lies does not address that.

Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.