Obama's address at Countering Violent Extremism summit

[mralstoner]

Oh crap. 34 minutes of talking all around the problem. Barely a mention of Islam. No mention of the root cause of Islamic violence i.e. the example of the prophet Mohammed.

Here goes rationality to die. Word after meaningless word, a stream of clinically-dead bullshit. All because he can't or won't open the fucking Koran and debate its contents. A fucking zombie president, more interested in protecting the image of Islam (for personal identity reasons), than "honest and clear" talk.

Take your brain and incinerate it, that's Obama's legacy. Prepare for a torrent of verbal diarrhea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUwBI9l7ZXc

Transcript of you're a masochist:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-offi...-extremism

... Leading up to this summit, there’s been a fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits about the words we use to describe and frame this challenge. So I want to be very clear about how I see it.

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. That’s how they try to radicalize young people. We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders -- they’re terrorists. (Applause.) And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam. (Applause.) ...

So that’s the first challenge -- we've got to discredit these ideologies. We have to tackle them head on. And we can't shy away from these discussions. And too often, folks are, understandably, sensitive about addressing some of these root issues, but we have to talk about them, honestly and clearly. (Applause.) And the reason I believe we have to do so is because I'm so confident that when the truth is out we'll be successful...

And terrorist groups are all too happy to step into a void...

How can Obama be so "confident" of getting the "truth" out when Egypt's leader Sisi said the other day that Islam has a major problem and needs reforming?

Presumably, Obama is still working from his class notes while studying Islam in Indonesia, when he was 6 to 10 years old.

[robvalue]

Or to summarize:

They follow the book. We have to teach them to ignore it like all real muslims do.

[Jacob(smooth)]

MURICA!

Still fighting violent extremism...



With moderate, peace missiles.

But hey, so long as we're not violent...

[mralstoner]

Here's a few sound bites from Obama's speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4eZJ6J80Ws

[Mudhammam]

It's really frustrating how much Obama will go out of his way not to criticize Islam...

Yet he's responsible for droning more Muslims into the dust than any President.

[Ben Davis]

---

Oh crap. 34 minutes of talking all around the problem. Barely a mention of Islam. No mention of the root cause of Islamic violence i.e. the example of the prophet Mohammed.

Here goes rationality to die. Word after meaningless word, a stream of clinically-dead bullshit. All because he can't or won't open the fucking Koran and debate its contents. A fucking zombie president, more interested in protecting the image of Islam (for personal identity reasons), than "honest and clear" talk.

Take your brain and incinerate it, that's Obama's legacy. Prepare for a torrent of verbal diarrhea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUwBI9l7ZXc

Transcript of you're a masochist:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-offi...-extremism

... Leading up to this summit, there’s been a fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits about the words we use to describe and frame this challenge. So I want to be very clear about how I see it.

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. That’s how they try to radicalize young people. We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders -- they’re terrorists. (Applause.) And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam. (Applause.) ...

So that’s the first challenge -- we've got to discredit these ideologies. We have to tackle them head on. And we can't shy away from these discussions. And too often, folks are, understandably, sensitive about addressing some of these root issues, but we have to talk about them, honestly and clearly. (Applause.) And the reason I believe we have to do so is because I'm so confident that when the truth is out we'll be successful...

And terrorist groups are all too happy to step into a void...

How can Obama be so "confident" of getting the "truth" out when Egypt's leader Sisi said the other day that Islam has a major problem and needs reforming?

Presumably, Obama is still working from his class notes while studying Islam in Indonesia, when he was 6 to 10 years old.

---

The thing is that Obama thinks he needs to find a way of illegitimising Baghdadi's claim to the Caliphate. This is his chosen methodology. Plus it has the benefit of maintaining good terms with the more moderate sects of Islam whom, if he can't count as allies, he can at least maintain neutrality with. The ISIS version of the Prophetic Methodology contains the instruction that all muslims who don't follow their interpretation of Islam are apostates who must be killed or taken in to slavery; they sow the seeds of opposition from those on their very borders. In fact, more atrocities are committed against muslims by ISIS, on a daily basis, than have ever been committed against western nations. It's this aspect of the politics which Obama's trying to exploit.

An alternative approach was published in the Atlantic and I find it hard to refute.

[FatAndFaithless]

I understand the frustration of some folks at Obama's refusal to acknowledge the Islamic foundation of ISIS (I share that frustration), but the Falwell-esque screeching rhetoric coming from many conservative pundits and politicians is just insane. For example, the bright and lovely Ted Cruz calling him an 'apologist for the terrorists' is the type of rhetoric that makes anyone that might moderately agree with you immediately discount your statements. Obama has called ISIS barbaric, inhuman, evil, and a death cult, and regardless of what you think is the right response to their actions (supplying weapons, boots on the ground, training arab states' armies, etc), even implying that the POTUS is somehow 'on their side' or 'trying to justify their actions' is utterly unhelpful and catastrophically stifling to any sort of progress or agreement on this. What's more, any sort of reasonable concurrence I might have with some very far-right people (happens once in a blue moon) is even further strained when they themselves do the same song and dance for which they're condemning Obama when it comes to atrocities undertaken and performed by Christian groups around the world.

[vorlon13]

Am I off base here ?

ISIS does not represent religious extremism, they represent religious literalism.

[Mister Agenda]

Seems revolutionaries frequently overreach and become worse than their oppressors no matter the basis of their ideology. People with moderate tempraments don't lead revolutions.

[Ben Davis]

Am I off base here ?

ISIS does not represent religious extremism, they represent religious literalism.

Not quite: they represent a specific, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam based around the 'Prophetic Methodology' (i.e. they behave like Muhammad), the restoration of the Caliphate, and fulfilling Qur'anic prophecies of armageddon.