0bama's Dubious Dialog: plans for "a major address in an Islamic capital."

By Amir Taheri, NY Post

Barack Obama has been toying with the idea of dialogue with the Islamic world for two years now - but he has yet to approach the idea of actually saying anything meaningful.

At one point, his advisers talked of convening a White House summit with Muslim leaders. When that scheme was exposed as fanciful, they recommended that he attend the Islamic Summit Conference, convened once every three years. But that, too, has turned out to be problematic - so now they talking of plans for "a major address in an Islamic capital."

But what does Obama wish to say in this dialogue?

"The message I want to send is that we will be unyielding in stamping out the terrorist extremism we saw in Mumbai," Obama told The Chicago Tribune last Tuesday.

Note that the American president-elect mentions Mumbai - and not the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington or scores of others carried out by Islamic terrorists against Western targets.

Note also that he talks of "terrorist extremism," not "Islamic" or even "Islamist" terrorism.

The reason, of course, is his desire not to ruffle Muslim feathers. And herein lies the fundamental weakness of his position.

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