The Dream of Muslim Outreach Has Become a Nightmare

Victor Davis Hanson

"Affirming Muslim grievances has only increased the Arab world's sense that Obama is weak."

Could this be a...a...Nazi salute? Democrats would
say it is. If delivered by a Republican, that is

"When President Obama entered office, he dreamed that his hope-and-change messaging and his references to his familial Islamic roots would win over the Muslim world. The soon-to-be Nobel Peace Prize laureate would make the U.S. liked in the Middle East. Then, terrorism would decrease. 

"But, as with his approach to racial relations, Obama’s remedies proved worse than the original illness. 

"Obama gave his first presidential interview to Al Arabiya, noting that he has Muslims in his family. He implicitly blamed America’s strained relations with many Middle Eastern countries on his supposedly insensitive predecessor, George W. Bush. 

"The new message of the Obama administration was that the Islamic world was understandably hostile because of what America had done rather than what it represented. 

"Accordingly, all mention of radical Islam, and even the word “terrorism,” was airbrushed from the new administration’s vocabulary. " . . .

"More disturbing, millions of Middle Easterners fled to the safety of Europe and the United States — but on occasion, only to resist assimilation and show ingratitude once they got there. In short, the dreamy Obama approach to terrorism has proved a nightmare — and it is not over yet."