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Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Trump Moves U.S. Towards a Realistic Approach to Jihad Threat

May 22, 2017 2:10 pm By Robert Spencer

But will D.C.’s foreign policy swamp undo his progress? My latest in PJ Media:

President Trump’s much-anticipated speech at the Islamic Summit in Riyadh didn’t begin auspiciously. Trump started with: “I want to thank King Salman for his extraordinary words” — yet among Salman’s “extraordinary words” were the risible claims that “Islam was and will always be the religion of mercy, tolerance, and coexistence,” and that “in its prosperous times, Islam provided the best examples of coexistence and harmony between countries and individuals.”

However, Trump’s speech did include some elements of a realistic approach to the jihad threat, ideas that have been glaringly lacking from U.S. foreign policy for nearly sixteen years now.

Trump sounded conciliatory notes, saying that he came to “deliver a message of friendship and hope,” and “that is why I chose to make my first foreign visit a trip to the heart of the Muslim world, to the nation that serves as custodian of the two holiest sites in the Islamic Faith.” Accordingly, he reminded the assembled Muslim leaders of his inaugural address, in which he “promised that America will not seek to impose our way of life on others.”

Trump no doubt thought that Muslim leaders would welcome this promise in light of the ill-fated Bush/Obama attempts to establish Western-style republics in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the disastrous effects of “regime change” in Libya and elsewhere. And that is doubtless true: a respite from Obama’s reckless and self-defeating interventionism is most welcome.

But it should also be remembered that America never tried in any serious way to impose its way of life upon Iraq or Afghanistan. In both countries, American forces oversaw the implementation of constitutions that enshrined Sharia as the highest law of the land.

America did not stand strongly for the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and equality of rights for women and non-Muslims — all of which Sharia denies. If America had offered refuge to those who wanted to live in freedom, who knows how many millions of Muslims would have chosen liberty over Sharia. But we will never know.

Trump also spoke proudly of “a $110 billion Saudi-funded defense purchase,” which “will help the Saudi military to take a greater role in security operations.” The clear target here is Iran. But later in the speech, he included among the Iranian mullahs’ transgressions their “vowing the destruction of Israel” — and surely, many among his Sunni audience thought: “Well, that’s the one thing Shia Iran gets right.”

It is all too easy to imagine a scenario in which these Saudi arms are used against Israel.

President Trump also announced “a new Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology — located right here, in this central part of the Islamic World.” That its name is similar to Obama’s euphemistic “Countering Violent Extremism” program, so named to avoid any hint that Islam might have something to do with terrorism, was not a good sign.

Nor was Trump’s statement that “this groundbreaking new center represents a clear declaration that Muslim-majority countries must take the lead in combatting radicalization.” The world has been calling upon, and waiting, for Muslim-majority countries to take the lead in combatting radicalization since 9/11, and long before that.

So where is the global Muslim movement to reform Islam and counter the jihadists’ interpretation of its core texts? Egypt’s al-Sisi, who was present at Trump’s speech, several years ago called upon the Islamic scholars of al-Azhar, the most prestigious and influential institution in Sunni Islam, to work toward reforming Islam to curb its violent elements. Nothing has yet been done.

How long will we wait? How much longer will non-Muslim and reformist Muslim leaders issue these calls before realizing nothing is going to be done?

Trump did make several positive departures from the Obama legacy, however. He spoke of “defeating terrorism and the ideology that drives it,” and later put teeth on his call for defeating the jihad ideology — in a way Barack Obama never did — by calling for “honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires.”

An actual honest confrontation of the crisis of Islamist extremism would require an honest and thorough examination of the motivating ideology of jihad terrorists. President George W. Bush hamstrung this effort when he declared, shortly after 9/11, that Islam was a “religion of peace.” Barack Obama made it altogether impossible when he heeded the demands of Muslim, Leftist, and other allied groups in 2011 by ordering the removal of all mentions of Islam and jihad from counterterror training.

Trump, to his credit, assumed that the terrorists were Muslim, calling upon the Muslim leaders to “drive them out of your places of worship.”

This was a far cry from Hillary Clinton’s 2015 statement: “Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.” And this was worlds away from Obama’s claims: “For more than a thousand years, people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace,” and “Islam is rooted in a commitment to compassion and mercy and justice and charity.”

Trump didn’t say anything about the nature of Islam. He didn’t affirm it was peaceful or note that it contains doctrines of violence. And that is as it should be: neither he nor any of his predecessors has the title of “theologian-in-chief.” Bush and Obama never had to say anything about Islam, and they caused considerable damage to counterterror efforts by doing so. Trump spoke of “Islamist extremism,” thereby recognizing the obvious: there is a problem within Islam. Rather than pretending that the terrorists were not Muslim, he noted correctly that they were frequenting mosques.

If he can follow through on these words with a realistic adjustment of our counterterror stance so as to meet the actual threat we face, Sunday’s speech could go down in history as a turning point in the free world’s struggle against jihad.

But if his enemies from the swamp succeed in preventing him from doing this, and if they reassert the failed policies of the last sixteen years, then the jihad will advance apace — bringing unimaginable chaos and bloodshed with it. The stakes couldn’t be higher….

Read the rest here.

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Filed Under: Donald Trump, Featured, Saudi Arabia Tagged With: Islamic Summit


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Comments

  1. Cretius says

    May 22, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    The history of Islam is written in blood. Most of the land held now by Muslims is the result of bloody conquest. A Muslim’s idea of coexistence means the elimination or servitude of non-believers. History bears witness to that fact. Only the useful idiots on the political left refuse to acknowledge the facts. The struggle is between secularism and theocracy. Democracy is in no way compatible with the Islamic belief system. Only fools and liberals believe differently.

    • t. says

      May 22, 2017 at 4:01 pm

      I personally think that President Trump was honest during the last elections in his assessment of Islam’s threat and, most probably, still is.

      Meanwhile, I noticed for the last three decades, that no matter whom we have in the white House, a Republican or Democrat, certain policies stay the same and consistent, at least so when it comes to foreign policy, as if there is an invisible power which is the one really in control.

      For me, some how, I was always certain of the presence of this invisible power but I didn’t know what, who, how or any other specifics about it.

      Interestingly, I came across the following documentary on YouTube and it opened my eyes on some hidden truths. Many things became crystal clear to me when I watched “Rule from the Shadows…” in its entirety.

      https://youtu.be/p8ERfxWouXs

    • BC says

      May 23, 2017 at 3:29 am

      Saudi Arabia is in fact the very least tolerant of all Muslim states, remember how in the build up to the 1st Gulf war the military padres were required to remove Christian insignia ie. crosses from their uniforms
      Also the infidel soldiers were considered by the Saud govt, to be polluting the sacred soil of Islam. They are also the most repressive of all Islamic states.
      How do Muslims manage to claim the religion of peace title when the sunnis and shia have been killing each other (and other branches of Islam) for the last 1300 years?

  2. Krazy Kafir says

    May 22, 2017 at 2:42 pm

    So many of the enemies of freedom are coming from within the quisling republican sector. I sure hope Trump realizes this and how far down the rabbit hole America has gone. It one of the big reasons he was elected. I pray he is strong enough.

    • Dawn says

      May 22, 2017 at 4:33 pm

      Then pray for him , he needs all the prayer . He needs those who voted for him to stand by him. Those who are on the left to quit what they are doing give him an opportunity to do what he said he would do.

  3. Adrian says

    May 22, 2017 at 2:46 pm

    Amen…

    Trump “Velvet Glove” Diplomat and Negotiator is a dramatic turning point from Barack’s “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”

  4. Bill W. says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Trump has to start some where I agree with Robert Spence on this. We had 8 years of Obama leading down the rabbit hole ,We need to approach SA slowly and with pressure put on them all the time . What I want Trump to do is stop taking every slight to the public press and grow some thick skin. With the meeting ,talks, the speeches so far he has done well in SA.I pray to God he grows wiser , I feel Hillary would have been the end of our country greatness if she were elected.

  5. Freedom says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Finally a US president with enough balls to publicly speak about the connection of Islam to acts of terrorism. All the more telling, as it was done in front of an audience of leaders of the countries from which many of those terrorists come from. Lets hope that as Robert says ” Sunday’s speech could go down in history as a turning point in the free world’s struggle against jihad”, Only time will tell if Trumps ‘ speech is a watershed moment or a useless finger pointing exercise.

    • ibrahim itace muhammed says

      May 23, 2017 at 2:51 am

      Freedom,you are an idiot specie of baboon,not for freedom.you don’t really know what took mad devil trump to Saudi Arabia.it was just to secure contract for the supply of obsolete weapons to backwarded Saudi royal family as usual .where are awaks?can they do the surveillance they are meant for .your evil bible is the source of terrorism and brigandage.Read Samuel 15:3 and other verses of violence relied upon by filthy christians in commiting the worst atrocities in human history.such atrocities include series of crusade wars where fighters for mithraist christ said by themselves that they swimed in human bloods upto their ankles;ethnic cleansing in spain where the church issued religious decree that all muslims must convert to horrible christianity of worshiping the devil or be killed and2/3 killed and the rest fled;transatlantic slave trade where more than 50 million Africans were thrown into atlantic ocean and drowned and colonised the continent through the church telling people to close their eyes to steal their resources.the united states has been stealing resources from these stupid Arab monarchs through the sale of obsolete weapons. that is all what took devil trump to saudi Arabia.if he is sincere he should tell saudis to denounce Wahhabism a perverted interpretation of islam by a jew called abdul wahhab.the proper jihad is to protect muslim community and it will continue to the end of the world when prophet issa will kill the dujjal (father of evils) and break the cross( a symbol of barbaric pagan christianity).

      • boakai nbombu says

        May 23, 2017 at 8:45 am

        you remain dead, itace. until you are found by the Living God and blessed by Him, you shall have no hope of escaping dujjal yourself.

        the allah god of islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) holds you by your neck, the more you seek to be like muhammad (lately contrived; full of lusts). you shall never know freedom; you shall not be rid of your uncertainty about your end. right now your face is down and in the grave..

  6. Paul N Silas says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:12 pm

    It won’t matter what Trump does, in two years, when the Radical Left takes the House and Senate, there will be hell to pay. Soros’s machine is chugging along right on time, and yes I have a crystal ball.

  7. Voytek Gagalka says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:21 pm

    Declarations are not enough. We heard so many declarations before. Although there are some good and refreshing points in what Trump says, only his deeds will eventually either confirm or invalidate this “turning point.” Give him the credit now. But time is running out. We could find the answer fast enough as new Ramadan approaches…

  8. Walter Sieruk says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:31 pm

    The jihadist or jihadists attacks in Western nations be the Muslim terrorists in the cities of New York City, Washington DC, Stockholm, London, Brussels , Paris, Nice, Berlin ,Madrid. Those jihad-minded Muslim terrorists who engage in those vicious Islamic terror attacks cannot be and will not be reasoned with. They will not respond to either logic or reason. They aren’t interested, at all, in reason or logic. So they have to be dealt with by a strong force of might. Either by the police or the military. For to even try to reason with a jihad-minded Muslim terrorist is just as much an act of futility as trying to teach algebra to a rabbit.

  9. Ciudadano says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:37 pm

    Facts speak louder than rhetoric. A $100 billion arms deal with SA and nothing in return, besides the money. Ivanka taking $100 million from SA tells me much more than repeating “islamic terrorism” ad nausea.

    I’m afraid that SA, Qatar, etc. will continue to sponsor sunni terrorism and islamic fundamentalism all over the world with impunity, as always.

    • Ciudadano says

      May 22, 2017 at 5:34 pm

      Correction: the $100 million will to towards the World Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs Fund, which Ivanka proposed

      http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/21/report-saudi-arabia-uae-will-donate-100-million-ivanka-trump-proposed-women-entrepreneurs-fund/

  10. k v sebastian says

    May 22, 2017 at 3:56 pm

    I think Mr. Trump did present the issue of Islamic terrorism very well before the Muslim rulers and audience. Although the prepared text of the speech referred only to “Islamist extremism,” Trump actually referred to both “Islamists” and “Islamic extremism,” as well as “Islamic terror,” in the speech. “There is still much work to be done,” Trump said. “That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds.” Thank you Trump. You said it at the right time and at the right place.

  11. Libertyphobic says

    May 22, 2017 at 4:00 pm

    Trump, who was very well received, went into the “snake pit” to tell the world, as well as islam, to smartin up or WE shall do it for you. The warning shot was taken. I hope RS is correct in that it shall be a historical speech…Be vigilant and keep a keen sword.

  12. vlparker says

    May 22, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    How long will we wait?

    Until the sun runs out of hydrogen.

  13. Steve Klein says

    May 22, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    President Trump should not have gone to Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites, in the first instance. NO.

  14. Guest says

    May 22, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    “But it should also be remembered that America never tried in any serious way to impose its way of life upon Iraq or Afghanistan.”
    Maybe it’s time we should. Maybe it’s time we stop hiding from the truth. Maybe it’s time we had another war. They aren’t giving us any other choice. The only way to end Jihad is to kill those who commit Jihad

  15. JeffSmith says

    May 22, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    I actually liked that he put it to them to own that shit i.e. it is their religion that puts it out the terrorists and guess what guys – it hurts you and your future.

    He also laid it out that the Iranians are a pain and up to no good. So… it takes the lens away from us.

    The Sunni’s can’t stand the Iranians. Smart to get the tribalism into it.

    I heard some dimwit on CNN talking about how Trump didn’t support democracy. Was that guy for real. Democracy for those folks is Democrazy. The Islamists are the ones that are organized in opposition. I think there is plenty of evidence that for that sector of the world. It is just not realistic for our interests.

  16. Richard Courtemanche says

    May 24, 2017 at 12:47 pm

    Excellent speech… he stayed on script this time. A lot of apprehension in attendees’ faces. The reality is that the Middle East has been in conflict since the beginning of time… they don’t know how to do peace and it’s against Islam’s ideology.

  17. Thomas Poovathinkal says

    May 29, 2017 at 6:15 am

    YES for YES, NO for NO, Please. It is The Lord’s own WAY.

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