Obama said the actions of violent extremist Muslims are "irreconcilable with the rights of human beings," and quoted the Quran to make his point: "be conscious of God and always speak the truth ..."
"Islam is not part of the problem in combatting violent extremism — it is an important part of promoting peace," he said.
I suppose you could say this is kind of true. I mean, if Moslems stop tolerating violence done in the name of all Moslems by jihadi fanatics, that will be an important part of promoting peace. So as long as Moslem terrorists don't target an abortion clinic or some other red line like that, nobody is going to claim that Islam is part of the problem. The truth of the matter, however, is that jihadis think the true interpretation of Islam means they must kill non-jihadis (including Moslems not quite as agitated as the jihadis). The jihadis are quite conscious of believing that God demands this slaughter.
But if we're about promoting peace and combatting violent (Islamo-fascist) extremism, Strategypage has a convenient summary of the many "green lines" where jihadi violence flourishes that our partners can address.
And if the Moslem community wants to apologize for any of that violence in order to hit their own reset button in relations with us, we'll take that call.
