On Monday, April 6, President Barack Obama assured the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, “The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam.”
Very nice, and certainly of a piece with his “Supplication Tour, 2009.” But it left me wondering – where is our assurance?
In the early 19th century, the Muslim Barbary States in North Africa had the nasty habit of commandeering U.S. shipping in the Mediterranean, confiscating the cargo, and holding the sailors and crew for ransom. Being at bottom a Scoop Jackson Democrat, President Thomas Jefferson naturally sent in the Marines (a campaign enshrined in the Marines Corps Hymn’s “shores of Tripoli” verse).
And now, in the early 21st century, pirates from Muslim lands are once again seizing American vessels and holding Americans hostage, this time off the coast of Somalia.
In the intervening two centuries, Americans have been captured and/or butchered by Muslims, individually and *en masse*, time and again, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 being only the most gruesome and vivid example.
When has there been a Muslim leader, a Shah, potentate, or cleric, touring these great states, apologizing for the repeated brutalities done in the name of the Prophet and assuring Americans that Islam is not, and never will be, at war with the United States?
More often from Muslim spokesmen there are tepid denunciations of violence followed by a list of alleged U.S. crimes which “incite” the violence. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, for instance, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered his official condolences to the city of New York along with a $10 million gift to the Twin Towers Fund. But there was a catch: the donation was appended to a statement by the prince that America “must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack.”
Mayor Rudy Giuliani responded, “I entirely reject that statement. There is no moral equivalent for this act. There is no justification for it.” He then summarily refused the prince’s tainted millions.
A fantastic performance. But in the West, leaders of Giuliani’s mettle are rare and getting rarer. Witness Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose bid to become the new NATO secretary general was reportedly threatened by the Turks. Ankara was said to be seeking an apology from the prime minister over the 2005 Danish cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad which sent Muslims the world over into a frenzy of rioting, embassy burning, and killing (estimates put the number killed at over 100). That’s right – Danes drew, Muslims slew, and it’s Muslims who are demanding the apology.
Rasmussen disappointed his Ottoman antagonizers by stopping short of using the word “apology,” but his attempts to placate them were nonetheless embarrassing. Said Rasmussen:
“I was deeply distressed that the cartoons were seen by many Muslims as an attempt by Denmark to mark and insult or behave disrespectfully toward Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. Nothing could be further from my mind.”
That the prime minister felt it necessary to even issue so craven a statement puts Obama’s assurances to the Turkish Parliament in a harsh light. True, the United States is not at war with the whole of Islam. But there is a strain of Islam, a violent, virulent strain that is very much at war with us, and the entire Western world.
Giuliani knows it. Rasmussen knows it. Does Obama?
Matt Patterson is a commentator and author whose books include “Union of Hearts: The Abraham Lincoln & Ann Rutledge Story.”
