President Obama’s recent comments reflect a worldview that is at best naïve, and at worst willfully ignorant.  Since taking office, he has shown deference to the Muslim world.  He has also accepted the narrative of Jihadists.  He has criticized his own country without context and praised the “Muslim world” with exaggerations and outright untruths.   

Let me be more specific in the narrative critique: He is right when he has said we are not a war with the entire Muslim world, but he is wrong when he claims that we are not at war with elements of it.  I don’t expect much, especially when his chief law enforcement officer can’t even use the expression radical Islam.  Psst, Mr. President, that is one of the names of the enemy!  One of the main problems in fighting this war is our collective inability to identify the enemy and clearly define the war.  The war is between people who want to be free and Islamic terrorists.  Yes, there are Muslims that desire to be free who are fighting (and dying) in this war.  America is once again on the right side of the war defending freedom and human rights.  The enemy benefits from the lack of clarity when it comes to this ambiguity of Muslim leaders and organizations that play on the victimization of Muslims.  Yes, Muslims are victims, but most often they are victims of fellow Muslims.   

Clarity is power; we must define the enemy clearly.  The leader of the Free World should not hesitate to do so but President Obama seems unable and possibly unwilling. Can anyone say with absolute certitude that the proposed mosque (and cultural center) near ground zero is a statement of conquest by those who embrace the worldview of the Jihadists, rather a benign cultural community center?  No, but we can evaluate the evidence we have and make a judgment:

• The founders of the mosque/cultural center have reportedly rejected alternative property in the city; the location, proximity ground zero is no accident.

• An Imam who has refused to, or is unable to condemn the Islamic terrorist group Hamas as well has made statements blaming the West’s humiliation of the Muslim world for terrorism.   

• While there are some laudable attempts by individual Muslim organizations to rise up against the jihadists*, there is little evidence of a mass movement to reject the acts of Islamic terrorism on 911 (and beyond) unequivocally by the Muslim world; unfortunately, actions and relative silence have left Americans as well as the entire free world with a trust but verify approach to motives of all Muslim organizations.

The President may be trying to walk back comments in support he gave at his celebration of Ramadan Friday night, but he is doing so by throwing out the bogus straw man of First Amendment rights for all Americans, including Muslims.  We all understand in America, people can practice their religion freely, it is the Islamic world that has been slow to grasp this concept.  Like you, we understand,

“Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America.” 

In other words, it is legal to build a mosque on the burial ground of innocent victims of Islamic terrorists.

But Mr. President, we are American citizens (Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc.) who are not deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to context, be it physical, ideological or historical. With your comments, you frankly come off as a crowd pleasing (Ramadan Dinner), community organizer who believes Muslims have been innocent victims of America and the Western world.  With all due respect, sir, your words and at times reticence, have produced a sad irony by making more Muslims victims of their (and our) Jihadist’s enemy.     

*Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the The American-Islamic Forum on Democracy; frequent guest on Nothing But Truth.