Great reporting by Scott Wilson in the Washington Post— Obama’s outreach to Muslims is limited at home. Even Bush visited an Islamic center to show solidarity with Muslims. Excellent quote from Ari Fleischer; though note the lame disclaimer after it, the last line of this excerpt. But I don’t think we’re talking about voters. Let’s be real: We’re talking about a large segment of the U.S. establishment that is Jewish and that includes a Zionist hardcore that everyone defers to. Thanks to Saleema.
Obama has not visited a mosque in the United States since taking office, although he has done so in Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia as part of his project to repair U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Bold abroad, Obama’s outreach has been largely invisible at home as Muslim Americans confront enduring suspicion and, in some cases, outright hatred a decade after the attacks…
“The Muslim American community has been defined through the national security prism,” said [Nihad] Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “That hasn’t changed. Law enforcement continues to be our gateway to this administration and government.”
The organization has faced a federal investigation for allegedly supporting Hamas, an armed Palestinian movement that the United States classifies as a terrorist organization. Neither the Bush nor the Obama Justice Departments have presented indictments, and CAIR officials have dismissed the allegations as fear-mongering.
Awad wrote a letter to Obama soon after his election, outlining what he calls the “minimum level” of support — set by the Bush administration — that he should show Muslim Americans, including continuing the White House iftar, visiting a mosque and meeting with Muslim American leaders. Obama has not done the last two.
“I suspect there is sensitivity about the Jewish vote that’s driving his reticence more than anything else, more than the illegitimate criticism left over about his birth,” said Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under George W. Bush. “It’s a [Muslim American] community that for whatever reason he is partly dodging, and politics has a lot to do with it. And I’d also like to add that I think a lot of what he’s facing is unfair.”
Obama holds two White House events each year for Jewish Americans, a powerful political constituency, and this year he spoke at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Current and former White House officials say Obama has not softened his Muslim outreach in deference to the Jewish community.
