In his address in early September regarding a possible strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), President Obama was keen to stress that the group is “not Islamic.” “The vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim,” he said, using another acronym by which the group is known. Also, “No religion condones the killing of innocents.” In saying this, President Obama stands in a long line of Western leaders — from both ends of the political spectrum — who have repeated a lie that may finally be falling apart.
For more than a decade, nearly every politician has been at it. A few days after 9/11, President George W. Bush was at the Islamic Center of Washington reading from the Koran and proclaiming, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.” He kept this up for two full terms. His U.K. counterpart, Tony Blair, said the same, as Blair’s successor does today. Last year, when two Islamist fanatics, screaming about Allah, decapitated a British soldier on a London street, Prime Minister David Cameron said, “This was not just an attack on Britain — and on our British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.” In mid September, after a British jihadist beheaded a British hostage in Syria, Cameron said, “They claim to do this in the name of Islam. That is nonsense. Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims; they are monsters.” The note of truculence is understandable. Our leaders are frustrated that they have to keep saying these things in the face of new atrocities.
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