January 5, 2015 | Quoted by Neil Munro - The Daily Caller

Obama’s See-No-Islam Policy Forces Military Rethink


Obama’s refusal to recognize the region’s unique cultural and religious diversity is also exacerbating the regional wars, said Jonathan Schanzer, the research vice-president at the Federation for the defense of Democracies.

For example, Obama’s diplomatic outreach to Iran downplays the Iranian regime’s military and diplomatic efforts to expand the Shia branch of Islam since 1979, he said.

That’s a big problem because Iran’s Shia Islam is anathema to many Sunni Muslims in the region, some of whom join the Islamic State or donate funds, he said. “The fact that the U.S. is embracing [Iran], even nominally, will undoubtedly bring about new Sunni extremists who believe there is no longer a counter to Iran,” Schanzer said. “It is amazing that after all this time, that [the backlash] is still a mystery” to some leaders.

Obama reiterated his support for Iran in a Dec. 18 interview with National Public Radio.

“They have a path to break through that [diplomatic and economic] isolation and they should seize it,” he said. “Because if they do… it would be a very successful regional power that was also abiding by international norms and international rules, and that would be good for everybody… good for the United States, that would be good for the region, and most of all, it would be good for the Iranian people,” he said.

Obama’s see-no-Islam policy was highlighted when he blamed the longstanding U.S.-Iran conflict on the personal insecurities of Iranian leaders, rather than on long-standing divides. “I think there’s some hardliners inside of Iran that are threatened by a [diplomatic] resolution of this because they are so invested politically and emotionally in being anti-American or anti-Western that it’s frightening for them to open themselves up to the world in this way,” he said.

But “Iran still remains an extremist state, it is run by extremists… it is an Islamic extremist government that is not willing to change its [pro-Shia, pro-Iranian] strategy,” Schanzer responded.

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Issues:

Iran Iran Sanctions