Can Obama mend ties with the Muslim world?

The president is planning a major speech using bin Laden's death and the Arab Spring as evidence that al Qaeda's time is over

Anjem Choudary leads a protest against the killing of Osama bin Laden outside the US embassy in London. Obama is expected to give a pro-democracy speech to the Muslim world next week.
(Image credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

President Obama is preparing to give what's being billed as a major speech to the Muslim world as soon as next week. He'll reportedly contrast the Islamist ideology of Osama bin Laden, which he feels represents the failures of the past, with the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that have swept the Middle East and North Africa since January, which the president considers the future. (It's unclear whether Obama will discuss the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian peace process.) Winning arguments?

No, Obama is offering false choices: The only difference between al Qaeda and the Arab Spring is tactical, says Bryan Preston at Pajamas Media. "Bin Laden's model was to take over through terrorism," while the new Arab Spring model is to exploit a political vacuum to empower "a coalition of 'moderates' (who favor terrorism) and 'extremists' (who also favor terrorism)." What's the point, Obama, in trying to separate the Islamists from the Islamists?

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