Obama speaks to Muslims, will they reach out?

CNN:

President Obama spoke Thursday of the tensions between the United States and Muslims, saying "the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam."

"Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile," said Obama, delivering what the White House billed as a major speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, Egypt.

The president reiterated a point he made in an April speech in Turkey: "In Ankara, I made clear that America is not -- and never will be -- at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security.

"Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women and children." Watch as Obama seeks a "new beginning" »

Obama also said the U.S. does not want to keep its troops in Afghanistan. "Make no mistake: We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict.

"We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and now Pakistan."

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I don't think we owe Muslims an apology for defending ourselves from attacks by religious bigots. If anything Muslims need to be reaching out to us to see what they can do to solve this problem within their culture.

In reading Obama's speech, I don't think he sounded that different from President Bush in discussing the problems we all face. The themes were largely the same and if people thought that the US was at war with Islam it came from their own failure to comprehend our policy and not from our failure to articulate it.

Muslims have been described as living in a shame culture, and perhaps that is why they have failed to understand our purpose, but if they see our self defense as a war against their religion that is an ignorance that cannot be transcended by more speeches, but by the quality of our efforts in freeing their people from the oppression of the religious bigots who are attacking them and us.