Will Islam Return Obama’s ‘Respect’? – WSJ.com
OPINION: WONDER LAND APRIL 9, 2009
Will Islam Return Obama’s ‘Respect’?
By DANIEL HENNINGER
Today is Holy Thursday for Christians and the start of Passover for Jews. This week was an opportune time for President Barack Obama to visit Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, which has been both a Byzantine church and Islamic mosque. In Turkey he spoke of seeking engagement with Islam based on “mutual respect.”
Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) take a guided tour of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The subject of this column is the status of minority faith groups, mostly Christian, living inside Islamic countries. That status is poor. In some cases it verges on extinction, after centuries of coexistence with Islam. So it is useful to review what Mr. Obama said of his goals for living with Islam:
“I know that the trust that binds the United States and Turkey has been strained, and I know that strain is shared in many places where the Muslim faith is practiced. So let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam. . . .
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