"You and I are Destined to Do this Forever..." Posted by Patrick Barry

Or until Barack Obama takes office.  Seriously, while it is way too early for anything but informed speculation on whether President Obama will be successful in reaching out to the Muslim world, and whether the Muslim world will respond in kind, al-Qaeda does seem to feel threatened by the prospects for better relations, since from their perspective, the Bush years were a golden age of recruiment and anti-americanism. This from the Washington Post:

"Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting epithet. 'A house Negro,' Ayman al-Zawahiri said."

That was just a warm-up. In the weeks since, the terrorist group has unleashed a stream of verbal tirades against Barack Obama, each more venomous than the last. Obama has been called a 'hypocrite,' a 'killer' of innocents, an 'enemy of Muslims.' He was even blamed for the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which began and ended before he took office.

And this:

With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world.

It's not yet known what impact Obama's presidency will have on the Muslim world, for while his early gestures portend a fundamental and positive recasting, they have also been largely symbolic. Reasonable people know that it's ultimately the policy that counts.  Still, I can't help but think this story gets at something important, not about Obama or the future of America's relations with Islam, but about the collapse of the America versus Muslim Terrorists construct, resulting from Bush's departure from office.

Central to this construct's relevance was the existence of prominent immoderates whose actions perpetuated myths which could then be labeled as culturally endemic.  Al-Qaeda seized on Guantanamo and Abu Gharib to promote mostly groundless allegations about America being evil.  The Bush administration, in turn, used 9-11 and the broader theme of terrorism to demonize Muslims.  These acts of myth-generation resulted in a shared narrative, steeped in symbolism, but ultimately resting on little more than the actions of the original architects for their explanatory power.  Without those, the entire construct begins to fall apart.  So this article, rather than inaugurating a new period in this clash of civilizations, is actually just another sign, that in the case of the U.S. vs "Violent, Islamic, Radical Fundamentalism," the term has outlived its usefulness.

HT to Adam 

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