On Tuesday, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster gave a press briefing in which he spoke of President Trump’s trip to the Middle East, offering a glimpse of what Trump has planned, and revealing Trump would directly address the issues plaguing Islam. McMaster said Trump will deliver a speech “to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization.”
McMaster stated:
The president will hold bilateral meetings with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders, as well as broader meetings with all the Gulf State leaders. In the afternoon, he will meet and have lunch with leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries; where he will deliver an inspiring yet direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and his hopes, the president’s hopes, for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world. The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization, and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners. The president will then participate in the inauguration of a new center intended to fight radicalization and promote moderation.
Last week McMaster did not say that Trump would speak of Islam, only stating, “And he will develop a strong, respectful message that the United States and the entire civilized world expects our Muslim allies to take a strong stance against radical Islamist ideology, an ideology that uses a perverted interpretation of religion to justify crimes against all humanity. He will call for Muslim leaders to promote a peaceful vision of Islam.”
As far as the idea of uniting the Muslim world, even the Gulf Cooperation Council’s member states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, are not always unified; because of Qatar’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, during a March 2014 meeting the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors to Qatar.
Still, Trump’s efforts to directly confront the radial ideology that is threatening the Western world are a far cry from Barack Obama’s pusillanimous speech in Cairo in 2009, in which he stated that the West had been responsible for the outbreak of radical Islam, asserting, “The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.”
