President Elect Barack Obama had a special message to Muslims in his inaugural speech — a double-edged one:
In essence, stronger than ever, Obama was seeking to note differentiations in the Muslim world and not lump them altogether in one stereotypical brush. It’s also smart international politics: it’s an invitation to those who wouldn’t mind distancing themselves from more violent tactics to start to inch forward. It’s the classic olive branch.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.