Definition Of A Moderate

Here is the problem with obama's Middle East policy in a nutshell: he can't tell the good guys from the bad guys.

President Barack Obama favorably quoted and praised on Wednesday in his speech before the United Nations a controversial Muslim cleric whose organization has reportedly endorsed the terror group Hamas and supported a fatwa condoning the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Obama in his remarks offered praise to controversial cleric Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah and referred to him as a moderate Muslim leader who can help combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL or ISIS) radical ideology.

If this guy is obama's idea of a "moderate Muslim leader" then Allah God help us.

This is not the first time that the Obama administration has extoled Bin Bayyah, who also has served as the vice president of a Muslim scholars group founded by a radical Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called “for the death of Jews and Americans"...

It's also not the first time the obama administration has looked like a pack of clueless dolts.

State Department Apologizes for Promoting Muslim Cleric Who Backed Killing of U.S. Soldiers

The State Department’s Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau apologized on Tuesday for promoting a controversial Muslim scholar whose organization has reportedly backed Hamas and endorsed a fatwa authorizing the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Bin Bayyah ... is one of several clerics who endorsed a 2004 fatwa, or religious order, endorsing the killing of U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq (and also) has called “for the death of Jews and Americans.”.

The CT Bureau apologized multiple times on Tuesday for tweeting in favor of Bin Bayyah and promoting an article on his website.

Sadly for us, it seems that the 'barry and kerry' duo haven't learned their lesson. They continue to hail Bin Bayyah as "a moderate alternative to ISIL and al Qaeda."

As part of his moderate credentials, in 2009 Bin Bayyah proclaimed a fatwa "barring all forms of normalization with Israel”...

Undeterred, in 2013 obama invited Bin Bayyah to a meeting at the White House.

Patrick Poole, a reporter and terrorism analyst who has long tracked Bin Bayyah, expressed shock that the Obama administration would endorse the cleric on the world stage.

“It is simply amazing that just a few months ago the State Department had to publicly apologize for tweeting out it’s support for Bin Bayyah, only to have Barack Obama go before the leaders of the entire world and publicly endorse Bin Bayyah’s efforts,” Poole said.

“It seems that nothing can stop this administration’s determination to rehabilitate Bin Bayyah’s image, transforming him from the Islamic cleric who issued the fatwa to kill Americans in Iraq and calling for the death of Jews to the de facto White House Islamic mufti,” he said.

“This is a snapshot of why this administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East is a complete catastrophe,” he said. “The keystone of their policy has been that so-called ‘moderate Islamists’ were going to be the great counter to al Qaeda. But if you take less than 30 seconds to do a Google search on any of these ‘moderate Islamists,’ you immediately find they are just a degree or two from the most hardcore jihadis and have little to no difference when it comes to condoning violence.”

A White House official said that the president’s remarks speak for themselves and declined to add anything further. (emphasis added)

Gee, what a surprise.

I like to consider myself a moderate of sorts - a live and live kind of guy, if you will. But as the kidnappings, torture, beheadings, and assorted other atrocities continue to pile up,  I'm beginning to lean towards the "Kill 'em all and let God sort them out" school of thought.

Sidebar: That phrase originated from an attack in 1209 by the Crusaders (sent by the incongruously named Pope Innocent III) on the French town of Beziers. The sad irony of the application of that phrase in this context is not lost on me.