Obama's Muslim Envoy Worse than Pastor Jones?

Forget for a moment that Barack Obama's envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) should have been fired last year when he was caught in a lie - more on that later. Rashad Hussain has just returned from a trip to Afghanistan in which he told locals that the promotion of Islam is the antidote to Islamic violence. While speaking in Kabul, Afghanistan Hussain said the answer to these problems is 'Islam itself.'

Via Investors Business Daily:

Islamic law calls for vengeance against anybody who insults Islam, its prophet or its holy book. Islamic law is enshrined in the post-Taliban Afghan constitution. Yet Rashad, a devout Muslim, says the Muslim faith is "key" to the administration's strategy to turn Muslims away from violence.

"We see that as one of the key elements of a strategy to address this type of violence," he said. By "we," he means the Obama administration. So it's now official policy to try to douse the Islamic fire of jihad by pouring more fuel on it. This is breathtaking.

It's also at odds with what the co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission — including Democrat lion Lee Hamilton — recently recommended in their follow-up report on homegrown terror, "Assessing the Terrorist Threat: A Report of the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group."

It found that Islam was catalyzing terrorists abroad and inside America's Muslim community. And it scolded U.S. leaders for pretending otherwise. Still, Hussain insists: "When it comes to the problem of violent extremism, Islam is not the problem."

How about this from WND:

A month before swarms of violent Afghans beheaded United Nations workers in the name of Islam, President Obama's top envoy to the Muslim world promoted Islam in a visit to Afghanistan, arguing it was one of the "strongest tools" against such violence.

In February, Rashad Hussain, U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, gave a talk in the Afghan capital of Kabul in which he called on locals to recommit themselves to their religion:

"I am of the opinion that one of the strongest tools that you can use to counter radicalization and violent extremism is Islam itself, because Islam rejects violent extremism," Hussain told the gathering of Afghans, according to a transcript obtained by WND from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Last year, after Rashad Hussain was named as Obama's Islamic envoy, it was learned that he spoke at a 2004 Muslim Students Association (MSA - Muslim Brotherhood group) event at which he defended convicted terrorist fundraiser, Sami al-Arian. The revelations came courtesy of an account of the event in a newspaper report. Hussain denied he said such things and blamed the reporter. When POLITICO obtained a recording of his words and presented it to the White House. Hussain had to admit to lying but was never fired.

If Hussain is sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood - of which the MSA is part - it is indeed interesting to consider that the Obama administration's policies in the Middle East seem to favor the Brotherhood in almost every instance, including Libya.

More on what happened last year HERE and HERE.