ROGER KIMBALL: None Dare Call It Islam. “Islam or perversion of Islam? At some point, as Hillary Clinton might put it, what difference does it make? Under Barack Obama, it is painfully clear that ‘We are not at war with Islam.’ The trouble is, it has become increasingly obvious to every one except Barack Hussein Obama that Islam is at war with us.”

UPDATE: Islam As Authoritatively Defined By The Prophet Obama: “Obama purports to opine on the true meaning of Islam, as if he has the authority to judge religious orthodoxy and identify heretics within Islam. . . . When and why do we doubt the sincerity of other people’s declarations of religious belief? Obama says the claims of religious beliefs and motivations are ‘a lie.’ To my ear, the statement that it’s a ‘lie’ is itself a lie, unless we interpret Obama to be saying that Al Qaeda and ISIS subscribe to an untrue version of Islam. Normally, Americans don’t accuse religious believers of lying when what we mean is that their religious beliefs deviate from what we consider to be a more orthodox or more acceptable and benevolent set of beliefs under the same name. Imagine a President saying that Roman Catholics lie about Christianity or that Reform Jews lie about Judaism.”

To be fair, the Obama presidency involves a lot of things that normally Americans don’t do or say. But I can’t imagine that Muslims pay much attention to what Obama says about Islam, or regard him as having much authority there. So who is he trying to convince then, and why?