Obama: ‘Islam Should Be Compatible with Science, Education, Tolerance, Openness’

"And finally in the Middle East, you are going through a generational shift, a Teutonic shift in the Middle East. And it is messy and it is dangerous. Part of it is sectarian schisms between Shiite and Sunni and conflicts between states that engage in proxy fights that are far more bloody and vicious and significant now than the conflict between Arabs and Jews. And you are seeing that primarily in Iraq and Syria. And I’m confident about our ability to push ISIL back in Iraq. Syria I think is a broader and longer term — a more difficult long-term proposition in part because the civil war has gotten so bad and the interests of outside parties are so conflicting that it may take time to let that thing settle down. But obviously we’re very active not just militarily but diplomatically.

The longer term problem in the Middle East is -- and this relates to the economy -- the whole region in some ways has gone down a blind alley, where too often Islam is now equated with rejection of education, maternity, women’s participation, all the things that allow you thrive in a modern economy. That's not uniformly true, but too often those forces inside of Islam have been elevated and moderate voices and voices that recognize Islam should be compatible with science, education, tolerance, openness, global commerce, productivity, too often those voices have been silent. So the question now becomes are we able to strengthen some of those voices? That is a generational project and some of the things we are doing, for example, entrepreneurial summits for Muslim small business leaders -- that's the kind of thing that we want to continue to promote and where we think the BRT can be very helpful. But in the meantime, a big chunk of my job is just making sure that we help to contain the damage that's been done inside the Middle East. And then hopefully, over time, build towards a better future there. That's not a two year project, that's going to be a longer term project. That was a long answer but it is a big question, right, [indecipherable] You said you wanted to go around the world and I did that pretty fast.”