It’s not the first time the New York Post has framed President Obama on their cover in an unflattering way, but today’s latest New York Post Obama cover featuring the President wearing a blindfold and asking, “Islamic terror? I just don’t see it”, definitely ranks among the paper’s most openly mocking.
The blindfolded Obama New York Post cover conveniently arrives during the President Obama White House launching of a summit aimed at understanding and attempting to deal with terrorism and violent extremists, reports the Washington Post .
The Obama-ridiculing New York Post cover also follows President Obama’s speech on Wednesday where he declared, “We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”
Along with the New York Post , many constituents from both the right and left have been questioning President Obama’s refusal to label the Islamic State – also known as ISIS and ISIL – as Islamic terrorists, or to associate the jihadist group with “Islamic terror”.
At the same time, President Obama has explained his feelings on the matter, saying that associating ISIS with Islam would give them a legitimacy they don’t deserve.
“They try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam. We must never accept the premise that they put forward because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders. They are terrorists.”
This explanation by President Obama doesn’t seem to appease the New York Post , however, the paper being highly critical of President Obama’s speech in the story accompanying the Obama-blindfold cover.
“They’re (ISIS) burning and beheading victims in the name of Islam,” begins the New York Post story. “But President Obama delivered a major speech Wednesday on combating violent extremism — while refusing to use the words ‘Muslim terrorists.’”
The New York Post story moves on to further criticize President Obama’s refusal to use terms like “Islamic terror,” the President instead focusing on things like the positive role that Islam and the Muslim culture has played in America and around the world.
According to the Huffington Post , the New York Post has featured President Obama on their covers in the past, generally with a mocking and/or sarcastic bent.
Those New York Post covers included President Obama being depicted as Fidel Castro, and another where the President is wearing nothing but a barrel following the many Democratic defeats in the 2014 midterm elections.
[Images:Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images, and The New York Post]
