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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403046.html
Terrorists Wary of Obama's Victory
[Washington Post] David Ignatius - The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States wasn't supposed to happen in al-Qaeda's playbook. Obama makes the jihadists nervous because his ascension undermines the belief that Islam and the West are locked in an inescapable clash of civilizations. The key constituency in this battle of ideas isn't al-Qaeda itself. It's the potential recruits in mosques and madrassas around the world who are assessing which way the wind is blowing. Among this group, there is a new ferment, according to a U.S. intelligence official who monitors jihadist Web sites. He sees curiosity about Obama among Muslim militant groups. So here's the challenge for Obama: Seize the moment and transform the intellectual battlefield; keep the military pressure on al-Qaeda's hard core, and remind the world that al-Qaeda's victims have been overwhelmingly Muslim and that its brutal jihad has brought only ruin.