In a reflection on President Barack Obama's statement that "Islam is not the problem," Mark Lynch writes for Foreign Policy that the central focus of the Obama administration's outreach to Muslims involves grassroots engagement, initiatives for the common good, a defense of freedom of religion and expression, and addressing local needs instead of an emphasis on curtailing violent extremism.

Lynch refers to an article that Andrew Higgins wrote for The Washington Post, which found that overt American efforts to promote "liberal Islam" routinely backfire. He notes that the Obama administration's "more nuanced and disaggregated approach defined by…mutual interests and mutual respect" will reap greater dividends than the Bush-era's extensive intrusion into religious matters during its attempt to combat "Islamo-fascism."

"Deflating the extremists through indirect action and a reorientation to common interests... instead of building up Al-Qaeda and its affiliated movements with an exaggerated focus against 'violent extremism,'" writes Lynch, will switch the conversation "to other things which ordinary Muslims and Arabs care for."

Despite these tactics, the US will not support the effort by the Organization of the Islamic Conference to ban religious defamation at the United Nations, fearing a conflict between religious protection and freedom of speech and worship, reports The Washington Times.

"We are convinced that the best antidote to intolerance is not the defamation of religions' approach of banning and punishing offensive speech, but rather a combination of robust legal protections against discrimination and hate crimes, proactive government outreach to minority religious groups and the vigorous defense of both freedom of religion and expression," said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton while unveiling the State Department's annual report on international religious freedom.

The Department of State's Special Representative to Muslim communities, Farah Pandith, told the Council on Foreign Relations that US-Muslim engagement programs include work in local communities but are not engaging a "particular kind of religious leader or type of Islam." The programs focus on strengthening social networking, technology initiatives and positively emphasizing Muslim identity in the arts and culture areas.

Efforts to engage with Mulim communities hinge on being able to communicate with "people who have influence whether they're religious leaders, scholars, academics, teachers, businesspeople," said Pandith, who also stressed the role of Muslim youth. Each region has "different nuances" which require different policies "based upon the needs on the ground and...the issues," she continued.

This policy outreach occurs throughout other Western nations as well. Pandith notes that European Muslims are working to build a "balance between being Muslim and Western, not Muslim or Western, and to talk about the fact that Islam and democracy are compatible and to talk about the fact that you can be both modern and Muslim."

Television is being harnessed as a medium for promoting tolerance and understanding in the United States, reports Tim Goodman for the San Francisco Chronicle. "Who Speaks for Islam?," a series on LinkTV, will focus on the portrayal of Muslims on television programs such as 24 and Little Mosque on the Prairie. The television series attempts to "change rampant stereotypes from the inside" and develop more nuanced depictions of Muslims.

According to Pandith, the vast majority of Muslim communities do not support Islamic radicalism. She believes that soft-power engagement is a necessary tactic to undermine radical narratives and foment shifts in attitudes within problematic regions.

"It is very clear that the only voices that can push back against that ideology are Muslims themselves," she concluded.