He loves me, he loves me not...

THE US State Department has appointed Farah Pandith — an expert in "Violent Islamic Extremism, Counter-terrorism, Anti-Radicalisation and War of Ideas" — as its first special representative to Muslim communities to help the hyped-up President Barack Obama's strategy of reaching out to the Muslim world.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said last week Pandith would play a leading role in US efforts to "engage Muslims around the world" and to combat negative views of the US.

Pandith is a Muslim born in Kashmir, according to Al Jazeera. In a speech in Cairo earlier this month, Obama said there had been "years of distrust" between the West and Islam but he was seeking "a new beginning" in the relationship.

We are not discussing about whether Obama had been correct in his assessment that there indeed exists a homogenous, uniform Muslim world that can be wooed, reformed or tamed out of their growing demands for human their rights (which, by the way, are identical to those made by non-Muslims) by introducing Pandith who happens to be a former adviser on Muslim affairs for the European and Eurasian region .

This is not a discussion, either, about whether the US State Department would also employ similar "representatives" to, let's say, North Korea or other non-Muslim countries that it might deem to have "negative views" of the US.

This, instead, is a discussion about a contemporary "fairy tale" within the US. There is this big, powerful, burly prince who had been telling the world he really loved a fair maiden and that relations between them were "very good". The maiden, however, has recently declared "Not!" and pointed at the spies that the man had planted at every corner of her house — which, of course, showed the depth of distrust between them.

The prince defended his decision to plant spies, vowing to continue doing so, because he believed it was needed to detect possible criminal wrongdoings by the object of his stated love. The maiden has shot back, accusing the prince of having sent agent provocateurs to incite members of her household to mischief.

There is no happy ending — yet — because the tale has now become a running joke. That burly prince is, of course, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), whose director, Robert Mueller, has claimed his agency and the Muslims in America had "very good" relationship.

The American Muslim Taskforce, which is an umbrella organisation for the major Muslim groups, is instead accusing Mueller and the agency as treating worshippers and imams like terrorists. They are protesting the use of informants to infiltrate masjids — not to capture those guilty of wrongdoings but to instigate some Muslims to commit wrongdoings.

One American Muslim leader, Shakeel Syed, said, "Either he (Mueller) doesn't know what's going on under his own nose in his own department or he's lying."

Another Muslim leader, Hussam Ayloush, told The Muslim News, "The issue here is not the use of informants to apprehend perpetrators, but the use of instigators to incite innocent Muslims."

In February, convicted con artist Craig Monteilh said he worked with the FBI as an informant, infiltrating local masjids and gathering information for the Orange County, California, Joint Terrorism Task Force. Ayloush said that particular incident "struck at the core of the relationship between American Muslims and the FBI".

Earlier in May the FBI arrested four African Americans for allegedly trying to blow up a synagogue. The arrests were the results of an undercover informant who posed as a terrorist financier who would help the plotters blow up buildings and shoot down military aircraft.

The New York Times quoted one lawyer as saying, "It is almost as if the FBI cooked up the plot and found four idiots to install as defendants."

We know what people say, that "actions speak louder than words". So, does he love? Or he loves not? Does he love the Muslims outside or inside the US? The questions stand for Mueller and his FBI, but ultimately, soon, also Obama.