WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he refuses to describe the Islamic State and al Qaeda as groups fueled by “radical Islam” because the term grants them a religious legitimacy they don’t deserve.
“They are not religious leaders; they are terrorists,” Obama said during remarks at a White House event on countering violent extremism. “We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”
Obama said the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is “desperate” to portray itself as a group of holy warriors defending Islam. It counts on that legitimacy, he said, to propagate the idea that Western countries are at war with Islam, which is how it recruits and radicalizes young people.
“We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie,” he said.
The president said the Islamic State and al Qaeda do draw selectively from Islamic texts to try to justify that they are in a religious war. But, he added, that doesn’t mean they speak for the more than 1 billion Muslims who reject the group’s hateful ideology and violence.
“They no more represent Islam than any madman who kills in the name of Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism,” he said. “No religion is.
Makes sense to me. why do people get so enraged over what President Obama calls ISIS? I think its more because they don’t like the President than anything else. I don’t see much difference in ISIS and those maurauding gangs who rode around oin trucks and jeeps in Somolia. They were killer thugs.
They still ride around Somalia on trucks and jeeps. Only now they are coming into Kenya, stopping public conveyances on rural roads, separating the Muslim passengers from the non-Muslims and summarily executing the latter by bullets to the back of the head. They say it’s retaliation for Kenyan troops crossing into Somalia in the international fight against their al-Qaedi-affiliated group.
An article in The Atlantic this month by Graeme Wood entitled “What ISIS Really Wants” has gone pretty viral on the web. Wood posits that, rather than perverting Islam into something it is not or ever has been, ISIS is doing a very literal reading of the Koran and following what it sees as a divinely scripted path to the Caliphate, to the military defeat of “Rome” on a Syrian battlefield, and ultimately to the “Apocalypse” and a final showdown at Jerusalem between the jihadis and the forces of the Anti-Christ or Anti-Messiah. And the Prophet Jesus returns to fight for and save the beleaguered jihadis. In effect, ISIS represents the ultimate in literal or fundamentalist application of the Koran — almost like we had gone back to the war-torn era of Muhammed himself.
I see Wood as an excellent reporter and analyst, especially on modern conflicts. Contributing editor for The Atlantic and The New Republic. He did a long, first-hand piece on the terrible mess in the Central African Republic which made me feel as if I were right back in Central Africa. Lot of work on the complicated rebellion in Myanmar (Burma) as well. The man travels and reports. Google “Graeme Wood”, and the Atlantic article should pop right up on your menu. Long and detailed but very interesting.
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
Excellent speech by the president. Terrorists like ISIS do not represent Islam anymore than Westboro represents Christians
@Wolve
Disgusting. I always hated those thugs. Bullies. Thanks for the update, I guess.
@Wolve
Thanks, Wolve. They are discussing the article on Morning Joe just as I was reading what you said.
I think the bottom line is, we need to get along with modern islam and therefore, it is in our best interest to not poke a stick in the eye of everyone.
I don’t know enough about other religions to really have an intelligent conversation about it.
I know that the concept of Onward Christian Soldiers is certainly not very peaceful if one looks at the Bible. However, I believe Christians have evolved to a more peaceful conversion in most places in the world. We are a long way from Constantine.
We (the royal Christian we) haven’t burned anyone alive in centuries nor have we had villages killed and burned because they weren’t protestant or Catholic in centuries.
I think the key is looking at modern Islam. The Muslims I know are peaceful people.
@Starry flights
Where have you been? I tend to agree with you but I also do not know much about the theology of Islam.
Are we at war with Islam? – there are some pundits that want the US to be. Jordan is fighting ISIS and now Egypt has joined in also. It is time for the Middle East to fight their own battle. They Radical Islamist’s need to know that the Moderate Islamists are not going to tolerate them. For far too long the West has gotten into the middle of local conflicts and has taken all the blame for the fall out. Saudi Arabia needs to step in – one of the wealthiest countries in the world – and WE (the US taxpayers) fund their defense.
I also love the ‘Arm the Kurds’ slogan – do those same pundits forget that Reagan armed Saddam so that the could use chemical weapons against the same Kurds. That the US gives Turkey military support against them. Have we not learned yet that the arms we give away today are used against us tomorrow?? (Iran, Iraq, Libya, etc)
Why is Iran getting so powerful – because we took out the major anti-Iran force (Iraq) in the area and Iran was able to move away from defense and into building more terrorism. Saddam was not the enemy but the Bush Administration wanted to go after him from day one of the Administration.
Where is Saddam when we need him? Oooops!!!
It might well be intellectually fair to call it “radical Islam”. Or “fundamentalist Islam”. But, that’s counterproductive.
“Perverted Islam” would work a lot better for our purposes.
The fact that FOX News types (I’m assuming) are bashing Obama on this is typical idiocy.
And this guy – this abject prick, who I really think is a horrid human being. The worst in politics and the worst in people.
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during the dinner at the 21 Club, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy in midtown Manhattan. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
@Rick Bentley
Excellent choice of words!
@Rick Bentley
He is an abject prick. Mr. How many times can you marry Giuliani. what a self-serving creep.
You are on a roll this morning!
A couple of years ago I had to take Mrs. Guapo to the ER. They fed her some pills and referred us to a doctor. We met with the staff of a medical clinic. The surgeon was out on maternity leave, but when he heard about Mrs. Guapo he came back to work just for a couple of days to perform her life-saving surgery. The surgeon is islamic. Then last spring we were at NOVA in Annandale, and I don’t know what they were doing there, but there were a lot of islamic people wandering the hallways wearing traditional clothes. We saw one pre-teen girl with big brown eyes, and she smiled at us. I don’t want to consider to be at war with these people.
@Pat.Herve
” those same pundits forget that Reagan armed Saddam so that the could use chemical weapons against the same Kurds. That the US gives Turkey military support against them. ”
Reagan did not arm Saddam with chemical weapons to fight Kurds. They got the chemicals from the USSR and Europe and used them to fight Iran.
They also used it against the Kurds.
Turkey is part of NATO. We are allies. We do not give them military support against the Kurds. The PKK, on the other hand, is a known terrorist group.
On the other hand…… what has Turkey done for us lately?
I say arm the Kurds and give them some Green Berets to organize them. Time for them to have their own country. They were the only ones that had our backs in Iraq. Turkey didn’t. The Sunnis and Shias didn’t.
@Rick Bentley
If its good enough for the President of Egypt and the King of Jordan to use those terms, why not us?
@Moon-howler
Moderate Muslims cannot support their stance via the Koran. Thus the “radicals” keep winning the theological arguments. Or they merely kill the moderates.
@Starry flights
The problem with your analogy is that Westboro goes against Christian teachings of love.
ISIS goes along with certain instructions in the Koran. So..yes…they are representing a form of Islam.
@Moon-howler
Where is Qaddafi when we need him? Unlike Saddam, he wasn’t threatening anyone when we attacked him illegally. Now ISIS is not only operating in Libya, but is joining up with the other groups and threatening Tunisia.
And our Fearless Leader writes claptrap like this:
“Governments that deny human rights play into the hands of extremists who claim that violence is the only way to achieve change. Efforts to counter violent extremism will only succeed if citizens can address legitimate grievances through the democratic process and express themselves through strong civil societies.”
What government in Iraq was denying human rights to anyone in ISIS? Furthermore, since when is burning people alive and torturing and executing people because of their religions, and selling women into slavery….. fighting for human rights.
Our president is incomprehensible on this subject.
Of course moderate Muslims can support their religion. You look to outliers and extremists for definition. Your comment cannot be substantiated.
Qaddafi was a problem to the USA always. why on earth are you saying he wasn’t a problem? Saddam wasn’t threatening us when we attacked him. How politically convenient.
Forgot about moderation.
You have been freed.
Eh, maybe his ghost is floating around a former Baghdad “rape room” somewhere. Or his shade is counting out imaginary monetary bonuses to be paid to suicide bombers for killing Jews in Israel. Or maybe he is wondering where the gas went to so he can get those damned troublesome Kurdish villagers again. Or maybe use it on the Iraqi Shia too. And telling himself that, if Iran is going to be getting the bomb, Iraq will certainly need one also.
Well, you asked!
He was a nasty jerk for sure. However, he did keep people from fighting. If you fight I will kill you.
Let me correct that error in construction. The bonuses went to the families of the suicide bombers. Kill a Jew and get a few dollars for Mom and Dad and the siblings. Sort of like a bounty on varmints — pigs and apes to be precise.
I am clueless what you mean. I was telling Cargo he had been let out of moderation. What does that have to do with pigs and apes?
That quote re Cargo was not supposed to be in there. Keyboard slip. My #22 post was a technical correction to my #20. Lack of post-submission edit capability.
Pigs and apes? That’s how certain dislikeable imams and their pals refer to Jews.
Oh ok. Just checking my sanity. Sometimes I misread things.
Actually, the way I am reading the ISIS thought processes, a “moderate Muslim” would be considered by them to be an apostate and, therefore, subject, to the death penalty. Any “sin” will do, apparently. Look at those teenage Muslims who were executed in Mosul not long ago — for surreptitiously watching an outside soccer match on TV, no less.
Qaddafi represented “state-sponsored terrorism” and used his oil money to buy both personal loyalty at home and killers abroad, often using his funds to enable and profit from existing hatreds and conflicts in countries friendly to the US and our European allies.. He sponsored domestic terror groups (read: paid the bills and provided the equipment) in many places if such sponsorship might result in geopolitical advantages for Libya and for Islam in general.
The first and second Gulf Wars under Bush I and Bush II, however, appear to have scared the s**t out of him and his cronies. If someone as powerful as Saddam could fall, what chance would he have if America turned the guns on him in the same way? He was startled by the Reagan-ordered air attacks on Tripoli in 1986 but eventually got over it. But the liberation of Kuwait and then the fall of Baghdad appear to have rearranged his strategic thinking. Farewell to state-sponsored terrorism and farewell to thoughts of nuclear weapons and other WMD’s. He was still Mr. Dictator on the inside but had become sort of Mr. Accommodating Pussycat toward us and his other prior enemies in the West. We helped to kill off a guy who had become an ex-threat at a time when our primary counter-terrrorism concerns had long ago turned toward the bigger monster of al-Qaeda.
I seem to recall us bombing his palace some 25 years ago and him using women and children as human shields. Am I going gaga?
“Mr. How many Times Can You Marry Giuliani”
Heh, heh. Beware the claws of the she-cat.
That’s right. I also laughed when Joe Theismann broke his leg. His wife had just found out about her pending divorce on TV. Another sleaze-bag.
Westbrook quotes bible passages to justify their behaviors, just as ISIS does the Koran. The analogy is appropriate.@Cargosquid
Meant to state Westboro.
Yes – I did not mean to imply that Reagan gave Saddam Chemical Weapons. As far as we know, Reagan did not give Saddam Chemical Weapons. He gave them other weapons which gave Saddam the ability to go after the Kurds and use Chemical Weapons against the Kurds.
Giuliani – On Sept 10 – Rudy was a zero. Telling his second wife he wanted a divorce via press conference, term limited, recession, publicly flaunting his girl friend, low approval ratings (high 30’s). Sept 11 – America’s Mayor. Even wanted to prevent the new Mayor from taking office. The 9-11 families want nothing to do with Rudy. If Rudy keeps this up, I can see a new front coming that will expose the failures of Rudy which contributed to the number of deaths of first responders and other things like the 9-11 love shacks (several).
What are the 9-11 love shacks. Tell! Tell! It sounds salacious.
The first responders and the 2nd responders/clean up crews were lied to about the air quality and safety of the wreckage. That was on his watch.
I just think he is the poster child for sleaze-ball.
We also gave Stalin weapons to fight Nazi Germany. That was good. But he later used them to establish firm control over Eastern Europe and start a Cold War aimed at us. Sometimes crap happens.
Story. In 1945, we had the promise of Stalin to join the Pacific war against Japan. To help him do that, we transferred a considerable number of US Navy ships to the Soviet Union to enable them to take military action. They did in a couple of instances — a landing in Korea, a landing in the northern Sakhalin Islands.
Then came Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a quick end to the war. We got to thinking that giving the Soviets all those Navy ships wasn’t such a good idea. So we asked them to give the ships back. Stalin refused. The ships were integrated into the Soviet Navy. We kept asking and asking but finally decided that, even if the ships were given back, they would probably be in bad shape and obsolete and need to be replaced. So we let it go. So much so that one of those ships, a minesweeper built in 1943, was kept on our Naval Register until 1982. We didn’t even know the Russians had scrapped her in 1960.
Sometimes crap happens. Especially when you are dealing with dictators.
We also didn’t tell Stalin about the atomic bomb.
The problem is that Westboro is merely a family of scam artists misusing the Bible.
ISIS is a nascent state that is quoting the Koran accurately, supported by Islamic scholars across the world.
Westboro is condemned by almost all of the US.
ISIS is condemned only by those muslims being attacked or threatened by them. The ones condemning ISIS are rare.
Misusing the bible? I see lots of bible quotes up there on their signs. They are cherry picking, like ISIS does. Both are extremist misusing the holy books of their religion. I think we call that hi-jacking in the popular vernacular.
Westboro is condemned. I would expect most Americans to be more advanced in the most powerful country in the world. ISIS is pulling from populations where there is great poverty and great unemployment. It is easy to warp minds when those conditions exist.
I would blame great disparities in wealth, poverty, and unemployment rather than thinking Westboro is just a cult. Not to sound like the Prez but both Christianity and Islam have had some dark past in their scriptures. hmmmmmmm….same origins might have something to do with it. Social enlightenment over a longer period of time is what makes the difference.