After Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen murdered 49 club-goers in Orlando, Florida, while allegedly shouting “Allahu Akhbar” and swearing allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), the Obama administration continues to refuse to recognize this attack – and other similar attacks – as radical Islam.
When it comes to Hillary Clinton’s pronouncement earlier Monday that “radical Islamism” and “radical jihadism” are “the same thing” in discussing the Orlando, Florida, terrorist attack, the White House is sticking with its current terminology.
“Listen, I think the president has been quite clear why we choose the language we use to define our enemy. And we have defined the enemy, our adversary in this war as a terrorist organization that perverts Islam,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “And the president’s been blunt about that and the president has been blunt about why exactly we use the terminology that we do. And it is to make crystal clear we’re not going to give those extremist organizations the legitimacy of claiming legitimate Islam.”
President Barack Obama is “not going to give into them,” Earnest said, because those groups and people “want that legitimacy.”
“They want to further this narrative that they represent Islam in a war against the West. That narrative is false. It is empty. It is a myth. In fact, most of the victims of these terrorist organizations are in fact innocent Muslim men, women and children,” Earnest continued, adding, “Many of the — many of our most important partners in our counter-ISIL effort are our partners in the Muslim world.”
That should suggest that the “extremist organizations do not represent the Muslim faith,” Earnest said.
Asked whether Obama would disagree with the assessment of the presumptive Democratic nominee whom he endorsed last week, Earnest responded, “Look, I would not critique what Secretary Clinton had to say.”
By: Nick Gass, Politico
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