Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States.
Advertisement
The president’s remarks followed a National Security Council meeting on ISIS (or, to use USA officials’ preferred acronym, ISIL) at the Department of the Treasury.
Obama says the USA was founded on freedom of religion and that there are no religious tests in America.
“Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently” than other citizens, Obama asked.
In refusing to use the term “radical Islam”, Obama was following a precedent set by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, who said after the September 11, 2001, attacks that “ours is not a campaign against the Muslim faith”.
A Republican official said others in the meeting included the governors of Mississippi, Arizona, Arkansas, Nebraska and Tennessee, as well as New Jersey’s Chris Christie, a close Trump adviser and former presidential rival.
“He’s turning Americans against Americans, which is exactly what ISIS wants”, she said. “It does not reflect our democratic ideals”.
Hours after the shooting, Donald Trump tweeted: “Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism?”.
“What exactly would using this label accomplish?” he asked. Would it make ISIS less committed to trying to kill Americans?
In her response to the Florida massacre, Clinton, warned against demonizing Muslim Americans and called for increased efforts to remove Islamic State propaganda from the Internet, more air strikes in areas held by the group and better coordination with allies in the region. As president, I have called on our Muslim friends and allies at home and around the world to work with us to reject this twisted interpretation of one of the world’s great religions. Trump scapegoated and fear-mongered-suggesting repeatedly that Americans should be afraid of all Muslims, particularly those born in foreign countries-while arguing that this scapegoating and fear-mongering was, in fact, tolerance.
“Obviously this has been a hard week for America because all of us are still grieving for those who were lost in Orlando”, he told the several hundred people in attendance.
Responded Obama: “There’s no magic to the phrase ‘radical Islam.’ It’s a political talking point”.
Obama’s extraordinary denunciation of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was about far more than a personal intervention on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the ugly general election campaign.
Though the Orlando shooter – 29-year-old Omar Mateen – was born in the United States, Trump noted that he was “born to Afghan parents who immigrated to the United States”.
The answer, Obama said Tuesday, is “none of the above”. “It will make us less safe”. “We are at war with people who have perverted Islam”. “It’s important that we stop the terrorists from getting the tools they need to carry out the attacks, and that is especially true when it comes to assault weapons like those used in Orlando and San Bernardino”, California, Clinton said, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd.
He has called the nightclub shooting an “act of terror and an act of hate”. “And then the terrorists would have won, and we can not let that happen. Is there anybody out there confused about who our enemies are?” he said.
But many, including Trump, say it’s political correctness that keeps Obama and Democrats from using the phrase. Enough talking about being tough on terrorism.
Advertisement
The biting criticism was likely to increase the discomfort among many establishment Republican leaders about Trump with little more than a month until party figures gather in Cleveland July 18-21 to formally nominate him.
