Marie Harf: Obama's Quote of Muslim Cleric Helpful

President Barack Obama was criticized for quoting a controversial Muslim cleric in his Wednesday U.N. speech, but State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf defended the president.

Appearing on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File" on Thursday, Harf said the words of Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah could prevent new recruits from joining the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

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Bin Bayyah issued a fatwa recently against ISIS, but 10 years ago issued a similar fatwa against American troops fighting in the Middle East. It was the previous fatwa that forced an embarrassed State Department to remove a tweet citing bin Bayyah and issue an apology.

Obama said in his U.N. General Assembly speech: "Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies — Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: 'We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace.'"

Harf said bin Bayyah more recent words are the most important.

"If we can have these leaders use their platforms in the region to reject this really hateful ideology that will help us in our fight against ISIS," she told Fox News.

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