President Barack Obama refuses to use the term "radical Islamic terrorist" because he doesn’t want to accuse all Muslims of being terrorists, he told a town hall meeting Wednesday night.
Calling the issue “sort of manufactured,” Obama told a town hall audience hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper that the U.S. needs to be careful not to lump what he called “murderers” in with the world’s billions of peaceful Muslims. “These are people who kill children, kill Muslims, take sex slaves — there’s no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do,” Obama said.
Gold Star mother Tina Houchins asked the president: “Do you still believe that the acts of terrorism are done for the self-proclaimed Islamic religious motive? And if you do, why do you still refuse to use the term ... Islamic terrorist?”
Obama did not deny that terrorists have tried to use Islam to justify their actions, saying, “There is no doubt, and I’ve said repeatedly; where we see terrorist organizations like al Qaida or ISIL — they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse for basically barbarism and death.”
During the meeting, Obama also said it’s dangerous when “a president or people aspiring to become president get loose with this language,” prompting Tapper to claim he was referring to Trump. Obama said he didn’t want to get partisan on a military base (where the town hall was held), and said “a number of public figures” have used this language to divide Americans.
Trump used the term “radical Islamic terrorist” in June after the Orlando shootings and publicly criticized Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for not using that term.
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