During the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, United States President Barack Obama responded to pundits directly by coming clean on why he and his constituents prefer not to use "Islamic Extremists" to define extremist terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, Media ITE reported.
Quoted by Politifact during the event, Obama added that "leading up to the summit has been a fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits about the words we use to describe and frame this challenge."
According to Obama, al Qaeda and ISIS are "desperate for legitimacy" and were also desperately trying to "portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam." He added that by branding themselves as an Islamic State, ISIS only fertilizes the assumption that America and other Western Countries is in general at war with Islam.
Obama also said that the assumption of ISIS as an Islamic State should never be accepted due to the fact that it is a lie, he also added that if they will grant the validity of their ISIS claim as religious leaders, they might as well accept the fact that ISIS and other extremists are not terrorists.
"We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam," Obama said with conviction in which the crowd appreciated with applause.
The President proceeded to say that Muslim groups have an "obligation" to reject the terrorists' rendition of Islam and that the terrorists do not speak for the billion Muslims that denies ISIS' creed.
For Obama, they are not representing Islam than any mad man who kills innocents in the name of God be it Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism. He explained that there is no religion that is responsible for terrorism; it is the people that are responsible for the deaths of millions and the creation of terror to everyone.
Obviously, the President did not specify that, in any event in the current society, there are more people dying in the name of Islam than any of the other religions mentioned.
In spite of steady calls from the right for the Obama administration to mark groups like ISIS "Islamic extremists," the President and his group are not moving from the stance that says those words would just "legitimize" ISIS' actions.