The Obama administration is following its predecessor’s lead in refusing to say terrorist acts committed by Muslims are acts of “radical Islam,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday.
The administration of President George W. Bush also went “to great lengths to debunk that myth and to make clear that these organizations are seeking to perpetuate a perverted version of Islam,” Earnest said.
Terrorist organizations such as the Sunni Muslim-led Islamic State try to describe themselves as Islamic leaders and as world figures who speak for Islam, Earnest said. They also claim that they are at war with the West because it’s at war with Islam.
“That is a false agenda; that is a myth that is not true,” Earnest said. And that is why President Obama has been “very blunt” about what they are trying to do.
“We’re not going to give those terrorist organizations legitimacy” in those claims, Earnest said.
In February, Obama explained why he won’t use the phrase.
“They are not religious leaders; they’re terrorists,” Obama said. “And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”
