The White House said it’s not worried about a split between President Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after Clinton said she’s comfortable saying the U.S. is battling “radical Islamism.”
Presumptive nominee Donald Trump and other Republican leaders routinely criticize Obama for his refusal to call groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State followers of “radical Islam.” On Monday Clinton, his former top diplomat, changed course and used the phrase.
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“To me, radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing,” Clinton said.
“I would not critique what Secretary Clinton had to say,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said when asked whether Obama also believes the terms are synonymous.
“No, the president is not concerned about that,” Earnest replied when asked later whether Obama worries Clinton’s phrasing lends the Sunni Muslim-led terrorist group and others legitimacy.
The Obama administration argues that calling the Islamic State, al Qaeda, al-Nusra Front, Boko Haram and other groups radical Islamists affords them positions of religious leadership they do not deserve.
Such “organizations pervert the religion of Islam to justify their murderous, nihilistic agenda,” Earnest said. “What they’re also trying to do is to claim the mantle of Islam to describe themselves as holy warriors or religious leaders engaged in a conflict with the United States of America.”
The administration wants to “debunk that myth because to perpetuate that myth only gives the terrorists what they want, which is legitimacy,” he said.
