Hillary Clinton on Monday rejected Donald Trump’s criticism that she is refusing to use the term “radical Islam,” and said her actions while in the Obama administration show she’s willing to take on dire threats to the country.
“[F]rom my perspective, it matters what we do more than what we say,” Clinton said on CNN. “It matters that we got [Osama] bin Laden, not what name we called him.”
“I have clearly said we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people and, you now, whether you call it ‘radical jihadism,’ ‘radical Islamism’ – I think they mean the same thing,” she said. “I am happy to say either, but what I won’t do, because I think it is dangerous to our efforts to defeat this threat, is to demonize and demagogue and declare war on an entire religion.”
“That plays right into ISIS’ hand,” she added. “So this is something that we can call it radical jihadism, we can call it radical Islamism, but we also want to reach out to the vast majority of American Muslims and Muslims around this world to help us defeat this threat which is so evil and has got to be denounced by everyone regardless of religion.”
Clinton called the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, which occurred over the weekend in Orlando, Fla., both “an act of terror” and “an act of hate.” The shooting was carried out by a 29-year-old man who had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist organization.
“This is a time to stand together and resolve to do everything we can to defend our communities and country,” she tweeted Sunday evening.
