Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., responded to the California shooting by saying the U.S. is at war with “militant Islam.”
“We are most certainly though at war with militant Islam,” Sasse said in a video. “We are at war with the violent Islam. We are at war with jihadi Islam.”
But he stressed that doesn’t mean the U.S. is at war with “all Muslims.”
“We’re not at war with Muslim families in Dearborn, Mich., who want the American dream for their kids,” he said. “But we are at war with those who believe that they will kill in the name of religion. We are at war with militant or jihadi in Islam but we are not at war with people who believe in the American creed which includes the right of everybody of every religion too freely worship and to freely speak and to freely assemble and argue.”
“We’re an open society, we’re a free society, and our enemies hate freedom,” Sasse said. “We owe it to those who died this week to tell the truth about the nature of this conflict.”
“This is not about workplace violence. This is not about global warming or gun shows,” Sasse continued. “This is not about anything we’ve done wrong. This is about who we are, this is about the nature of freedom.”
According to Sasse, the United States isn’t fighting terrorism, which he called “just a tactic,” nor is it fighting “extremism” or just the Islamic State.
Last Wednesday, Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and holiday party that left 14 dead and 21 others injured. Though Malik had pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State on Facebook, the FBI has urged that there is no indication the couple were part of a terrorist network or directed by any group to carry out the attack.
On Sunday, Obama called the shooting an act of terrorism, and on Monday, FBI investigators said the two had been radicalized long before the attack.
