Obama says don’t demonize Islam, urges Muslims to reject hate too

On Thursday, as investigators were searching for a motive, Obama said at the White House that the shootings could have been terrorist-related or workplace-related.

At the same time, he asked Americans not to turn against Muslim friends and neighbours and turn the conflict with ISIS into a war against Islam. Obama added that the U.S. “military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary”. “They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death, and they account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world – including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology”, Obama said.

But Obama, speaking in a much less impassioned tone than French President Francois Hollande used after the Paris attacks when he vowed to make war on Islamic State, said there was no evidence the California assault was directed by a militant group overseas or part of a broader conspiracy at home.

That includes, Obama said, rejecting religious tests for people coming into America, something several GOP candidates for president have supported. “I know we see our kids in the faces of the young people killed in Paris”, President Obama said.

“If this is a war, which I believe it is, then we need to act accordingly”, Bush said.

Unlike previous presidents, Obama rarely uses the Oval Office to make speeches to the American public, preferring to stand at a podium, often overlooking the grander White House East Room, instead. Last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California proved terrorism also exists within our country’s borders.

The president’s speech also came three days after Republicans in Congress defeated an amendment to ban those on no-fly lists from buying guns and he took advantage of the opportunity to challenge them, publicly urging congress “to act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun”.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Obama, discusses the president’s address.

It is not clear whether this was an organized act of terrorism or just the result of a recent workplace quarrel between Farook and his coworker Nicholas Thalasinos about whether Islam was a peaceful religion, as has been reported. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio also took a jab at the president, criticizing him for saying “ISIL does not speak for Islam”, and that Americans should avoid discriminating against Muslims.

Obama did not announce any new policies or strategies, and he continues to oppose any large-scale ground troop presence in Syria or Iraq, where the ISIL has its stronghold. “We must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies rather than push them away with suspicion and hate”, he said. Gauging the enormity of the problem, the world seems to be coming together to tackle the threat from the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. He called it a matter of national security to prevent potential killers from getting guns.