Visas not guns: the talk following Obama’s ISIL address

Obama said that the goal of ISIS was to provoke a battle between the United States and the Muslim world.

The president´s pledge and extremists´ praise followed an announcement by the FBI that it was treating the investigation into the San Bernardino rampage as an act of terrorism.

Obama’s address came amid growing pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats for a tougher response to Islamic State now that the San Bernardino shootings have raised fears among Americans about the threat of more attacks at home. “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it”, remarked President Obama.

But-as usual-he never acknowledged there are “radical Muslim terrorists” who want to kill us.

This was only the third Oval Office address of his tenure as they are typically reserved for events of national importance.

“We can not turn against one another by letting this war be defined as a war between America and Islam”, Obama said. What I tell my students is that we are not fighting people, we are fighting an ideology. “Help us to help you stop this”, he said.

White House spokesman Earnest on Monday repeated the president’s message, which he said was not new, but the strongest and most direct in addressing Muslim community leaders.

“As Muslims, we are peacemakers, said Ramadhan Washington of the Islamic Center of St. Joseph”. Obama has used the Oval Office as a backdrop, a favorite of past presidents, just three times since taking office seven years ago.

OBAMA: They’d stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition and pipe bombs.

He also noted that the United States needs stricter gun control laws.

“At the same time, the broader American community has a responsibility to make clear that we’re gonna work with Muslim Americans to protect our country and to protect those in their community that are at risk of being radicalised”, the presidential spokesman said. “I really don’t want to talk about who did it, but you know, we just want to say that they were awful people and they were thugs”.

Obama has insisted that the Islamic State is contained in Iraq and Syria.

He repeated his long-standing opposition to an American-led ground war in the Middle East and made no mention of the more aggressive action others have suggested, including a enforcing a no-fly zone and safe corridors in Syria. He’s calling for Congress to prohibit people suspected of terrorism or on the no-fly list from buying guns. “Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim”, Obama had said.

To nobody’s surprise, Obama’s speech was pilloried by GOP presidential candidates and his Republican critics in Congress. But it’s not like they’re offering any brilliant or guaranteed solutions.

Media outlets reported earlier this year that the president and his administration have consistently avoided invoking Islam while describing the Islamic State and its followers, preferring to describe the organization’s philosophy in non-religious terms such as “violent extremism”.

He echoed calls from other political organisations and security experts that are revealing terrorists and criminals are increasingly using technology to launch attacks on the public.