Rep Gabbard: Obama ‘Misses the Point’ on ISIS, Graham Bigoted

Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), an Iraq War veteran, said that while President Obama’s statement on ISIS’ killing of a Jordanian pilot “misses the point,” others, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were “trying to incite religious bigotry and fomenting hatred” on Tuesday’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on the Fox News Channel.

Gabbard said that President Obama’s statement regarding the “viciousness and barbarity of this organization” “misses the point that this isn’t about one specific group, and until we recognize that it is this radical Islamic ideology that’s fueling this, the name of the group may change, the tactics may change based on a different geographic location, or based on what’s happening on the ground, and again, we see this because we have ISIS, we have al Qaeda, and Boko Haram, and other various groups, especially in the Middle East, but people who are operating around the world, each of them have the one commonality of being fueled by this radical Islamic ideology, so we can’t say ‘well, this is about one organization only,’ because, if we do that, then there’s no way we can defeat this enemy, and defeat this ideology, both militarily and ideologically.”

Earlier, she took issue comments by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that the war on terror was a “religious war,” arguing “this is not a religious war. This isn’t a war between Christians and Muslims, or a war against all Muslims. This is clearly a war against this very specific faction of radical Islamic ideology that’s fueling these activities and which we must defeat.” And “it’s important…because words have meaning. So, the words that you speak, they actually matter because they express your understanding, and your feeling, and your intention. And, actually, when you look at those who are trying to incite religious bigotry and fomenting hatred, saying that this is a religious war, actually calling this for what it is, Islamic extremism, is important because it provides that division between the vast majority of pluralistic Muslims, who are not following this radical ideology and those that are. So, by calling it, whether its radical Islamists or Islamic extremists, Islamic terrorists, whatever the terminology is, you have to identify what that is in order to provide that dividing line.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett