Gabbard: Recognizing Radical Islam ‘Core Part’ of National Security

Representative and Iraq War veteran Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) argued that recognizing radical Islam as the fuel behind terror “must be a core part of our strategy” on Monday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.

“I think that’s what’s important as we look at some of these messages, and some of these threats that are being posed by different groups, whether it’s Boko Haram, and a variety of others that go by different names. Just a few years ago there were only — or there were 20-plus groups who were fueled by this Islamic extremist ideology, and conducting these terrorist attacks. Today, there are over 40. So, by identifying the single common element amongst them, and recognizing that the vast majority of terrorist attacks conducted around the world for over the last decade have been conducted by groups who are fueled by this radical Islamic ideology, then once that’s identified, we understand it, then we can come up with a winning strategy to defeat it both militarily as well as ideologically. And that’s how we defeat them” she stated.

Gabbard continued, “there may be fears of some sort [regarding identifying terrorists as Islamic extremists], but I think they’re unfounded. I think recognizing and being very accurate and very specific and understanding this must be a core part of our strategy, to defeat those who seek to do harm to the American people is exactly how we must be looking at this issue and remain very focused on it.”

Earlier, she commented, “neither party should be playing partisan politics with an issue that is as non-partisan and is as important as the safety and security of American people. So, let’s look at the situation that we are in right now, and that is that we have various Islamic extremist groups, whether they’re called ISIS, whether they’re called al Qaeda, or al Shabaab, that are posing a threat not only in the Middle East, but to people around the world.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

 

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