Friday on PBS’s “NewsHour,” while discussing politicians’ reactions to the Orlando, FL mass shooting terror attack, New York Times columnist David Brooks said President Barack Obama railing against using the term “Islamic terrorism” is exactly the kind of political concreteness that pushes voters toward presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Brooks said, “If I had to rank them, I thought Hillary Clinton’s reaction was the best. It combined the gun issue, the gay issue and the Islamic radicalism issue, if we want to use that word. And I give her credit for mentioning that. In acts like this, it’s not driven by religious faith but driven and shaped by a bin-Laden jihadist ideology. And I think the president is wrong not to say that. I have a quote in my column by Peter Bergen, a friend, he said, ‘Saying Islamic terrorism is not related to Islam is saying the Crusades are not related to Christianity and their view of Jerusalem.’ It is sort of a radicalized politicized version of a faith ideology. And for the president to say that; A. It is not the truth, and B. It reeks of political incorrectness, which ends up driving people to Donald Trump. So I think he should use the term. Every other world leader uses the term. We can all distinguish between the few terrorists who are radical Islamist and the hundreds of millions of Muslims who are peaceful law abiding, normal, human beings.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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