There's Purpose in Obama Saying 'Radical Islam'

In his June 14 remarks following the terrorist attack in Orlando, President Obama reassured us: He has known all along that when it comes to terrorism, the enemy we face is none other than "radical Islam."

Responding to criticism of his refusal to use the term, he stated, "Since before I was president, I've been clear about how extremist groups have perverted Islam to justify terrorism. As president, I have repeatedly called on our Muslim friends and allies at home and around the world to work with us to reject this twisted interpretation of one of the world's great religions." When his administration termed the Fort Hood shootings "workplace violence," Obama knew better. When the president himself said "ISIL is not Islamic," he knew that he meant not that ISIL had nothing to do with Islam, but that it was dedicated to a form of Islam that is considered (and reasonably so) deviant and perverted.

All of which enables us to pass on to the more serious issue: does the president's choice of which words to use and avoid have real world consequences? Never one to pass up the opportunity to bash a straw man, Obama carefully picked his examples to argue that using the "radical Islam" label wouldn't accomplish anything. "Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans?" he said last week. "Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this?"

Of course, the answer to each of these questions is "no." But Obama's sleight of hand ignores the real issue—and the area of our greatest failing in addressing terrorism—which is how to weaken the appeal of radical Islamist ideology, or what the President referred to as the effort "to reject [ISIL's] twisted interpretation of one of the world's great religions."

The exact criticism is that Obama has ignored this entire aspect of counterterrorism. Despite his claim that he has "repeatedly called on our Muslim friends and allies at home and around the world to work with us," the administration has shied away from this ideological effort. It has not, for example, sought mechanisms to provide financial or other support to those "Muslim friends and allies" or to facilitate their networking with each other and the propagation of their views. In addition, as Obama himself noted in his recent interview in the Atlantic, one of our most important Muslim allies is, in this regard, part of the problem rather than part of the solution.