In his final State of the Union address, President Obama warned against rising animosity toward Muslims.
“When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.”
Attacks on Muslims have spiked since extremist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. ThinkProgress has tracked 51 incidents as of January 5. The attacks include hateful vandalism of mosques, bodily assaults of people who look Middle Eastern or wear signs of their faith, and profiling at airports. At least one mosque was even firebombed.
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Earlier in the speech, Obama specifically denounced the idea that terrorists represent “one of the world’s largest religions.”
“That is the story ISIL wants to tell,” Obama said. “That’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit.”
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates immediately denounced Obama for trying to separate ISIS from Islam.
It appears Obama is still under the impression ISIS is the JV team. Next President must understand the enemy and the threat. #SOTU
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) January 13, 2016
Pres. Obama finally speaks about #ISIS but still won't admit that it's a Radical Islamic Terrorist movement that seeks to destroy us. #SOTU
— Ben & Candy Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 13, 2016
Mr. President, you must call the enemy out by name. It is impossible to defeat #ISIS if we do not call evil what it is & act against it.
— Ben & Candy Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 13, 2016
.@POTUS: Quit apologizing for the evil forces of radical Islam and start protecting Americans! #SOTU
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) January 13, 2016
“There will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background,” Obama said.