US President Barack Obama has issued his most passionate denunciation yet of ISIS, vowing to “destroy” the terror group in a relentless, as he sought to reassure Americans shaken by recent attacks in Paris and California.
Obama, speaking in the symbolic surroundings of the Oval Office, told millions of television viewers in prime-time that last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, was a terrorist attack by a couple who had gone down the “dark path of radicalisation” which is against Islam teachings.
That was an act of terror designed to kill innocent people, he said. “Here’s what I want you to know. The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIL and any other organisation that tries to harm us.”
He also made clear that adherents of Islam also have a responsibility — even as he cautioned that ISIS does not speak for the faith and was made up of “thugs and killers, part of a cult of death.”
“That does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities. It’s a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse,” Obama said, and called on Islamic leaders to work to unequivocally reject the “hateful ideology” of groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.
