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Acts Committed in Islam’s Name Betray Faith, Obama Says Acts Committed in Islam’s Name Betray Faith, Obama Says
(about 2 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday condemned terrorism carried out under the mantle of Islam, saying that the last few months had shown the degree to which faith could be “twisted and misused in the name of evil.” WASHINGTON — President Obama may have thought he was giving a straightforward history lesson at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday when he compared the atrocities of the Islamic State to the bloodshed committed in the name of Christianity in centuries past.
“From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith — their faith — professed to stand up for Islam but, in fact, are betraying it,” Mr. Obama said at the National Prayer Breakfast here. But that is not how many of his longtime critics saw it.
He called the Sunni militant group the Islamic State “a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism — terrorizing religious minorities like the Yazidis, subjecting women to rape as a weapon of war, and claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.” “The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime,” said Jim Gilmore, the former Republican governor of Virginia. “He has offended every believing Christian in the United States.”
The talk of terrorism was the sharpest note in a speech that was otherwise a reflection on religion and humility, and it was Mr. Obama’s latest effort to avoid branding recent violence by the Islamic State or those professing common cause with it as “Islamic” extremism. His team has said that doing so would play into the hands of the militant group and other terrorist organizations, legitimizing their message. Rush Limbaugh devoted a segment of his show to what he said were the president’s insults to the “whole gamut of Christians” and Twitter’s right wing piled on. Guests on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show spent 15 minutes airing objections to the president’s comments.
The White House carefully refrained from using the phrase “Islamic extremism” to describe the shootings in Paris last month at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket. In the wake of the massacre, it announced a Feb. 18 presidential summit on “violent extremism,” making no mention of Islam. “Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Mr. Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”
During a meeting at the White House with American Muslim leaders on Wednesday, Mr. Obama discussed the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as well as anti-Muslim discrimination, according to officials. Still, the president went on to focus on the terrorism carried out under the guise of Islam, saying that the last few months have shown the degree to which faith can be “twisted and misused in the name of evil.” 
“This is not unique to one group or one religion,” Mr. Obama said on Thursday. “There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.” “From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith — their faith — professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact are betraying it,” he said, describing the Islamic State as “a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism.” 
Mr. Obama said technology could make it harder to combat such forces, given that “hate groups have their own Twitter accounts, and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace.” Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, said in a statement that Mr. Obama was trying to “deflect guilt from Muslim madmen.” He said the president’s comparisons were “insulting” and “pernicious.”
Mr. Gilmore said the comments go “further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share.”
The White House had no comment on Thursday night about the criticism.
In his speech, Mr. Obama said the use of religion to justify violence and killings “is not unique to one group or one religion.”
“There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency, that can pervert and distort our faith,” he said.  
The talk of terrorism was the sharpest note in a speech that was otherwise a reflection on religion and humility, and it was Mr. Obama’s latest effort to avoid branding recent violence by the Islamic State or those professing common cause with it as “Islamic” extremism. His team has said that doing so would play into the hands of terrorist organizations, legitimizing their message.