The United State (US) President, Donald Trump, has defended his Islamophobic remarks and decision to impose travel ban on seven Muslim countries, arguing that his country was not at war with Islam but in a battle against terrorist groups that have turned Arab world to their base.
Trump, who described the battle between his Government and terrorist group as battle between good and evil, urged Muslim-majority countries to redouble their counter-terrorism efforts.
Addressing leaders at the ongoing an Arab-Islamic-American summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the President on Sunday said: “This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations.
“This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it. This is a battle between good and evil,” he added.
Trump however exhorted Muslim-majority countries to do more to eradicate terrorist groups that claim the mantle of Islam, urging Muslims to drive out terrorists.
“Drive out the terrorists. Drive out the extremists. Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land and drive them out of this Earth,” the U.S. president said.
He stressed that the Arab world should not wait for American power or European countries but must quickly decide the future they want for themselves and their countries and future generation.
In a departure from the Islamophobic rhetoric he sometimes deployed on the campaign trail, Trump acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of victims of terrorism are Muslim, calling Islam “one of the world’s great faiths.”
While the U.S. president promised that he was “not here to lecture” the Muslim world, his speech went beyond outreach.
