While speaking at the G20 Summit on Monday, President Obama said that it’s “counterproductive” to “equate the terrible actions that took place in Paris with the views of Islam.”
OBAMA: The overwhelming majority of victims of ISIL are themselves Muslims. ISIL does not represent Islam. It is not representative in any way of the attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Muslims. This is something that’s been emphasized by Muslim leaders, whether it’s President Erdogan or President of Indonesia or the President of Malaysia — countries that are majority Muslim, but have shown themselves to be tolerant and to work to be inclusive in their political process. And so to the degree that anyone would equate the terrible actions that took place in Paris with the views of Islam, you know, those kind of stereotypes are counterproductive. They’re wrong. They will lead, I think, to greater recruitment in the terrorist organizations over time if this becomes somehow defined as a Muslim problem as opposed to a terrorist problem.